I have something to confess: as a fighting game enthusiast, I have always felt a bit slighted as far as access to numbers and statistics when it comes to the games I play. Seeing portals like Call of Duty: Elite really drove that home. Before that was Halo’s Bungie.Net. I always wanted something like that for my favorite fighting games, but no one seemed to have delivered, until now. Us fighters finally have a portal to call our own, somewhere where we can see who is on top, what people are talking about, and how we are doing. Welcome to the World Tekken Federation.
The World Tekken Federation is a portal for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 players to get together, discuss the newest happenings in the Tekken universe, but more importantly, to show their prowess and analyze their progress. This is something I’ve been waiting to see happen for a long time. Sure, I love leaderboards, replays and such, but I wanted something more. I think a browser-based online solution really helps, as you don’t need a console to look up your records, and using this really helps in just examining how you play. What if you have a tendency to get hit with counters a lot? Maybe you’re predictable. What about last-minute comebacks? Juggles? You can get this info from the World Tekken Federation portal.
Look at all those stats. I don’t know about you, but that really brings a smile to my face. You can see what rounds you won and lost. You can see how much damage you did, how many tags you made, and so many other things. The portal holds quite a few of your matches, and it’s very interesting to see how your game has evolved. This is something that is really useful to someone who wants to up their game, or is wondering where their pitfalls may be. Or if you just like numbers, like I do. There are many other numbers you can see, like your most used pair, winning percentages, Dan ranks, etc. It’s great to be able to see all this stuff. You can also see leaderboards, and of course, message boards. All it takes to have your progress tracked is to go into online mode on your console, hit a button to get a code to enter into the site, enter it, and you’re done.
Another great piece that the World Tekken Federation brings is the ability to make teams. You can create a team from the site, and recruit members to represent your team. The team levels up as everyone gets battle points, and you can change your emblem and add things the higher level you are. These are just a few of the things you can find on the World Tekken Federation. So far, this seems to me like something I want all future fighters to have. I wish Super Street Fighter 4 and Persona 4 had portals like this. I know that Tekken Tag 2 is mostly a port of an existing game, so making something like this was easier for Namco than it would be for another company that is building a game from scratch, but still. The World Tekken Federation, just like Call of Duty: Elite, shows that we are serious about our passion. I will bring more details on WTF as I continue playing. My current impression? The bar has been raised, and I hope other developers follow Namco’s example.