E3 2009

Namco Bandai Games, a name everyone is familiar with, is the name of two merged companies, formed back in 2006. Namco, a game company known to its fans worldwide, started back in 1955 and has been around for over 50 years. Namco has brought titles in so many different categories such as the fighting games like the Tekken series, as well as Soul Calibur, to RPG’s such as the Tales of series which feature titles like, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Abyss, Tales of Symphonia and even the upcoming PSP title Tales of Vs. and Xenosaga. Lastly, a familiar name to everyone, Namco was the company responsible for creating Klonoa and Pac-man. Bandai a company famous for not only its Video Game division but also known for its anime and anime distribution. They released anime and manga, many of the animes are very often released as video games. Anime series like Gundam, Hack have all been released in both forms as an anime then released as video games. Bandai has one of the strongest footholds in both the anime and video game market with other titles such as the Naruto, One Piece, Ghost in the Shell, and Gundam titles such as Dynasty Warriors Gundam and Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2. When both companies became one large company by merging, a very large library of titles is put together and by doing so many more titles are localized. Tekken 6 was the first title we had the honor of interviewing. As a Tekken 6 fan, I had to play it myself. Playing the arcade version beforehand did give a small advantage but at the same time there were a lot of people who have done the same. The new juggle feature has been added to the game where you can, in the middle of a combo that gives you time, hit your opponent bouncing them to activate another combo. If you are skilled, you can even combo them into a corner after a bounce attack and continue this again. While I haven’t adapted to this yet, seeing as I still play it similar to Tekken 5, I get beaten a lot quicker but at times this juggle system can be spammed too many times. This makes it very annoying to play when after 1 move, you are hit in 3 repeat juggle combos in succession, taking close to 70% of your life. The saving factor is the overload system which is when you have about 20% of your life remaining your character unleashes more power and his attack damage increases by about 1.5 times. The entire roster from previous titles are all accounted for (except for Tekken 3’s Gon) a total of around 43 characters will be available. While it seemed the full fighting aspect of the game was complete, the new action based mode of the game was not there to try out. Tekken 6 is slated for an October 2009 release. For more information about Namco Bandai’s anime division, stay tuned to unWIRED TV as we bring you anime news from Anime Expo 2009 July 2nd to July 5th.