King of fighters? About right.
Tekken 5 takes the series back to it's roots. A bare bones, raw fighting game closely resembling Tekken 3 on the playstation 1. Gone are the levels and position changing moves of Tekken 4. Instead Namco delievered what the fans wanted. A Quality, polished and innovative fighting game.
Graphics- As far as graphics go on the Playstation 2, Tekken 5 provides one of the best, if not the best graphical presentation to date. The scenery is crisp with detail and atmosphere. The characer models and animations looks like something from the generation of consoles after it.
Gameplay- The beating heart of all Tekken games is it's responsive controls and gameplay. I split the game into two sections. The story mode, where the player chooses one character and plays through 8 fights including a final boss fight (which, incidently may be one of the hardest boss battles to date). This opens up new characters but will only give the player a mere 10 hours of game time. Where Tekken 5 really shines is its other game types. Arcade mode allows the player to fight endless fights, earn money and level up characters. The levelling system is pointless but is a nice incentive to work for. However it changes nothing of the core game play and simply makes the enemies more skilled the higher your rank. Time trial, survival and versus also make an appearance as well as some variations on these game types. The controls in all these game modes are always responsive, involving and most of all. Fun.
Two big additions to the game are the 'Devil Within' side story, which is similar to Tekken force of the previous game. But explains some of Jin's story and the origin of his demon powers. The other is arcade history. This allows you to play the first 3 tekken game's arcade mode. In other games that allow you to play previous games in the series, you generally don't spend alot of time playing them, instead just have a 5 minute go, smile at the idea. Then get on with the main game. However Namco did a good job including these games, while tekken 1 and 2 feel clunky and dated, Tekken 3 is still fun to play with a friend or alone
Sound- The soundtrack is quality as always. The fast paced beats match the action perfectly and is a great accompanyment. Kudos to Namco for taking the time with the soundtrack, instead of leaving it out or doing a half-assed job like many other developers.
The bottom line is this, Tekken 5 may just be the best fighting game ever made. It's exceeds is predecessors by far and provides the most involving and fun game yet in the long running series. Street Fighter IV has a lot to live up to if it wishes to reclaim it's title as the king of fighting games.