Tekken 5 is not surprisingly one of the most entertaining and compelling fighting games ever made. The 5th installment of the Iron First tournament is almost flawless and it delivers an addictive experience. Tekken 5 has dropped the gameplay of Tekken 4 which made players weary about the game. Tekken 5 is very similar to Tekken 3 which makes it the newly designed successor of the Tekken 3 PS title. The game offers a large amount of characters to fight with. Old favorites like Law, Paul, Nina, Jin and Kazuya return. The game offers 3 new characters: Feng, Raven and Asuka. Each of these new characters and the other previous Tekken fighters has their own special moves and their own ways of knocking you out. The game has many modes to play. Story mode is one of the new things in this Tekken. Here, you choose a character and you fight with him or her through 9 stages of intense battles. Throughout the story battle you will find out why the character has entered the tournament, some cut-scenes giving more storyline prior to fights 4 and 7, and eventually the epilogue video at the end of the game. The story mode is used to unlock other characters in the game which are first shown as question marks. Each character has a different reason and story behind their entrance in the tournament. It is up to you to fulfill their dreams. Once you’ve defeated the last boss (won’t spoil it!), theater mode will open where you can watch previous trailers and videos of the Tekken game, you can hear the Tekken 5 soundtrack and also re-watch the endings of the characters if you wish so. The game offers an arcade mode, where the goal is to fight tones of stages and earn money/credits. These credits can be used later to buy new clothing accessories to your characters and even unlock some alternate costumes that have been designed for the specific character. The harder the opponent you face the more credits you will receive upon defeating them. Each character in the arcade mode has a ranking which tells you their difficulty level, For example: kyu, champion, master, dan and legend. The more you use a particular character in the arcade mode, his or her ranking will also rise. However, I do not think there is a correlation between your rank and the strength or agility of your character. I think that all it states is the amount of times you have used the character and your general skill with that fighter. After you have completed the story mode for all the characters you will probably be playing the arcade mode the most to upgrade your costumes and accessorize your fighters. The game returns with classic modes like VS mode, survival mode, time-attack and team battle. These are also adequate modes which will definitely be played furthermore. VS mode is when you play with a friend in a 1 on 1 showdown. VS mode offers its historical handicap mode where if your friend is better then you, he/she can adjust the strength of their fighter to match your skill. Survival mode pits you with one health bar against an onslaught of enemies. This mode is more difficult and expert Tekken fighters will probably do the best in it. Time-attack mode pits you against the clock in a showdown to the final stage. Team battle mode consists of two teams of 4-8 players who fight against each other until one team has been totally defeated. This can be played with two players or one player. The two new modes that are offered in Tekken 5 are: The Devil Within (remake of Tekken force mode in Tekken 3 with Jin Kazama) and Tekken history arcade mode. The Devil Within is not an impressive or fun 3-D action experience. Basically, you are Jin Kazama and you are trying to find some way to stop the devil gene from controlling your body. You fight through various caverns and Mishima compounds to obtain an antidote. You will need to solve some puzzles and use some long jumps to survive. You will battle Jacks and demon type warriors. Jin is not given a large variety of moves. The battling in this mode is very monotonous and extremely boring. The disgusting graphics do not really help make this mode enjoyable or playable for that matter. After each round you will have to face a boss before you advance to the next stage. There are 5 stages to play each consist of similar objectives and alike looking enemies. After you beat each stage you get graded on your overall performance and you are given money (one good thing of this mode) to buy yourself costumes and accessories for your characters. When you kill enemies your devil bar will rise and when it is full you can unleash “the devil within” .Jin gets taken over by the devil and his moves are much stronger at the expense of health. This mode is helpful when fighting bosses so do not forget about it! After you have finally completed this mode, you will be given a secret character which you can use in all the other modes (second good thing of this mode). Aside from obtaining money and unlocking one other character this mode totally sucks and is not worth your time otherwise. The other new mode that Tekken 5 offers is the arcade history mode. Here you can play a classic arcade space shooter (no clue why, but it is here), the original Tekken, Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. Tekken Tag tournament and Tekken 4 are not included in this history mode because Namco assumes that you are still a plausible consumer of its PS2 titles. These Tekken classics are a nice addition to have but generally you will rarely play them. An interesting thing to take note of, are the years of each game and the advancements between each of the titles throughout the series. The innovations can be clearly seen throughout these games and there is a definite difference from the original Tekken and Tekken 5. This mode only allows you to play the arcade versions of these classic games and it does not allow you to play the other modes (like Tekken 3’s force mode or beach ball mode) that were associated with these titles. That takes away from their quality but since you probably will not play them much, it is not a big deal. Tekken 5 offers tones of options. These include: difficulty, round time, quick select, subtitles, output volume, screen position, HD capabilities, control setup and others. Tekken 5 offers a diverse experience for both novice gamers of the series and its expert fanatics. The game offers very entertaining videos with comic relief and intriguing storylines. The game has two entrance videos; one that introduces the characters in the game and the other which prescribes the death of Heihachi Mishima! The video makes it seem like his death is such a big deal, while later in the game you find that well, the video was incorrect! What a dumb video! Aside from its quality and graphic prestige, it simply lies to you and makes everyone in the game (some characters story’s deal with Heihachi) look like complete idiots! The videos in Tekken 5 are really well done and the effort placed into them is clearly evident, kudos Namco! The game has one amazing flaw which everyone else knows about as well. There is no online support for Tekken 5! This is a tremendous disappointment for all fans of the series. Namco claimed that with the sheer amount of modes and goodies that they have packed into the game that the online function will not be such a loss. Personally, I would rather have seen an online mode rather then the totally boring, ugly and pointless “devil within” mode! In fact it is due to the new functions (customization of clothing [each person would have different preferences] and the arcade mode even having simulated avatars for your opponents, ex. JinJu (***)124) that the online component is that much more longing. The base ground work for the online function is done, even a simple VS mode would have been fine and it would have helped give Tekken a 9.9, like its Tekken 3 comrade. With a well established base for online play Namco should have put in that extra month or two of design and delivered the game to its fullest potential. Tekken 5, just like every other Tekken game; it is intense fun. The games teen rating complies well, the fighting and some suggestive backgrounds and themes are not plausible for some audiences. Tekken 5 will keep you turning your Playstation on time and time again. The game is very addictive and offers tones of fun on an individual and co-operative basis. The competitive nature of fighting games makes them win-win situations for playing with other people. The gameplay in Tekken 5 is perfect. The digital pad is used for movement while each shape is applied as a punch and kick tool. Combinations of movement keys and strike moves create special abilities that each character uses to establish their superiority. The game is very easy to play and the game manual states other pivot or sprint functions that you may wish to use. Tekken 5 is a pick up and play game. Its design is very simple and novice Tekken gamers can kick some butt due to the simplicity of the controls. The controls are one of the reasons that the Tekken series is such a success. The characters are very responsive to your demands! The graphics of Tekken 5 are superb. The environments look very realistic and are sub-par of the PS2 graphic capabilities. The backgrounds range from glistering waterfalls, burning temples, cathedrals, barren wastelands and polar ice-sheets. The realism and pain given by each kick and punch looks tremendously awesome. When your character gets knocked to the ground, the ground shatters and it makes your attack seem that much more devastating. The environments are very well integrated into the action. The character detail is very well done. Each fighter looks realistic in every single way. Namco has pledged dominance of the PS2 graphic battle by creating Tekken 5 with its tremendous ingenuities in graphic capability and its sleek and perfect running performance. The sound in Tekken 5 is really good. The character’s voice-overs are done very well and are in sync with their facial movements and body correlations. The characters yell, groan and totally deliver a realistic feel for the pain being delivered to your opponent. The in-game music is very good and sometimes urges you on to beat the crap out of your opponent. It is blood pumping and makes you want to win. The game offers many options on sound and if you have a “uber” sound system this game will totally “kick-ass”. Overall the sound is nicely integrated into the game and it is sub-par in its own right. Overall Tekken 5 is an amazingly fun game. It is a must buy for any fighting fan and it is a sure try for newcomers of the Tekken series or fighting games in general. Tekken 5 does offer a lot of game modes and options to suite a variety of gamers. From Iron fist champ to the novice Law user, the game is a solid experience. The most important part of Tekken 5 is its fun-factor. The game is fun to play alone or with another friend. An online function would have been the perfect addition to the game but I guess Namco is saving this for Tekken 6. Tekken 5 is a success and is the best fighting game for the PS2, just like Tekken 3 was the best fighter for the original PS.
Tekken 5 is the latest in the Tekken fighting game series. The graphics, gameplay and customizable outfits make it a game well worth buying! I really enjoy fighting games and have played most that have been rele... Read Full Review
Tekken 5's main asset is its fast, smooth fighting engine. The action moves at a lightning fast-pace, with many rounds decided inside of 30 often heart-racing seconds. The system is fairly deep, attack reversals, chicken... Read Full Review
