Tekken 5

After the relative disappointment of Tekken 4, is Namco's decade-old franchise back on top form? Kikizo's verdict awaits. 20 new direct feed PS2 vids included!

	Version PS2	Developer Namco	Publisher Namco	Genre Fighting

Page:1  2  3 

By Joseph Jackson

You know, personally speaking, one of the things that makes Tekken 5 an amazing achievement is that I was never a big fan of the series before now. I've played them all and always lost interest, particularly when other fighters had me hooked a long time ago. But Tekken 5 seemed like it would offer something more ever since last year's E3 trailer, and straight up, I'm gonna argue that Tekken 5 is actually a landmark achievement for the series.

Tekken 5 feels so refined in every way, and with bonuses like a playable level from Namco's classic 3D shooter StarBlade at the game's startup, and the bonus Devil Within side-story action game that's playable from the outset, Tekken 5 is jam-packed with plenty of cool features.

Tekken 5 roughly marks the 10th anniversary of the series. While the original Virtua Fighter pioneered the 3D fighting genre, the original Tekken followed a year later and since that time the series amassed great popularity among hardcore fighting fans and casuals alike. Like the Ridge Racer series however, Tekken pretty much came into its own on PlayStation, as the console's flagship fighting series.

In typical Namco fashion, Tekken 5 doesn't disappoint in the Spectacular CG Department. As you can see in our videos below, the game opens up with some thrilling sequences of Tekken mainstays Kazuya and Heihachi Mishima coming to, after getting knocked for a loop by Jin at the end of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4. Suddenly, aircrafts surrounding Honmaru bombard the place with Trojan cargo of JACKS, as Kazuya and Heihachi are ambushed by the mechanical menaces.

Kazuya and Heihachi form a temporary alliance and valiantly fight off the army of JACKS together. But that alliance is short lived, as Heihachi learns a seemingly fatal lesson from the devilish Kazuya, who betrays him by throwing him into the next oncoming wave of Jacks and makes his escape. Time isn't on Heihachi's side as a JACK enters bomb mode and self-destructs. The legendary tournament continues...

Tekken 5 fixes what Tekken 4 damaged, while attracting a new audience and keeping established fans happy. It's is loads of fun, and very accessible to the average newcomer - a sharp contrast to Tekken 4 which had hardcore fans crying foul at the changes made to the fighting engine. Some of the familiar fighting game elements fans knew and loved from Tekken 3 were no more, replaced by a number of gameplay tweaks and changes. The team has effectively gone back to Tekken 3 and built upon things from there.

Tekken 5 features several modes of play. The story mode serves as the main game mode where all of the fighters do battle and aim to be the next King of the Iron Fist tournament for their own reasons. Personally I'd much rather believe the combatants are fighting in this year's tournament in order to extract revenge on one Nina Williams for her mediocre spin-off action game.

The story mode offers nine levels, including a final frustration-testing boss battle. As you cycle through and play as every one of the characters, they'll cross paths with other fighters whose stories are intertwined. The CPU jacks up the difficulty during these encounters to make things more interesting, and overall there's a lot of motivation to play through story mode because the cool and sometimes humorous CG movie endings.

Page: 1  2  3 

NEXT PAGE >>