Given that I'm prone to misleading headers, I'll assure you now that I actually do recommend the game. It's good and you should want to play it but it's not without its faults. Just hear me out and I think you might understand what I mean. In fact, most of you might even agree with me.

Like I stated earlier, I loved the story of the first game. A boy (Kazuya) gets tossed off a cliff by his deranged father (Heihachi) in some misguided attempt to strengthen the kid's backbone and ensure that he's got what it takes to run the family business. Nearing death as a result of the long fall, the kid makes a pact with the devil in order to survive and ultimately returns the favor by winning his father's corporate tournament and subsequently throwing his defeated father from the same cliff.

Tekken 2 rolls around and you find that the son, Kazuya, has taken over the family company and has gone mad with power. His father, who also some how miraculously survived the fall--and, something tells me it's not really that tall of a cliff--ends up taking his son, who by now is possessed by the devil, and tosses him into a live volcano ala Frodo. It should be over there, right? Well, no. And that's where things start to get a bit dicey.

Four games later--five if you count Tekken Tag--and the story has become so convoluted and unreal that I find myself asking why I even care. The last thing I want to do is try to make sense of how Heihachi is still alive, or how Jin Kazama, Kazuya's son, was only 10 years old by the time Tekken 3 took place, even though he was cut like Stallone in Rocky 3 and clearly already in high school.

Then I realize it doesn't matter--it's a fighting game, and the focus isn't the story, it's the gameplay. And, If anything has been consistent through out the series, it's been the gameplay. With a focus on combos and tactical juggling, Tekken has always provided me with a decent challenge. Tekken 6 is no different. The console versions of the game come complete with a practice mode which allows anyone to sit down and take the time to learn if they really want to.

The characters all seem relatively balanced, though just like any other fighter, some are better than others. From what I gather Japan and Korea can't seem to agree on which ones are the best, but they seem to agree that Jin and Bob are easily one of them.

The movement and frame rate is still very fluid, a trait that the series has carried since Tekken 2. However, the movesets have continued to evolve with each iteration of the game. For example, and much to my chagrin, Lei's moveset has seen the biggest makeover since the first time they completely overhauled it in Tekken 3. I used to pride myself on having memorized each of his pages in the Tekken Tag strategy guide, which easily took up the most of any of the characters except maybe Ogre. Needless to say, it's back to school for me.

The new characters introduced in Tekken 6 are neat, but fail to appeal to my gameplay style with the exception of Leo. Alissa would appeal to me if it weren't for the fact that I find her moveset to be maddening. Never the less, you can't go wrong with a beautiful robot who wields dual chainsaws.

I also love the customization. While it's still not quite where Soul Calibur is in terms of options, I had no problems making Anna look like the girl of my dreams--Ino from Guilty Gear XX. I also totally made Leo look like Gackt. Of course, he's already got make up on, so he was half-way there, but still, that was cool. It'd be nice tto be able to make my own Tekken character from the ground up, but there's always the next game.

In addition to the custom characters, their gameplay, and lovely high-resolution renders, the backgrounds are fairly stunning--at least, in the arcade mode they are. The locations are exotic enough to keep your interest and the music isn't half-bad, though some of it does seem a tad misplaced, I would say the majority fit the stages they were attached to fairly well. I kept wanting to hear a motif or riff from a previous title just for nostalgia's sake, but no dice there. I suppose that isn't so bad though. There's nothing wrong with change as long as it's good, right? I just wish they'd let Junichi Nakatsuru write the score already. He does such a good job with Soul Calibur.

So to recap, the game plays well, and the visuals match up nicely. It could stand to have a slightly better soundtrack but I thought it got the point across. All that's left is the story modes. I've gotten this far and I've managed to keep it fairly positive right? Well, like I mentioned, the story has become so convoluted that trying to make sense of it has become pointless. In order to see each character's "ending" you have to first unlock them for the story mode by beating, or meeting, each of them in the scenario mode.

Scenario mode? Yeah, it's a mode where you're basically forced to play a Tekken beat-em-up. It's not the worst thing I've ever had to do, but it can be relatively tedious. Thank god that they actually give you some decent rewards for playing through it. In addition to loads of in-game cash used to purchase items for customization, you get some of those items with optional bonuses to your stats just for picking them off a few dead enemies.

Additionally, you'll occasionally unlock endings for characters you haven't beaten the game with just for taking the time to play the game. I'm not sure if it's a timed-release or based on set achievements, but that's kind of useful since I don't think I'm ever going to want to try to beat the last boss--who, by the way, is incredibly broken--with a character like Jack or Kuma.

So the story in the scenario mode is pretty tedious and convoluted. That's not to say that it isn't the least bit entertaining, because it is. I still love the characters and despite the terrible plot twists, I still find myself beating the story mode over and over again just to see everyone's ending. At least those are occasionally funny. I just wish that they were all worth having to beat that broken last boss, because some of them really aren't.

So, story aside, I'd recommend this game to anyone who loves the series or wants to find out what it's all about. Dispite it's shortcomings, I'd say the game does have a lot to offer fans of 3d fighters. Oh, and if you think you can take me, feel free to add me on Playstation Network. My username is Kaijin. Just make sure to mention Japanator in the comment field.