Game review: Tekken Hybrid

Tekken Hybrid is not a game but a collection of Tekken goodness all fans will want to get their hands on. The pack includes the 3D Blu-ray movie Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Tekken Tag Tournament HD and the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 prologue. Fans of Tekken could not get any happier with a collection like this.

Let's start off by talking about the CG movie, Tekken: Blood Vengeance. The film is entirely different from 2010's atrocious live action adaptation, simply named Tekken. Fans asked if Namco Bandai could make a 3D animated movie based on Tekken and the company decided to make their wish come true.

Tekken: Blood Vengeance isn't the first video game movie to go fully animated, coming after Resident Evil: Afterlife and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Those two films were well received by their respective fan bases, and are much better to watch than most other video game movies. Tekken: Blood Vengeance is the same, featuring better action and a better storyline than other films I've seen this year. I can certainly tell you Tekken: Blood Vengeance is a much better movie than Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Although the film has excellent animation and thrilling action sequences, some Tekken fans may be disappointed by the lack of characters in the film. Tekken: Blood Vengeance is better described as a female buddy movie, since Alisa Bosconovitch and Ling Xiaoyu take the majority of the film's 92 minutes, while characters such as Law, Paul and Hwoarang aren't in the film at all.

Nevertheless, the picture quality in Tekken: Blood Vengeance is nothing short of breathtaking. Whether you view the movie in 2D or in 3D, your jaw will drop at the quality of animation in this movie. Previous 3D Blu-rays I've watched included The Lion King and Resident Evil: Afterlife, but Tekken: Blood Vengeance trumps both when it comes to viewing in 3D. Another great thing is that you can view the 2D and 3D versions of the film on one disc, so there's no need to swap discs unlike with most other 3D Blu-rays available on the market today.

Tekken Hybrid ships on one disc and you have to use the disc to install both Tekken Tag Tournament HD and the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 prologue directly onto your PS3 hard drive. Once you have done that, you can enjoy playing the full game of Tekken Tag Tournament HD and the demo for the upcoming Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

First off, let's talk about Tekken Tag Tournament HD. The original Tekken Tag Tournament game was released way back in the year 2000, as a launch title for the PlayStation 2.  Tekken Tag Tournament HD is a remake of sorts, rendering the game in full high definition for the very first time.  The visuals look awesome, although the character models still look PS2-like in some cases.

In terms of gameplay, nothing has changed in Tekken Tag Tournament HD. All the original characters are here and have the exact same move sets they had 11 years ago. The pace of the game is still slow when you compare it to the faster pace of Tekken 6. That being said, Tekken veterans will feel right at home playing this game. All the characters are available for you to choose from the beginning, so there's no need to play the 'Arcade' mode endlessly to unlock them all, plus there's a very enjoyable bowling mini-game if you get tired of fighting and just want to settle your differences like gentlemen.

The only thing I feel that will disappoint hardcore Tekken fans is the lack of an online mode. Capcom added a robust online mode when it re-released Street Fighter III: Third Strike earlier this year on the PSN and Xbox LIVE. Tekken Tag Tournament HD is still fun to play against the AI and my brother, but I really wanted to test out my skills against players around the world.

The third part of Tekken Hybrid is the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 prologue. This is a demo for Tekken Tag Tournament 2, due for release in 2012 for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. It's hard to actually 'review' this part of the collection since this is only a demo of a game not going to be released until nearly a year from now.

For a demo, you do get a good indication of what the full game will play like. Even though the demo only includes four characters (Devil Jin, Devil Kazuya, Alisa and Xiaoyu), I noticed Namco Bandai has improved quite a bit on the game engine previously seen in Tekken 6. As fast-paced as Tekken 6 was, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 notches up the speed again, and the game truly shines when you execute double-team attacks. I noticed Namco Bandai also added a few new moves to all the characters too.

Graphically, it appears as if Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will resemble Tekken 6, the only difference being that you can view the game in 3D too, much like you can with the Tekken: Blood Vengeance movie. The Tekken Tag Tournament 2 prologue may only be a demo but it shows the potential of what the actual game might be like. I for one cannot wait what Namco Bandai has in store for us when the full version is released late next year.

Tekken Hybrid has a RRP of $69.99 and you get a 3D Blu-ray, a full PS3 game and a PS3 demo. Although this is more expensive than the average 3D Blu-ray, the amount of content that you get justifies the increased price. 3D Blu-rays normally cost $49.99 so you get Tekken Tag Tournament HD for a mere $19.99 plus the demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Also, Tekken Hybrid is the only way you can view the Tekken: Blood Vengeance movie, since the DVD version isn't coming to New Zealand's shores. A neat package for all Tekken fans, plus the movie is better than most movies I've watched all year.

Graphics 9

Gameplay 8.5

Sound 8

Lasting Appeal 8.5

Overall 8.5