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

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Assuming the role of Jin Kazama, players engage in a 3rd person view, beat-em up styled game as they guide Jin through the Mishima Zaibatsu headquarters, which he infiltrates in hopes of uncovering the mysteries of his past and the Mishima curse. As he works his way through countless maze-like corridors he'll have to fight through swarms of enemy robots that literally appear out of thin air. As players fight their way through the enemy compounds they'll eventually battle against end level bosses. Unfortunately some annoying camera angles, Jin's very limited moveset, broken platforming mechanics, and overly simplistic gameplay hampers what could have otherwise been a pretty decent spin-off.

Along with the Devil Within mode, fans will be utterly pleased with the inclusion of an Arcade history mode that's accessible from the get go and contains full fledged arcade versions of Tekken 1 - 3, all of which appear to be identical to their originals. This is definitely an awesome treat for fans of the series as they get to replay the classic Tekkens, without having to dig through their closet for their old PSone discs. Fans of the series will no doubt be in their glory reliving the magic of Tekkens past, with an addition that companies like Sega should definitely take note of when adding features to forthcoming next-gen versions of Virtua Fighter.

Graphically, this is a bit of a stunner. Featuring a completely rebuilt graphics engine, Tekken 5 looks just as good as it plays. The visuals have received the Midas touch, featuring sleek and stylish character designs sporting smooth flowing motion-captured animations, showcasing high impact, flashy moves.

The backgrounds are beautifully designed, consisting of detailed and active environments complete with lush textures, very nice lighting effects, as well as particle effects that help enhance the overall visual presentation. The leap in quality of the visuals from 4 to 5 is just astounding. While Tekken 4's backgrounds were pretty uninspired, Tekken 5 throws the fighters into a variety of interesting fight settings.

Some of the cool sights include battling within the grounds of a temple set ablaze, with the fiery backgrounds showcasing the PS2's ability to produce some nice fire effects, a beautifully moonlit dandelion field showcasing some soft focus camera effects, an arctic setting with lots of animated penguins moving about in the background, a flower garden of sorts, and even the interior of a giant Space station. You can see how great it all looks in our hot videos below.

What's even cooler is the interactive environments; fighters get slammed to the ground or knocked into certain background objects to produce damage effects (although not to the extent of Dead or Alive's multi-tier madness). And while no other currently available fighter can truly match up to DOA Ultimate's visual prowess, Tekken 5 stands firm and shows there are still a few untapped registers left in PS2 hardware.

All of this beauty does come at a price however, as the game slows to a crawl in some spots. OK, I'm just kidding around folks - Tekken 5 runs as smooth as silk and the load times are blazingly fast; at times you can forget you're playing a disc-based game.

Another noteworthy aspect of Tekken 5 is the high quality sound presentation. Tekken 5 sports a memorable soundtrack that's quite diverse, utilizing a variety of musical styles that fit the action quite well. From an ethnic styled track with hard hitting beats to some techno, industrial, and the incredibly catchy orchestrated passage played during battle in the moonlit dandelion field, Tekken 5 is well-represented in the music department, and we'd expect no less from Namco's superb sound team.

The sound effects are also quite good with thick, bassy sounds making for some devastatingly impactful sounding moves, and there's a nice variety of speech in the pre-fight and post-fight sequences as well, with characters speaking in their native tongue complete with subtitles.

Tekken 5 is an amazing fighter and easily the best in the series. The fighting roster is impressive and many can be unlocked through story mode - and for the most part, they're well-balanced and fun to play with. There are lots of moves and combos for players to learn, and unlike button-masher titles, the AI opponents put up a decent enough fight even on the game's lowest difficulty setting.

On top of a very solid fighting engine with ample amounts of depth you've got ultra cool visuals that showcase more of the PS2's potential, with progressive scan and widescreen (16:9) support available. Superb audio presentation with some kick-ass musical tracks, coupled with a bevy of added features such as a movie gallery mode, the Devil Within side story, full arcade versions of Tekken 1-3, and a playable level from StarBlade, all make Tekken 5 one of the best, most feature-rich releases of 2005 so far.

Graphics Sound Gameplay Depth Presentation OVERALL 9.2 9.0 8.9 9.6 8.9 9.2

THE VERDICT: For Tekken fans, getting Tekken 5 is of course a no-brainer. For those that aren't traditionally fans of the series, Tekken 5 is Tekken at the top of its game, and after the relatively disappointing fourth instalment, is just what the doctor ordered. Even if you're not a fan, do yourselves a favour and give this a try - it's really that good.

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