Tekken 5

Three years after Namco's failed attempt to take the long-standing series in a new direction, Tekken returns to the PlayStation 2 for a fifth iteration. Would it indeed "propel the gamers of all ages to the next level in the fighting genre" as Hideo Yanagihara, director of Namco Ltd, boldly claimed back in November 2004? Well, not quite. Indeed, Tekken 5's staying true to the winning formula of the first three games and even improving it here and there, as if the fourth game never happened, marks an amazing comeback for the flagging series, but it does not really bring anything new to the crowded fighting genre. That doesn't in any way stop it from being an excellent fighting game however, one of the best the aging console has to offer.

Story
The game's main single-player offering is the story mode in which, just like the old arcade modes, you have to fight a number of matches escalating in difficulty in order to find out each fighter's story and motivations, and which inevitably become a chore after doing it for all available fighters. You are treated with a pretty CG movie at the end of each, and that's pretty much how far the storytelling aspect in Tekken extends.

Gameplay
Where Tekken 5 truly shines however is the fast, smooth fighting engine. The action is lightning-fast and very intense, the outcome of battles most often decided in thirty heart-racing seconds, and the fighting system is complex and well-thought, with an impressive number of attacks, attack reversals, parries, evasive manoeuvres and grapples, all of which can be combined for some truly satisfying combo possibilities. Each fighter has its own clearly identifiable fighting style that is felt even in the most basic of attacks, and all have their share of spectacular moves they can unleash upon their adversaries at a moment's notice.

In the fighting genre a good tutorial is always welcome if you don't want to dedicate your life to such a game, but unfortunately Tekken 5's practice mode doesn't do a terribly good job here. What you get to see are the raw commands for your characters' hundreds of moves and combos, with no easy way to see the commands on screen while you perform them. You are forced to constantly flip back and forth between looking at the moves and trying them out, which is really annoying.

The character roster offers thirty popular fighters from throughout the serie's history, some of whom you have to unlock by completing the story missions. Returning characters such as Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix and Hwoarang join more recent names like Steve Fox, Craig Marduk and Christie Monteiro, as well as three brand new combatants: Asuka Kazama, Feng Wei and Raven. Asuka is a schoolgirl, Jin's cousin and master of the Kazama fighting style, Fen is an evil kenpo master, and Raven is an intelligence agent with an uncanny resemblance to Wesley Snipes' Simon Phoenix character from the Blade movies, whose ninjitsu fighting style made him quickly become one of my favorites. Each of the old combatants have a wealth of new moves and animations, becoming even more individualized than they were in the past, and the game is considerably more balanced than before.

Tekken 5 offers many of the same character-customization options found in Virtua Fighter 4, primarily made up of a wide selection of customizable clothing. You can alter most charactes in this fashion, using the currency you earn as you keep playing, the changes ranging from simple color tweaks to the characters' outfits to all sorts of accessories, such as sunglasses or jewelry, even eyepatches for some of them. There aren't as many items as in Virtua Fighter, but it's a great start.

The arcade mode, following a standard set by the same Virtua Fighter a few yeas back, offers players the ability to play ranked CPU opponents in a simulated arcade experience. You can set up and name your personal profile to keep track of how good you really are, and you can advance your own rank by winning consistently. Victory also brings cash prizes that you can spend on the bonus goodies I mentioned above, the amount of money you earn dependent on the rank of your opponents. This is nice and all, the problem however is that only one player per memory card can enter a name and track his or her rank, which does not make it exactly user-friendly.

There's also a bonus action mini-game called The Devil Within, in which players assume the role of Jin Kazama as he infiltrates the G Corporation in order to find out more about his devil gene; however besides a ton of beat-'em-up action, a tiny bit of platforming and elementary puzzle-solving, as well as the occasional boss battle there isn't much to it. The control scheme is completely different from the regular Tekken fighting modes and may take a bit of getting used to, and it suffers from acute lack of variety, but considering the fact that it's all bonus stuff and not part of the primary experience it's really not that big a deal.

The best bonus feature however is Namco's having included complete arcade-perfect emulations of the first three Tekken games with Tekken 5, in a compilation called Arcade History Mode accesible at any time from the options menu. These serve as an excellent reminder of how far the series has come over the years, and it's amazing how playable they are after all this time; the second and third one at least.

Graphics
Visually, Tekken 5 is one of the best looking PlayStation 2 games around, the battles as beautiful to behold as they are intense, mostly due to the game's excellent animations. The characters move extremely fluidly, the motion captured animations top notch and as diverse as the characters themselves, and are meticulosly detailed and lifelike, as opposed to the plastic-looking characters found in Tekken 4. Many of the diverse richly detailed environments in which the battles take place showcase some beautiful art direction, be it a burning temple, an underground treasure cave or an enchanting moonlit field, and all of them are alive with background activity. Tekken 5 opens with a superb CG movie in classic Namco style, and there a some equally impressive cutscenes throughout the story mode to feast your eyes on.

Sound
The music of the previous titles was never particularly memorable, however Tekken 5's soundtrack is much more varied and meshes with each individual background in the game quite well. As with most of the extras it is available to play in the theater, and some of it is actually worth a listen outside of the game. The sound effects do a decent job to immerse you in the experience and help the violent impacts sound as damaging as they look, and, commendably, the voice acting is solid this time around, with all characters speaking their proper language without ridiculous accents.

Multiplayer
Playing against a human opponent is as addicting as ever, but an online feature wouldn't have hurt at all; maybe in Tekken 6.

Conclusion
Tekken has been one of the reasons to own a PlayStation for nearly a decade, and with the fifth installment, despite its not terribly well received immediate predecessor and having some stiff competition, it is back in shape and looking better than ever. Tekken 5 offers everything you could want from a Tekken game and is without a shadow of doubt the best in the series, as well as one of the best experiences the fighting genre has to offer.


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