4.5/5 ★ – MegaBlastoise's review of Tekken Tag Tournament.

Platform Played: PS2 Date Reviewed: May 4, 2023 Rating: 9/10 When the Tekken series transitioned to the 6th generation of consoles, the folks at Namco decided that instead of making a brand new 4th entry, they would take the 3rd entry and spruce it up with new modes. Although this was a weird decision, it ended up working out in the end as Tekken Tag Tournament was released in late 2000 to mixed to positive reviews. And now all these years later, how well does this game hold up today, and is this a worthy upgrade to Tekken 3? The main selling point of this game is the Tag system. Normally in Tekken, it's a 1 on 1 fight, but now it's 2 vs. 2 where at any point in time, you can "tag" in a second character with their own separate health bar. Think of it as Namco's answer to Marvel vs. Capcom. There's also a new mechanic attached to this style of play where there are 2 colored health bars (one in red and one in blue). The blue is your permanent health bar that can be healed when tagged out. How much you're healed is by a combination of the amount of red bar available and how long that tagged character has been out of battle for. This adds a whole new strategy to the game that I personally find exciting. Other than that, Tag Tournament keeps a lot of the gameplay additions from 3 as well as the rosters from that game as well as 2. This was also the game to add the fan favorite side mode of Tekken Bowl, which is basically bowling but the character uses their tag partner as the bowling ball. It's one of the most ridiculous modes I've ever seen in a video game and I fucking love it for that reason. Of course, Bowl was popular enough to receive updates in later games, but honestly no matter how many times it's been done, Tekken Bowl is as iconic as the main game itself. For a launch title PS2 game, the graphics have aged really well. The stages look fantastic, the models for the characters are an even bigger upgrade from 3, and the cutscenes look really well. The soundtrack is also pretty good, but 3's was better. Honestly, it's probably the weakest part of the game as I feel that out of the other PS2 Tekken games, Tag Tournament has the least memorable of the bunch (not that that's a bad thing). Overall, even though it's a rehash of 3, Tekken Tag Tournament is a solid fighting game. I personally think the other PS2 games are better, but this is a game I recommend checking out if 3 wasn't your biggest cup of tea. I managed to get my physical copy for relatively cheap, but I'm aware that that might not be the same case for everyone else.