Tekken away the spirit of the game
I've always liked the main installments of the Tekken series, even the much maligned Tekken 4. Even though the first two games have aged terribly, they're still decent to sit down with every so often.
Tekken 6 is arguably better than those early ones, but it's a definite drop from the last few incarnations of the game. Although it still plays smoothly, Tekken 6 seems much, much slower. At first, I thought that I felt this way only because I hadn't played Tekken in a while, but I began to see others make the same complaint, and eventually I revisited earlier installments in the series and found it to be true.
Another bothersome aspect is how the single player game works. Arcade mode's just the same as it ever was, fighting random opponents before a handful of aggravating bosses. However, the similarities end there. You don't get your character's freaking ending upon beating arcade mode. Instead, you have to play Tekken 6's lame, jerky beat-'em-up mode, defeat a character in this mode, unlock them in the beat-'em-up mode's "Arena" stage, and then beat Arena as that character. This is a lot of tedious work, especially for a game that has all of the characters unlocked from the outset in the other modes. In addition, Arena is simply an abbreviated arcade mode. Thus, arcade mode itself is pretty much rendered useless and obsolete.
All of the other modes seem to be standard, though, and serve their purpose. Apparently, the online modes were pretty much broken by abysmal lag at release, and may have since been patched, but I've not had the opportunity to check it out either way.
Tekken 6 also sports an impressive roster, bringing back Tekken 5 DR's cast (minus Jinpachi) and adding some semi-decent newbies to the mix. I do think, however, that it might have been nice to have a character or two from an older entry return. Kunimitsu's been MIA since Tag Tournament, and how the Hell long could Forrest Law possibly be in the hospital?
Tekken 6 also possibly has the longest load times of any 360 game I've ever played. What's up with that?
My final complaint is one that is likely going to not be a problem amongst others; I have a standard definition television and have no plans to "upgrade" in the near future. Studies show that SDTVs are still more widespread than HD. However, most of the text in Tekken 6 is blindingly tiny on an SDTV. The subtitles for vocals are decently sized, but everything else, including conversations in the Scenario Campaign mode and the descriptions of equipable items, are infuriating.
Overall, Tekken 6 is not by any means a bad game, it just pales in comparison to what came before it. It's a bit disappointing that something this low key took so long to make it to consoles. With much better fighters available on fighters available on all systems it has been released on, one is better off saving their money for something else.