Details on TTT2's Fight Lab Mode
Aris ON Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 10:53AM 
VideoGamer has posted some details on TTT2's new "Fight Lab" mode. It is apparently a new mode to teach new players and veterans the basics of the game. I hope this doesn't take the place of a simple record function in practice mode. Details below.
"• Harada's brief to his development team: "We want a tutorial, but we don't want it to be called a tutorial. It has to be a series of mini-games where the player doesn't realise that they're learning Tekken - they're enjoying the mini-games as they go along. But then they look back and realise they've gotten better, too."
• Fight Lab finds you taking control of Combot - a fighting robot designed by Violet (who is actually Lee Chaolan in disguise). The idea is that you train up the Combot by helping it to complete exercises.
• As you progress through Fight Lab's challenges you'll be able to learn iconic special moves that belong to other Tekken characters. "Essentially what this means is you can customise the moveset of your Combot," says director Katsuhiro Harada. "You can have Nina's Blonde Bomb, Paul's Phoenix Smasher and Heihachi's Wind God Fist all in one character." You'll also unlock items that change the look of your bot.
• You'll be able to pit your customised Combot against other players online. "Currently we hope to be able to use them in Arcade mode and online play," says Harada. "Obviously there's a problem with ranked matches, but other than that we hope to have other modes available."
• One of the first minigames lets you to pull of complex attacks and combos by tapping any button successively; the aim here is to teach players the importance of basic timing. After this prologue sequence, Violet/Lee accidentally destroys the Combot, and you start again with a new unit - and full controls.
• The next challenge requires players to perform high, medium and low attacks against incoming henchmen. Initially, this simply demands that you respond to icons that appear over the opponent, and perform the relevant attack. In the subsequent challenge, hitting the incorrect target will result in an explosion that damages the Combot.
• These targeting exercises round off with a boss fight against Jack, where the only way to prevent a damaging counter attack is to hit specific parts of his body.
• Aside from what was shown, Harada discussed two other mini-game concepts that may show up in the final release. The first is a side-stepping trainer where the player must avoid (or collect) either incoming sushi, or small pandas which roll towards the Combot.
• Another suggested idea is a Juggling tutorial where players must hit Gon up into the air and then keep him afloat with successive strikes. With each successful hit Gon expands like a beachball, until he eventually pops.
• Overall, Fight Lab is designed to train beginners and advanced players alike. Challenges are graded based upon time and efficiency, so skilled players will acquire rewards faster."
[via EventHubs]
Reader Comments (15)
Come on, we real tekken players don't want that shit, we just want balanced game and that's it....BTW we can expect GON in the 50 fighters roster
Looking forward to this actually. It may be useless for expirienced player, but customizing your own combot and battling others online sounds fun to me. :)
Gon and Violet alt/costume confirmed btw...
Definatly a good idea!!! If they actually make it work it will be awsome to draw more players in. I just hope they get some advanced stuff in there aswell, and succeed at explainin how its done not as in the trial modes for 2D games which dont explain anytin. Anyway I APROVE and bombs away.
yo, I'm all for getting new players into the game, but helping scrubs get better? we need to keep elitism alive. LMAO
thong bikini combo all day
So far it's nice, but according to the description, it's definitely missing:
1. Getting off the ground. This is a mistake many new players never recover from, for instance by holding back the entire time and not realizing why they are getting "juggled forever."
2. Movement. They have side step, but not back dash cancels. It doesn't appear to incorporate real attacks and real examples.
3. Block punishment and any combination of the above. Including mixups while getting off the ground.
4. Whiff punishment and any combination of the above.
5. How to block: Don't mash buttons and hold back :).
Customizing your own combot seems like a really bad idea if allowed to be in arcades or online. Then you have to learn what moves they have before you can even defend properly. Or just play like a nut offensively because you don't know what they are gonna do. Or just run away the whole match lol. Either way a good training mode is needed in this game TO BRING IN NEW PLAYERS. Tekken is just too complex at this point and is begginer unfriendly. As long as they have this mode ALONG with command capture and they do a good job with this. I see this being a welcome addition. I tell you this, I'd much rather this than tekken force lol.
Yay for us lower level players
@vlade What's wrong with the game trying to teach people how to play it?
I just hope it's actually useful. Even SCV went through the trouble to tell you each character's top 10 moves and some combos, which was nice, but then I was looking up how to Ukemi for like an hour on the internet afterwards; information which I exhumed from an obscure thread on 8WR from like 2009. The stuff that MCP mentioned should also find it's way in there, but at the end of the day this stuff isn't for me and as long as it gets anyone interested in learning, I guess it kind of gets the job done.
"You'll be able to pit your customised Combot against other players online. "Currently we hope to be able to use them in Arcade mode and online play," says Harada. "Obviously there's a problem with ranked matches, but other than that we hope to have other modes available."
Good thing Harada is smart enough to realize this. This basically menas we'll not be seeing a custom Combot in online ranked matches.
Also, this statement pretty much confirms that Violet and Gon will be in those 50+ characters along with combot. Now we know 47 of those 50+ characters.
I just hope practice mode has recording function and the online is like SCV or better.
Everyone seems to assume that Violet will be a new playable character, but my guess is that he's just going to be a guide of some sort in training modes.
well i think this shit is really good... All the beginners are saying that tekken takes huge load of time to learn from the steps total noob - beginner. And if this fight lab helps even a couple of new players to learn tekken good then i think its a good job.
The only bad thing is that if this fight lab thing aint ready in september we have to wait for the game more...
And now imagine a mini-mode allowing you to fight with your Combot with other players, offline and online :) That would be very cool :) A perfect "which character is stronger" and a nice hint for Namco as for which moves are the best.
Looks like Tag 2 is going to be a great game.
they should definietly add blockpunishment and frame (dis)advantage in that mode,
new players tend to attack even after getting hit by moves like alisas 1,1 and get CH out of whatever they do.
Fight Lab is ok to me, but it must not be the only practice mode in ttt2. I think Namco should consider experienced players too. An old school practice mode should be mandatory imho, and maybe with some new features..
- Record mode back on
- Frame data as a selectable menu? like when you pick damage display
- Dummy's getting up or movement when on the ground options