Tekken spinoff Tekken Tag Tournament won over a generation of fans not just for coming out alongside the PS2 in the year 2000 (and having an amazing Tekken Bowl minigame built in), but for being a quality Tekken game in its own right. A sequel followed in 2011, but since then Bandai Namco has remained quiet on the prospect of a series return.
But is now the time, given tag fighting games are back in vogue with the likes of Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls, Invincible VS, and 2XKO in the works, for Tekken Tag Tournament to finally return?
We asked Kohei Ikeda (Nakatsu), game director on Tekken 8, Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken Project director, and Michael Murray, Tekken 8 producer exactly that. Harada’s response makes for interesting reading for fighting game fans. He said, essentially, that a new Tekken Tag Tournament would be too much for casual fighting game fans to contend with because it would force players to learn multiple complex characters and how they work together. And so, it’s far more likely for Tekken Tag Tournament to pop up as a separate mode within a standard Tekken game, should Bandai Namco ever decide to return to it.
“Back in ’99 when I made the original Tag Tournament… each character has so many moves in a 3D fighter, right, compared to these other games that there’s so much to learn just for one character,” Harada began.
“And then to pair that with two, even though back then in Tag 1, a lot of the characters were called compatible or you’d have versions that look different, but they share a similar type of move list. Whereas the Tekken series progressed, the characters became more unique in their move sets, etc. So it’s even more involved to try to learn and master a character, and then another one on top of that. And then when you throw in the combination of the two and your opponent’s characters, there’s just so much more knowledge that’s necessary to enjoy the game.
“So the hardcore, they ate it up, for example, in Tag 2. But for your average player, it was very hard to gain a more casual audience, I guess you could say. So if we were to do it again rather than have a standalone game, it would probably be better to have it as some kind of a separate mode within a normal Tekken franchise, right?”
Michael Murray, Tekken 8 producer, chimed in to agree with Harada’s point about tag fighters being harder to learn.
“Nakatsu and myself, we probably grew up in the arcades playing while he was making Tag 1, so we really enjoy the game,” he said.
“I guess we’re more on the hardcore side of being able to use several characters and such, and we loved Tag 2. But we are fully aware that there were just so many people that couldn’t get a handle on it because of all the knowledge that’s involved.”
So, it seems Tekken Tag Tournament is consigned to history. But Tekken 8 continues. It’s worth reading the interview in full to get an idea of what’s to come, and what Harada and co have up their sleeve for the coming years.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
