This game has stayed true to the game play of the originals and has also gained a major bonus in terms of speed and graphics. The animation in a game is possibly the greatest I’ve seen so far in a fighting game. The characters move smoothly and realistically and where as some of the moves ( about 90% ) are impossible to do they are very believable. The character with the best animation is probably Maxi, using the Nun-chucks the movement of this character is very fast and animating him must have been no easy task, however Namco have managed to get the detail down to the finest points, even when he is doing a half-handstand and spinning his weapon round his foot.

The game consists of 24 characters, 5 of which need to be unlocked. Some of the characters in the game can also have a 3rd costume unlocked. Such old characters as Voldo, Sophitia and Cervantes have returned to the game and new characters have been added. One of these is a cheap rip of the legendary spawn ( Link in the GC version and Heiachi in the PS2 version ). While being one of the most easy characters to use and master in the game, they have left out important factors that make spawn.. well, spawn. Things like the use of his chains and cape are not in the game which I suppose was a bit of a let down. All the other Characters in the game have been well designed and well incorporated into the game. There is no character that is far too overpowered compared to the others and the game is well balanced. The 5 hidden characters in this game are Yoshimitsu, ( brought over from the Tekken series and made A LOT quicker ) Sophitia, Cervantes, Charade and Seung Mina. These characters where incredibly easy to unlock and was another small downside to the game.

Each character in the game has 10 weapons, 1 of which they start with and the others that need to be bought in Weapon Master mode. The weapons each have different special abilities, and while I’m not 100% sure of them all due to the fact I have a JAP version of the game and don’t understand the profiles, I do know that some of them drain your life. It takes a long time to get the money for these weapons, as well as costumes and stages, but its worth it.

The game has 83 un-lockable features ( not including the weapons ) and these include stages, costumes, the “Extra” ways to play ( which are the same as the normal ways only you can choose weapons and cant pause ), characters and CG movies. These I have roughly 70 of and will soon have the rest.

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Game play: 10 - Will have you hooked after just a few minutes of play.

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Graphics: 9 - Crystal clear graphics, the shadows are some of the best animations I’ve ever seen.

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A.I - 9 – Try beating the computer on Extremely hard, with 50% life and you can only hurt them with parry’s ( a level in weapon master, took me about 2 hours )

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Sound: 8 – The clings and clangs of the colliding weapons is great and the soundtrack is easily the best I’ve heard in a fighter.

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Lifespan 10 – Since this is a fighter you will be playing for a long time, and again and again with your friends trying to work out who’s the best (a bit like me and JayBizkit)

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Overall 9 – Another classic game by Namco that will have fans rejoicing for months.