Xbox Addict

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 DLC Bonanza!

Namco Bandai has just released the first paid DLC pack (aside from the optional Online Pass) for Tekken Tag Tournament 2.  Dubbed the "TTT2 Bonus Tracks Pack A", this pack contains both the original arcade and arranged soundtracks from Tekken 1, Tekken 2, Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament 1 for use in TTT2’s built-in jukebox, Tekken Tunes.  As previously explained via Twitter by the game’s director, Katsuhiro Harada, players can substitute music in any of the game’s stages with any song stored on their hard-drive, or alternatively from these downloadable packs.  So if you’ve always wanted to deliver your opponent a tag-team humiliation while tapping your feet to Julia Chang’s catchy Tekken 3 theme or slice up the competition to Yoshimitsu’s ultra-trippy buddhist chant-inspired "The Headshaker" from Tekken 2, now you can.

So why pay for the packs when you could just torrent all the music for free from the internet, then spend half-a-day burning them onto 4-5 CDs, ripping them one-by-one onto your 360’s hard drive and finally labelling each song individually using the 360’s handy but incredibly counter-intuitive music importing interface?  Read that again and you’ve probably answered your own question (And, no, I’m not bitter about the experience at all...really!).

"TTT2 Bonus Tracks Pack A" will set Tekken fanboys and fangirls back a measly 480 MS points, while those favour music from particular games in the franchise can buy each of the four game’s soundtracks individually for 160 MS points each (though it seems like a no-brainer to buy the discounted combo pack).  The soundtracks for Tekken 4, Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 are still missing in action, so it can probably be assumed that those will be made available soon in similar fashion.

This paid DLC comes right on the heels of a free patch update that in addition to reportedly fixing some balancing issues also unlocks four new stages (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Chile, and Poland), A "World Arena Mode", and three new characters for use in TT2: Slim Bob (a pre-obese version of the rotund fighter Bob), Sebastian (Lili’s Butler), and Miharu Hirano (Xiaoyu’s high school classmate).  Much like the Tekken Tunes DLC, more is expected to come, including a minimum of two new characters: Violet (a palette-swap of Lee Chaolan) and Dr. Bosconovitch, a wacky mad scientist and fan-favorite from Tekken 3.

And best of all, just as Harada has promised, none of the paid DLC is already on the disc, avoiding the controversy that has surrounded many of Capcom’s recent fighting game releases.