With Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s September console launch fast approaching, it seemed possible that game producer Katsuhiro Harada would have already emptied the contents of his closet marked ‘surprise’ and wouldn’t have much else to reveal at Gamescom 2012. Clearly, I underestimated Mr Harada, as there were many more in-depth details about its World Tekken Federation stat tracker to show off, in addition to a whole new mode called Tekken Tunes.
World Tekken Federation (which for the sake of all concerned is best not turned into an acronym) is most simply thought of as the beat ‘em-up equivalent of Call of Duty Elite and Battlefield Premium’s stat tracking services.
“World Tekken Federation is based on Tekken Net, which links the arcade machines in Asia, and we really wanted to incorporate that level of statistical data for console too,” Harada explains. “The presentation style is geared towards the western market who are perhaps more used to FPS’.”
World Tekken Federation is based on Tekken Net, which links the arcade machines in Asia, and we really wanted to incorporate that level of statistical data for console too.
The online service tracks the stats of all of a player’s online battles and looks to provide not only vanity stats (such as the expected win/loss ratio for each character, favourite tag combinations and overall rank) but also more useful metrics that can be studied to help improve performance.
For example, it’s possible to find out what percentage of throw attempts made by other players are successful against you, helping to highlight whether the throw break technique should be practiced. The average time of rounds won and lost is also tracked, with a short duration for unsuccessful rounds suggesting that while you’re strong on attack your defensive strategies need work.
These areas can then either be practiced in offline mode in the Fight Lab or, as Namco Bandai is hoping, in conjunction with other players. This co-operation will happen either passively: through viewing the World Tekken Federation profiles of top players and watching replays of bouts, or more proactively: with more advanced players helping to coach new players by identifying where their game is falling down and advising which areas should be improved.
Particularly altruistic players can even buddy-up with less skilled players via the World Tekken Federation’s team structure. The creation of a team will enable the stats of each member player to be tracked and fed into an overall team rating, as well as offering a breakdown of how each member contributes to the team’s overall status. Team creation also provides access to a group forum and the opportunity to create a team name and emblem and to set goals for its members. In theory, this could lead to creation of quasi-guilds, with a couple of lead players heading up a team of lesser-skilled, up-and-coming players, each of whom has their own personal stats recorded as well as how great a contribution they are making to the progress of the team.
It’s great for players to have the freedom to incorporate their own tracks. At the same time the quality of the original soundtrack is very high and I’m confident that players will come to realise that it’s the best music to fight to.
The ultimate goal of World Tekken Federation is to make the game more accessible by using the stats and feedback as a training aid while encouraging progression through the distribution of service-based achievements, which offer an additional carrot to those taking a lot of stick. Of course, it also provides the savants with an awful lot of stats to pore over and they may already be salivating at the notion of compiling such a comprehensive stack of numbers. However, pricing details and any potential additional perks of the service, such as early or free access to DLC, are being held back until the week of Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s launch and so it’s too early for less hardcore players to decide whether the price of admission will be worth the potential benefit that they’ll gain from it.
During the presentation, Harada also introduces the notion of Tekken Tunes. Quite simply a customisable music service, Tekken Tunes not only allows players to assign any of the in-game stage or background music tracks to whichever part of the game they wish, but also to import custom tracks from an external source to replace any of the existing music in the game. Ever wanted to bust digital heads to the soundtrack from The Sound of Music or your one, ill-advised attempt at karaoke? Well, now you can. In addition, long-term Tekken fans will be pleased to hear that music from older titles in the series will be made available via the PS Store and Marketplace to download and replace the new tracks.
“It’s great for players to have the freedom to incorporate their own tracks,” offers sound producer, Kanako Kakino, before adding with a smile, “At the same time the quality of the original soundtrack is very high and I’m confident that players will come to realise that it’s the best music to fight to.”
World Tekken Federation and Tekken Tunes bolster an already burgeoning feature list, including Fight Lab, Combot, numerous customisable options, 2 Vs 2, and 2 Vs 1, and allow Tekken Tag Tournament 2 to offer an embarrassment of riches when it launches on PS3 and 360 next month. Whether this is your first Tekken or your eighth, Harada and co are working hard to ensure that there’ll be something here to help you fight harder, better, faster and stronger.
Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherit the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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