The tournament organizers for Final Round XVI, Northeast Championships 13 and East Coast Throwdown 5 announced some good news for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 competitors recently, with an east coast circuit of events.

It's been a long time coming, but TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2 is finally here and ready for tournament play! Whether you're a veteran of the TEKKEN franchise or a new player altogether, the TEKKEN community is always welcoming players of all walks of life into their ranks. TEKKEN has long since been a part of tournaments across the country, especially here on the east coast.

It's for that very reason that we're very proud to announce the TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2 Circuit! This circuit will bring the winners of the TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2 tournaments from Northeast Championships in Philadelphia, PA, to FINAL ROUND XVI in Atlanta, GA, to East Coast Throwdown 5 in Morristown, NJ, all the way out to the EVOLUTION 2012 World Finals tournament.




The east coast is a huge place when you really think about it. Not everyone is able to travel up and down from Pennsylvania to Georgia then back up to New Jersey, especially if they come from states nowhere near these three. That's why we want to reward our winners with not only the prize money they've earned, but with the opportunity to go to a part of the country they may not have been able to see and compete in before.

The rules to this tournament circuit are simple. If you win the TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT 2 tournament at Northeast Championships 13 in Philadelphia, then you will be awarded a plane ticket to FINAL ROUND XVI. If you win FINAL ROUND XVI, you will be flown to East Coast Throwdown 5. If you win ECT5, you will be flown to Evolution in Vegas. Following NorthEast Championships The following TOP 8 at each event will be seeded for the following tournament and the rest of the entries will be seeded by region at Final Round XVI and for East Coast Throwdown 5. This promotes people to attend more than one event to make sure they are properly seeded in this circuit. Here's the following point system as listed below;

1st place 10 points
2nd place 7 points
3rd place 5 points
4th place 3 points
5th place 2 points
7th place 1 point

If you're local to any of these tournaments that you've won a trip to, we will pay for your hotel room instead of the flight. The four of us from Big E Gaming, FINAL ROUND LLC, and East Coast Throwdown want to make sure TTT2 is the most memorable TEKKEN for you guys yet, and what better way than to fly you around the country to represent your home turf?!

P.S.- Before you assume anything we at FINAL ROUND LLC, BigE Gaming, or ECT don't know what the official games will be for Evo2k13. We are offering these trip's to help the community travel to 4 great events in the fighting game community.

Now that that's all said and done, get your pads and sticks out and GET READY FOR THE NEXT BATTLE!

Check out the official Facebook pages of each event for more updates at:

FINAL ROUND XVI: http://www.facebook.com/FinalRoundAtl

NEC13: http://bigegaming.com/

ECT5: http://www.facebook.com/ecthrowdown

Players who pick up Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition will be able to dress up their characters as both Mario and Luigi, according to Eurogamer. In addition to these beloved heroes, fight game enthusiasts will be able to stuff their brawler into Bowser, Link, and Zelda costumes. Since these industry icons are exclusive to Nintendo’s consoles, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners probably shouldn’t hold their breaths.


CVG reports that the latest installment in the Tekken franchise will also feature Nintendo-oriented power-ups — keep an eye out for Mario’s magic mushrooms during showdowns — which are exclusive to this particular version of the game.

Although the idea of seeing your favorite Tekken characters dressed up as Mario and Luigi may sound appealing, early reviews of the mode haven’t been overwhelmingly positive. Shack News writer Andrew Yoon described his experience with the exclusive mode as follows:

“Perhaps my biggest gripe with Mushroom Battle Mode is that the fights are much too short. Given how absurdly powerful some of these characters can become, fights can be over as soon as they start. Also, there’s no tagging in this mode, meaning fights are (essentially) half as long as they could be.”

Of course, the Wii U isn’t the only console with exclusive content. According to Gamenguide, those who pre-ordered Tekken Tag Tournament 2 were given access to “The Snoop Dogg Stage” and “The Big Bikini Bundle”. As of this writing, these additions haven’t been announced for the Wii U. Then again, console owners are getting Mario and Luigi costumes, so, chances are, they’re not crying too much over missing out on Snoop Dogg’s arena.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition is scheduled to arrive for the console sometime after November 18. Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners, meanwhile, can pick up their copies of the fighter right now. The trailer for the title has been embedded below.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is filled with more. More characters. More in-match participants. More button smashing.

More lunacy.

The sequel to 1999’s Tekken Tag Tournament is a noncanonical sidestep in the constant battle that is Namco Bandai’s bare-knuckle 3D fighting franchise. So this 55-combatant (not including downloadable entrants), storyline-cracking free-for-all is technically nothing but an illusive blip on an already convoluted Tekken timeline — and a figment of chief producer Katsuhiro Harada’s already insane imagination.

But after stuffing myself with repeated trips to this buffet of brawls, I’m left wondering if Namco’s more friendly approach is the best direction for the series.

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE

Become the ultimate Don Armor King

In TT2’s fantasy world, you can put on the dream fights you’ve always wanted to see. You have a ridiculously dense (and in some cases, just plain ridiculous) roster of ruffians to rumble with, either solo or in tag teams. The franchise’s warring Mishima and Kazama clans are at your disposal, along with pretty much every other mainstay from Tekkens No. 1 through 6.

Gameplay is as tight as Nina Williams’ outfit

Tekken’s responsive and fast-paced controls are in full effect here. Fights are as frantic and fun as you would expect. The core mechanics introduced in the last Tekken release are back with a tag-team focused twist. Destructible, multitiered environments return, as well, making combat especially dynamic and dangerous.

Fight Lab is a useful, albeit bizarre new addition

Series newcomers and veterans alike can benefit from the Fight Lab. The all-new mode is a glorified tutorial, complete with a wacky storyline featuring Violet, the millionaire philanderer alter ego of playable pugilist Lee Chaolan. As you progress through the Lab’s brief campaign, you’ll help Violet program his prototype Combot. Each chapter highlights a specific gameplay mechanic, culminating with a boss battle.

By the end of the experience, you’ll have worked on offensive and defensive basics while learning essential tag-team techniques. And you’ll probably have scratched your head a few times at the completely random narrative interludes. As a bonus, you’ll be able to program the Combot for customized training sessions.

Flying sumo wrestlers are surprisingly charming
The King of Iron Fist Tournament has always had its quirky undertones, and the latest edition is no exception. After all, you can pair a boxing-glove wearing velociraptor with a living, breathing block of wood. And the goofiness doesn’t stop there. The aforementioned Fight Lab mode includes challenges that involve avoiding scud-missile-like flying clones of sumo wrestler Ganryu and defeating a giant, loincloth-wearing version of kung-fu fighter Feng Wei.

You’ll even see a few silly and not-so-subtle tributes to a certain 2D fighting series that I’ll refrain from naming. All of these lighthearted touches are quintessentially Tekken, and I’m glad to see the developers having so much fun with their work.

And who doesn’t love getting to fight in Santa’s Village?



WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE



New challengers might have trouble getting ready for their next battle
TTT 2 is for the hardcore Tekken fan. I’m talking about a person who’s debated the superiority of Japanese-style arcade sticks and scoured message boards for animation frame data to gain an edge. If you don’t have an opinion on such matters, then you might never end up playing Tekken Tag 2 at a high level because it requires that much dedication to master.

In traditional Tekken releases, you fight in a straightforward, 1-on-1 matchup. For most players, that’s hard enough. TTT 2 throws in the tagging mechanic, which adds an additional layer of complexity to the proceedings. Each fighter has specific launcher moves and bound hits that help extend combos and initiate tag-team focused salvos, which means a whole new set of timing-based maneuvers to memorize.

While most fighting-game fans love this type of depth, it leads to a somewhat steep learning curve for less experienced contenders.


You’ve probably played through most of this before
The sheer number of online and offline fighting modes — along with the brand new World Tekken Federation community-centered website — might seem intimidating at first, but after some hands-on experience, most of the options prove to be pedestrian and somewhat shallow endeavors. And many of them are familiar to fighting-game fanatics like the typical arcade and ghost battles, ranked and non-ranked online fights, time trials, and so forth.

Surprisingly enjoyable pursuits like the beat-em-up inspired Tekken Force are absent here, replaced with the less developed Fight Lab. And, unlike in previous years, you won’t find offbeat time killers like Tekken Bowling.

CONCLUSION

While Namco Bandai went out of its way to pack Tekken Tag Tournament 2 with an impressive number of characters and features, I came away from the game with a somewhat indifferent feeling. This is the Tekken I fell in love with, the Tekken that conditioned my thumbs as a teenager, and the Tekken that continues to put a smile on my face. But this is also the same Tekken I’ve played over and over again, even with the tag wrinkle taken into consideration.

I just feel the experience needs reinvention. And I’m not talking about more exclusive Snoop Dogg (or Snoop Lion) tracks and swimsuit costume packs.

Tekken doesn’t need more stuff. It needs more focus. Like the archetypical weathered warrior, the franchise needs to look within to find inspiration.

Score: 78/100 C
Good

The Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter knows how to deliver virtual punches in the Tekken and Street Fighter games.

Shaffer Chimere Smith is best known by R&B fans as Ne-Yo. And to gamers, he may be their worst enemy if they happen upon him online in a game of Capcom’s Street Fighter X Tekken. The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter recently took to the real gridiron to play flag football in the EA Sports Madden NFL 13 Pigskin Pro-Am alongside Brett Favre and other football legends on NBC. The singer loves to play games when he’s not writing music or singing. He talks about his gaming prowess in the exclusive interview below.
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The Hollywood Reporter: What was it like for you to be part of the NBC EA Sports Madden Pigskin Pro Am?
Ne-Yo: It was exciting. We had NFL Hall of Famers out there. The fact that I shared the field with them was super exciting.
THR: How big a Madden video game player are you?
Ne-Yo: I’m good, but not great at Madden. I have friends that their whole life is based around this video game. A shout out to them; they’re extremely jealous that I played in this game and they didn’t. I’m good at the game, but I’m more of a fighting and adventure games type guy.
THR: So what do you normally play?
Ne-Yo: I’m heavy into Max Payne 3. That’s a good one. I like any of the fighting games and all of the Tekken and Street Fighter series. They just did Street Fighter X Tekken, and I’m huge on that one right now. Undefeated, currently.
THR: Who’s your go to fighter?
Ne-Yo: Ryu for Street Fighter, and for Tekken probably Paul Phoenix.
THR: And they’re coming out with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 this year, too.
Ne-Yo: I heard. I’m looking forward to that. I’m sitting in front of the store with everybody else waiting on that game. Oh, yeah. Um-hum.
THR: When you do play Madden, who’s your “go to” team?
Ne-Yo: Let me see; I normally go with the Falcons.
THR: Do you have a secret strategy that you like to use?
Ne-Yo: Not necessarily, which is probably why I’m not as good as the other guys at the game. I just go in and go for it, pass the ball, and pray that the guy I’m passing to catches it. That’s pretty much it.
THR: Do you use the video game as preparation at all for the Pro Am game?
Ne-Yo: No. Actually, I went hard for a few weeks getting my knees right, and making sure that I can still catch and pass, and all that. I hadn’t played football in a few years. I’m pretty quick. I think I was one of the quickest on the field, so my plan was to just outrun everybody. High knees; that’s what it’s all about.
THR: At what point did you feel like Madden went beyond being a video game and became part of pop culture?
Ne-Yo: You know what? Madden is the closest thing to actually being on the field yourself. It’s so ridiculously realistic. Before I play it, I honestly didn’t understand. “What’s all the hype? It’s a video game.” Then I sat down and played it, and you feel like you’re on the field. It’s that incredible. Kudos to the designers and programmers, because they did the most with this one. Absolutely.
THR: When it comes to looking back when you were playing as a kid, do you have a favorite Madden memory you can share with us?
Ne-Yo: No, a lot of losses. As I said, I have friends whose lives are dedicated to Madden. I play them in their game and let them beat the hell out of me, and then we play one of my games, and I win.
THR: What role do you feel video games play in music these days?
Ne-Yo: I feel like the two are starting to go hand-in-hand. The right song in the game might just make you play a little bit better; you never know.
THR: Would you like your music to be in any of the Street Fighter or Tekken games?
Ne-Yo: Come on, man, I’ll write a song specifically for it.  Let me know. Just make me a character in the game; the strongest character. Make me one of the bosses in the game, and I’ll write a song for the series. I’ll do it.
THR: That’s a message straight to Capcom and Namco.
Ne-Yo: If you’re reading this, come on, I know what I’m doing. Trust me.