It's the followup to the old Tekken Force mode, which took Tekken mechanics and placed them into an awkward brawler. This time, the brawling mode is called Scenario Campaign. If I may get sidetracked for a moment, I have to say that's kind of an awful name. I mean, why not just name it "Level Level?" Or "Stage World?" It says absolutely nothing about the action that follows.
Anyway, after checking out the fighting to make sure it's still on-point (it is!) I took a look at the first two stages of Synopsis Crusade, choosing Paul Phoenix due to his propensity for closed fists and visible love of the House Party films. Like the Tekken Force mode before it, Rundown Expedition mode takes the Tekken mechanics and slaps them into a brawler. You'll use your fighter's standard moves (sans throws) to beat up all kinds of generic dudes, many of which leave behind tiny chicks and other objects. The cool addition is that you can play this mode with two people, and it also works online. You'll unlock items as you play, too, which funnel into the character customization. Like Soulcalibur IV, Tekken 6's items will come with statistics, letting you customize your own characters both in appearance and in power.
All of that actually sounds pretty standard for a Tekken game, I know. You were probably expecting all of this. But you probably weren't expecting what I saw on the second level of the mode. Instead of running around as Paul and spamming the fist attack as often as possible, that level puts you behind the controls of a big mech that's armed with machine guns and missiles. It moves really slowly, but you just sort of devastate a big rush of Jack robots without even breaking a sweat. Pretty cool... but still a little awkward, even when you account for the fact that mechs can't really sweat to begin with.
It'll be interesting to see what other weird surprises the Scenario Campaign mode (hey, I got it right!) has in store when the game hits in October.
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