The Tekken Factor: Turning the Learning Curve into a 89.9 Degree Incline

Knowledge is Power - Sir Francis Bacon, Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597

English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Ah how the quotation still rings true today. Despite the fact that it was seemingly written in some book about heretics, this quote can really be directly applied to Tekken 6.

Tekken 6 as with the vast majority of fighting games is heavily reliant on in-game knowledge. You need to know what your chosen character is capable of, the tricks you can pull off, the most damaging move combination in a particular situation and what not. Then you need to know your opponent's character, what are their tricks? How do you avoid them? What moves of theirs can you punish and what move do you do it with?

In a series like Street Fighter, it isn't too complex. There's a relatively small roster and each character only has a handful of different normal attacks and special moves, a lot of them are even variations on a theme as with Ken, Ryu and Akuma who essentially share the Hadouken, Shoryuken and Hurricane Kick (one special move I don't know the full fancy Japanese name for, sif it's Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku, he's totally saying Fuck-Fuck-Dooken).

However, take a game like Tekken 6 where there's a ridiculously large roster with 43 unique and varied characters including: Yoshimitsu; Bob - the Failed Subway Guy; E. Honda; Token Loli Upskirt Girl; Token Old Kung-Fu Master/Pedo; and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo , it's nigh impossible to know how to punish and counter the moves of every single other character with your character of choice.

As such, you end up plugging in $2 into the machine to essentially see someone who's most likely Asian rip you apart in what is effectively an 80 second (if that) combo video.

The major issue with this is that there is no real 'solution' to it if you're attempting to learn a new arcade game without a console port, if the price were lowered the price to $1 a game it'd just mean you'd lose half as much in the period of time. Even fighters that have been emulated with online netplay (and hence free access to opponents) have their own flaws in that you need to own a PC-compatible arcade stick which is relatively expensive. There's not a large amount of point in learning how to play a game if you can only play it on a keyboard and that ability doesn't translate to actually being able to beat someone in an arcade where pride and money is on the line. That and you'd run into online delay which you wouldn't have in a real arcade situation

Fighting games like Street Fighter 4 or Soul Calibur 3 that have a 'beginner mode' which allows you say 3 fights without the ability for people to challenge you don't really help you attain any degree of competence. You may get a chance to get a feel for a character and to practice landing a particular juggle combo but it won't help an ounce if you're against a relentless human that won't necessarily fall for the same things a CPU may perpetually fall for.

Another significant issue, particularly in Australia, is a lack of a significant and large arcade scene at most hours of the day. If you were in Japan you'd probably be able to get viciously beaten by some guy then sit back and watch as someone else challenges him and watch what he's doing. In a Timezone in Perth at about 2pm on a Friday afternoon, it's just you and infinitely-better-than-you-Asian guy, you lose and he just sodomizes the computer instead of you, there's no opportunity for observational learning.

Oh well, perhaps I'll never learn how to use my Wang properly...