Tekken 6 - Part 2

The first time I played Tekken 6 with my girlfriend, in a smokey arcade in Osaka, she beat me. We sat across from one another at two large cabinets, not side to side like we would at a classic fighting game. In between the best of 5 games of the match, I would stand up and walk around the corner to make a face at her. She beat me by pressing random, frenzied attacks in a technique known as "button mashing" - the most valuable tactic for a new player who has no knowledge, and no interest, in what the buttons do or how the game is played. I had been playing fighting games for years and had a pretty good idea of how the Tekken system worked, but that did not matter at all. Even players who spend days mastering the intricate combination chains and juggle attacks still achieve records of barely over 50%. One time I walked into an arcade and challenged some elementary school-aged kid, and after losing, beat him without being hit aka "perfectly" twice in a row, before losing again.
Tekken 6 has a progressive adventure mode, where you walk down streets with your pink-haired robot sidekick, and kill whoever appears. The controls are terrible, because it has to adjust from running around to locking on an enemy, and the experience is largely pointless. For example, I just beat a level, and I got an item for Bryan: Skull Jeans & Boots (Blue). I also got gold, 159,003 gold to be exact, which is hardly enough to buy a single piece of virtual attire. Oh, I also got Hardcore Leather Vest (Black). Maybe I will look cooler if I customize my character and put these on. Oh I got a sword for his left side, now I have two swords that I can't use. On this level, at the end is a giant robot who I can't beat because he has too much health. I have to figure out how to hit him off the edge of the level, but I can't, because I don't feel like it. There are crates in some spots. Some have money, others little chickens that go "Bok-bok" when you get them. I don't know what the chickens do, but I am glad they are there. Other crates have machine guns, or a flamethrower. For beating Dragunov, I unlocked a trophy on the Playstation Network. These are arbitrary little rewards that a game will give you every now and then. When you find another player online, you can look at the trophies they have from all the games they play, if you want to wait three minutes for the trophy indicator to load.
Tekken 6 is a complicated game. In Street Fighter, there are low attacks and high attacks. Regular block works against high attacks, crouch and block to prevent a low attack. Not so in Tekken. There are high, middle and low attacks. Exactly how blocking against them works, I have no idea. It is quite technical, with all of the side stepping, the possibility of throws, The different ways to stand back up, etc. In this way, playing a human opponent in Tekken 6 is very psychological. What will she do next? Sometimes players just nervously go back and forth for a while, each trying to read the opponent.
Right now I am trying over and over to beat the giant ugly boss of the game, on easy mode, in best of 5 games. It is difficult, because I do not want to study combos or anything like that. One more try and I am done playing for today. Well, that was fun.