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General: After Tekken Tag Tournament, Namco decided to return to the true "Story" of Tekken, and hence released Tekken 4... The gameplay now involves "realistic" 3D environments with all sorts of walls and obstacles, unlike the previous "free roaming" stages of previous versions. Good players enjoyed this new aspect of gameplay, sucky players went crying home to Mommy...
    Among the new characters and fighting styles comes Steve Fox, a boxer, whom adds a well needed touch to the series. Marduk takes the place of Jack, as the "powerhouse," but with a completely different move set... Christie fights nearly exactly the same as Eddy Gordo (only a few new moves), and she's much more fun to look at...  However, most fans would have appreciated a few MORE new characters. Even considering that Jin Kazama has a completely new move set, there are only 3 new characters (movesets) in this game... Namco could have done more, but us fans took it and enjoyed it.
    My main complaints is the presentation... The characters in Tekken 4 still don't really "talk" that much. And while they've never really been "the talkative bunch," people have still followed the series. However, if Namco wishes to enhance the series, the Tekken characters are going to need to learn how to speak... And some personalized intros might not hurt either. Tekken 3's intro and endings blow Tekken 4's our of the water. Actually, Tekken 4's endings sucked for the most part, except for a few, like Kuma's... LOL! Craig's wasn't bad either.
Manufacturer: Namco
Platforms: Arcade, Playstation 2
Year: 2001
Characters: Kazuya, Law, Hwoarang, King, Christie, Steve, Marduk, Nina, Jin, Xiaoyu, Bryan, Lei, Paul, Yoshimitsu, Lee, Julia, Combot, Kuma, Panda, Eddy, Heihachi
Comment: While the series took a nice step forward with the addition of some new gameplay elements, many fans were still enjoying Tekken Tag Tournament, and in some ways, getting more enjoyment out of the previous installment... Either way, Tekken 4 is a quality fighting game engine that almost any 3D fighting game fan will enjoy, but many "Tekken Lords" despised Tekken 4 because of several glitches and infinites. Overlooking that, Tekken 4 was still decent game when compared to other 3D fighters of the time. Besides, only very skilled players find bugs and infinites.
Rating: 8.5