Developer - Namco Publisher - Namco Release dates - PlayStation 2 - US: 24/02/2005 - JP 31/03/2005 - EU 24/06/2005 Genre - Beat 'em Up Ratings - PEGI: 12+ What would happen if Heihachi died? What would happen if the director of the Mishima Zaibatsu Corporation died? This is where Tekken 5 is aimed at. The "new" Tekken title is another great addition to the series, which could only enrich the PS2 game library. If you please, my friends, read along. The Tekken 5 presentation cut scene starts. From the beginning, the stunning effort put into the graphics is noticeable, as everything is presented with an enriched detail. This cut scene presents the main storyline of the game. However, I will also tell the previous title's story, so you can understand. One of the many scenarios in Tekken 5, and one of my favourite In Tekken 4, Heihachi got some blood and tissue from Ogre to splice with his genome, making him immortal. As he hadn't the Devil Gene, the experiment fails. However, knowing that his grandson, Jin Kazama, had one, he searched for him, also learning that his son Kazuya (also possessing the Devil Gene, but he died 21 years ago) was stored inside the labs of the Mishima Zaibatsu's rival, G Corporation. However, when he sent his Tekken Forces to retrieve what was left of Kazuya, the Force was destroyed by Kazuya himself, who had been revived by the G Corporation and was stronger than ever before. Then, in an attempt to draw Jin and Kazuya to a fight, Heihachi launches the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4. When the battle commences, Jin is ambushed and caught by the Tekken Forces, and Kazuya is declared winner of the battle. He then meets his father, Heihachi, and Heihachi wins. But instead of killing Kazuya , Heihachi takes him to where Jin is, Hon-Maru. A kick in the ass! In Hon-Maru, Devil gained control of Kazuya's body and knocks Heihachi out, trying to steal Jin's Devil Gene. Then, Jun's blood (Jin Kazama's mother) stops him, and Kazuya regains control, but still wishing to kill Jin and steal his Devil power. Then, Jin wakes up, battles and defeats Kazuya. Then, Heihachi stands up and battles the tired Jin, but Jin still defeats him. When delivering the final blow, Jun appeared before him, and Jin decided to let him live. Then, he becomes the Devil Jin, and flies away. Humph... You know Jin wins, right? RIGHT? In this new Tekken 5 cut scene, Kazuya and Heihachi are in Hon-Maru. Several helicopters draw near, and with their noise, Heihachi and Kazuya wake up. All of a sudden, the helicopters launch enormous steel balls, which happen to be Jacks. For a mere minute, Kazuya and Heihachi battle as father and son should, but then, Kazuya, feeling they were at disadvantage, grabs Heihachi and throws him right into the middle of all the Jacks. Knocked down and surrounded, Heihachi is covered by an insane amount of Jacks, which start a bomb countdown. While this happens, Kazuya turns into Devil and flies away, leaving Heihachi to die alone. An immense explosion occurs, and Heihachi is projected miles and miles away into a forest, staying in the verge of death. Then, an unknown entity launches the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, and a new Tekken begins. This new Tekken features a good variety of different fighting modes. Starting with the Story mode: in this mode, you fight through each character's story. Each involve the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 (from now on, I'll just call it KIFT5), and each character has a different purpose in winning. From the pure wish of testing his techniques to avenging his past, the stories in this new Tekken are many. Each story consists of 9 rounds: the first three are mere random battles, then the fourth usually includes a crucial character to that same storyline. Then another two more random battles, then another storyline crucial character (if there is another one). The eight round often consists of a battle with Devil Jin, and the last battle is against Jinpachi Mishima, who also has a Devil Gene and transforms himself as you battle him. In his last form, he gains an additional mouth in his abdomen and has spikes all over him. You're getting owned by a girl, Yoshimitsu! Some of the other modes in Tekken 5 are the Time Battle mode, in which you battle the same 9 rounds you battle in Story mode (with the same order), but you also battle against time to set records; you also have Arcade Battle mode, and this is one of my favourites. In this mode, you choose a character,and you battle with them through an unending row of enemies to rise your rank with that same character. You start as a beginner, but as you progress you'll reach the ninth kyu, eight kyu, etc., (these should sound familiar to karate, etc. fighters) and, if you're addicted enough, you'll reach other ranks, like 1st-5th Dan, Shihan, Expert, Master, etc., and you might even reach the highest rank in the game, Tekken Lord (what else?). The eternal rivals Hwoarang and Jin, and once again, Jin's going to win You also have the always present Vs. and Team Battle modes, to test your abilities with other friends; the Survival mode, in which you battle and defeat as many enemies you can to set new records; a Practice mode, to... practice; and my favourite one, Tekken: Devil Within. This game mode is a 3D game experience, like Tekken force in the previous title, in which you control Jin Kazama on his quest to learn more about his past. Basically, this mode is divided into stages, each stage with a boss. After beating each boss, a small cut scene appears and you get to know a bit more about Jin's past. Also, it works as one of the two ways of unlocking Devil Jin (the other involves hundreds of battles, and whatnot), it gives you an irresistible cash bonus (1 Million... Gold, I believe) and also let's you unlock many pieces of clothing you can use to later equip your characters with, as well as some more stages to fight in other modes, and a small space shooter game made by Namco quite a while ago. It's Starblade, it's the same thing as what you play before Tekken 5's intro cut scene, but longer now. Yet another great scenario, I call it the Fighting Pit Besides these, you have some other extras, like the Theater, where you can see the Prologues and Epilogues you unlocked for each character, as well as see some other Tekken extra films (like some intros and Tekken 5 trailers used in previous events) and also listen to the background music present in the game. And you also have the Customize menu. As the name says, here you can customize your characters, by buying them new costumes or parts with the money you got from Battles. You can buy almost anything: pendants, gloves, hats, even horns. You can also give them a colour you want, and you can also buy them a predetermined special costume. Some costumes include hidden characters, so be on the lookout. The Devil Within mode One of the things Tekken always has had is a big character roster. And this Tekken is no exception. It features twenty basic characters (by basic I mean they're available since the beginning, you don't need to unlock them) plus twelve unlockable characters. It also features a non-playable character, Jinpachi. Being no exception, this tile also features a bunch of new characters: Asuka Kazama, Jin Kazama's cousin, she masters the Kazama style Self Defence discipline, the same fighting style used by Jun and Jin Kazama (although the last one blended karate to his fight). Another new character is Feng Wei, a ruthless Chinese Kenpo master, who killed his own master during a battle. Another new character is Raven (that's his codename). He's a Ninjutsu master, and little is said about him in the game. He's one of the most skilled Ninjutsu fighters and has an iron heart. Not much is known about him besides his X scar on his face. Another new character is Jack-5, the successor of Jack-4, he's a robot created by the physicist Jane. His only purpose of the KIFT5 his field testing, to see where can Jack-5 get to. The last two new characters are Roger Jr., the son of a military kangaroo, Roger; and the legendary Devil Jin. Devil Jin is a mutated Jin. He is possessed by the Devil Gene, like his father, and has a pair of horns and wings, as well as a third eye to shoot energy beams. I want to know why do they turn to feathers when you kill them with the beam...?! Everything fells good in Tekken 5, but when it comes to the graphics, you can only say "WOOOOOOOW!!1!11". The stunning effort made for this game paid out, and they're widely proclaimed as the best graphics engine out there on the PS2. Even on a regular conventional screen (like mine), they just look great. The scenarios are a big part of it. Dozens of them make your Tekken 5 experience even better: you can go for a trip to Antarctica if you fell like it, or maybe to a cove filled with stolen gold that a bunch of pirates robbed. Or you can go to the most desolated place that the Final Stage is, or a holy Cathedral. It's your choice (and you have less than 30 seconds to make it). As well as backgrounds, characters are fantastically detailed. Jin's black belt, Christie's bra, Yoshimitsu's robotic body or King's fur mask, you can see the elaborated textures in their costumes and bodies. In the 3D experience, they are also very good, although repetitive. You'll be fighting Jacks all the time. But the great scenarios (yes, here too) counterbalance the lack of enemies. Ooh, girl fight! Generalizations often aren't correct. But for Beat 'em up games, they are. At least when it comes to sound. Horrible voice overs, with a not much better soundtrack, and annoying sound effects. But once again, generalizations aren't correct, my friends. In Tekken 5, the voice overs are much better than what you're used to see in fighting games (excluding the narrator in the prologues), and the soundtrack is astounding, there's a great selection of themes. Sound effects are not too bad, although you'll be hearing pretty much the same *hit* *hit* *hit* sounds. The voice acting is not very bad when it comes to the characters, but the narrator in the prologues is indeed bad. Also, it is intriguing how Brazilian characters (Eddie and Christie) only speak English and how Chinese fighters (Ling Xiaoyu) speak Japanese, instead of their native language. Who said kangaroos and old men couldn't fight? But what is a fighting game without an addicting gameplay? After the immense success that Tekken 3 was, and after the even more immense thwart that Tekken 4 was, Namco found out what let the players down with Tekken 4: the gameplay system. Tekken 3 had a fast paced fighting gameplay, using the 8 way run system (in which you can, obviously, move in eight directions), using less jumps and investing more in juggles, throws, quick recoveries from ground knocking moves and more escapes from attacks. In Tekken 5, Namco fused almost everything featured in Tekken 3, excluding the 8 way run system. This resulted in another great hit, in an easy to learn but hard to master battle system, in which even button smashers can make their way out of KIFT5. In Devil Within, the gameplay is much more restricted: you can run in all directions, but attacking has been restricted to 2 buttons (Square for punches and the X for kicks), using the Triangle for blocking and Circle for jumping. Apart from this, you can change to Devil form and perform a different array of punches and kicks by using the L1 button. But enough of gameplay, it's the trump of the game, and I'll let you make your own judgement (there's much more behind gameplay than this paragraph). I think I know where they got Christie Presentation: 9/10 - Loading and saving have gone back to Tekken 3 times (= almost instant). The presentation video in the beginning gives you a feel of the game; all the menus are simple, and everything belongs where it must. Graphics: 10/10 - As they say, widely acclaimed as the best out there on the PS2. I couldn't agree more. Sound: 8/10 - Beat 'em up games don't usually have a sound system as good as this one. However, the lack of voices in Devil Within, the nasty voice acting in the prologues and the switched languages are somewhat disillusioning. Gameplay: 10/10 - Back to the roots of success, Tekken 5 has a fast paced and fluid gameplay. Just as good as it can get. Lasting Appeal: 10/10 - 32 characters + near infinite Arcade mode + Devil Within + older Tekkens + many other modes + seemingly unending customization = hundreds of hours of fun. Only thing missing is the online, but you won't really miss it, as there's enough to compensate it. TOTAL SCORE: 47/50 - Is this on your PS2 shelf? No? Then what are you doing reading this? Go get it!
That was an exceptional review my Tekken oriented friend. I don't know why I havent got this yet. I was just sitting in comp sci class, so I decided to check RomU, and lo and behold, another great review from jin was posted
Thanks, dmac. Oh, yes, I'm Tekken addict, I got the 5th a month after it was released, and I'm still playing it with the same spirit I played it before.
Awesome review. I have this game on my shelf though thanks hehehe and yes it is great! Best Tekken yet IMO, although Tekken 3 is close.
really good game, and if you dont have it...there is something wrong with you only prob I have with the game is the devil within mode...just...bored me (but I liked mortal kombat's konquest mode...weird) I never beat it lol BUT tekken 5 in general is AWESOME
