| Tekken 5 review |
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Sony staple Tekken has always found itself in a battle offscreen as well as on. But instead of trading kicks and punches, Namco’s development team have been locked in a heated battle of creative wits with Sega and Team Ninja, creators of the Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive series.
This equivalent of a “My dad’s harder than your dad” slanging match was particularly prevalent during the release of Tekken 4, seen by many critics and players alike as the 'glass jaw' of the gaming series; a game that failed to deliver the goods compared to its brethren. So it was with bated breath that fans of Namco’s brawler waited for this fifth incarnation in the series, hoping for a return to form. When the arcade title was released, fans and critics found that they were not left wanting. The only thing that remained was to pray that the game received a decent conversion to Sony’s PlayStation 2 and those holding their breath in anticipation can now breathe a heavy sigh of relief. The console’s home port does not disappoint either.
Lets get the aesthetics out of the way first – put simply Tekken 5 is an eye-blistering game. Huge, gloriously detailed characters fill the screen, standing tall against backgrounds that are equally as detailed. In fact some are so beautiful it’s often easy to get distracted by the sights at hand. Moonlit fields, cultivated gardens, gritty rain-soaked urban streets and sun-kissed rooftops are all a joy to behold. There's something totally captivating and inspiring about squaring off against your opponents in these wondrous settings. As if the title wasn’t handsome enough using the game's 'Soft' display mode, support for Progressive Scan is also included, ramping things up a notch and making everything look even more vibrant and impressive.
While some of the levels feel a bit on the weak side, for example the Arctic stage (with its pop-up penguins and seals that jarringly fade in and out of existence) and the Space Station (while being visually impressive feels quite flat), overall the poorer ones are totally eclipsed by the sheer beauty of their betters, leaving the player glad of the more bland environments so that they can get on with the pummelling and not having to worry about what’s going on around them.
Levels also have a certain degree of interactivity, so expect to see walls, pillars and ornaments crack and splinter with the force of impacts, and the floor shatter as characters collide with it. The interaction does feel a little restricted when compared to something like the Dead or Alive series, and players will often feel the overwhelming desire to boot their opponent through a wall and into the area below, if only to see what wondrous location lies beyond the confines of the ring. Sadly this isn’t possible and Tekken seems to take pride in its single arena combat and confines. After all there is always the actual Dead or Alive series for that sort of thing.
Consistently throughout the series players have been offered a large number of characters to master, number five certainly being no exception with an initial 20 combatants to choose from. Returning favourites such as Paul Phoenix, King and Nina Williams are joined by new characters like the ninja master Raven, and mad murderous martial artist Feng Wei. Longtime fans will find themselves at home, whether they decide to play as a 'pipe and slippers' character that they know or branch out to the garden shed with one of the new entrants. Newcomers will find themselves dazzled by the choice of characters available and it may take them a little time before they find a character with a fighting style that they are comfortable with. The character roster is increased even further as new characters are unlocked (with around 33 fighters available in total) meaning there is plenty of incentive to continue playing and unlocking all of them can take some time.
Tekken 5 feels like a U-turn from its numerical predecessor, tweaking the ideas that Namco attempted to introduce back then (uneven floors anyone ?). Neither critic nor fan will be able to deny that the snappy, over-the-top fighting system has been fully restored to its former glory. Even experienced fighters are prone to bouts of frustration when up against button-mashing opposition, but the game does an excellent job of reducing the unskilled, button-hammering aspect. While still possible with certain characters, those with club fingers and thumbs will more often than not find themselves on the receiving end of the frustration stick more as their ham-fisted attempts leave them vulnerable to counterattack. Tekken 5 is a title that almost demands control and some semblance of skill, its mechanics commanding that the player pay attention to the plethora of moves on offer for each fighter. And with anything from 60 –100 moves per character, mastering just one of them to any great degree will take time and practice. Thankfully the oft-overlooked in-game moves list will come in handy for those wishing to expand their repertoire.
A testament to the strength of these finely tuned mechanics is that alongside this deeply involving fighting system is one which also happily caters for less-experienced players. Even those new to fighting games will find themselves able to pull off blocks and more advanced skills such as counters and juggles. By showing the player the door and allowing them to kick it wide, the benefits of this are immediately obvious - fights feel all the more rewarding and satisfying, encouraging players to be more skilful in their actions and enthusing them on to bigger and better things.
The only painful exception to this is the inclusion of a final boss character who is guaranteed to have players (at the very least) grinding their teeth in frustration. Armed with powerful and virtually unavoidable fire blasts/paralysing attacks, his exploits feel cheap and decidedly underhand compared to the rest of the title. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with being challenging, there are easier ways to go about it than making one unavoidable character so totally unbalanced. However as any Sensei will tell you, a journey is meaningless if you are not required to overcome adversity, and with time (and plenty of patience) players will develop their own special way of swatting this difficulty blip as quickly as possible.
As if the fighting system and characters aren’t enough to keep players interested, the game also features a host of enticingly different play modes. Story mode is Namco’s attempt to flesh out the narrative of each character, feeling sufficiently tongue-in-cheek in parts and even revelling in its own silliness. Arcade mode is the standard Coin Op game given a twist to ensure it isn’t readily overlooked. Progressing through a number of fights, players are given the option to choose their next fight from a number of differently rated Dans. Defeating opponents increases their grading and also earns cash that can be used to customise characters (a feature which feels like a swipe at Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball). Each character has two costumes to start with, but additional costumes and customisations can be purchased. Don’t like Paul Phoenix’s bonkers hairstyle? Why not give him a ponytail. Think he’s got too many eyes? Give him a Jolly Roger eye-patch. Customisation options range from simple changes in costume colour, to daft additions like frying pans or tiaras, meaning players will be able to mould the appearance of their favourite fighters to their liking (and even make the ones they detest look totally ridiculous as the ultimate humiliation). While not essential, the feature is a pleasant-enough, welcome addition even if it does feel a bit limited by the set number of items for each character and seems to place too much emphasis on the jokey additions rather than the serious bad-ass-looking upgrades.
Other modes include the now-standard Practice, Survival and Team Battle (but sadly still no return of Tekken Ball), as well as the addition of Devil Within. This 3D scrolling fighter plays like a scaled-down version of Nina Williams' solo outing Death by Degrees, but is certainly more appealing than Tekken 4’s Tekken Force. Taking the role of Jin Kazama the player has to fight their way through the multiple creations of the Mushima Zaibatsu Corporation in a bid to find out more about Jin’s past. This addition, while not really offering anything new, does make for an interesting distraction - just don’t expect Tekken May Cry and you’ll find that it's an easy way to waste some time when the one-on-one battles become a bit too much.
Additionally the game disc also contains the full arcade versions of Tekken numbers One through Three, meaning players can have a nostalgic trip down memory lane and a good chuckle about how awful the previous games look now when compared to the latest incarnation. While none of these or Devil Within are necessarily outstanding inclusions, taken as part of the overall package they all add to the playability and feeling of care and attention this title has been given.
In fact the only mode notable by its absence is online play and it’s a shame Tekken 5 didn’t take the opportunity to introduce an online function for players to battle across the Internet. However this is only a minor gripe, given that the lack of a decent online infrastructure for the PS2 and the associated development time of introducing network play would have most certainly detracted from lavishing attention on other parts of the conversion. There’s always the upcoming Tekken 6 for Namco to tackle the online bull by the horns.
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System: Sony PlayStation 2
Genre: Fighter
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Players: 1-2
Version: Japan
Reviewed: Jul 2005
Writer: Jamie Davies
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Pros:
+ Looks really great
+ Excellent combat system
+ A large selection of game modes and characters
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Cons:
- The final boss character..... grrrrrrrrr
- Still no online support
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Tekken 5 Video: 16.9MB
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