Tekken 5 is a few years old, I know. Some people may see the title and say "Tekken 5, isn't that five too many?"
The answer is no.
Story:
Believe it or not, there is a story, it just doesn't mean anything or make any sense.
All I can gather is that it is time for the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. Oh and Heihachi is dead, and some stupid magical seal on Jinpachi has been broken, and he is determined to destroy the world. That and, he is hosting the tournament.
Each character has a story mode, and so the story ends a number of different ways, one for each character you can play as, and one for getting your ass kicked by Jinpachi, he destroys the world.
Gameplay: 5
This game is good not only for fans of the series, but for newcomers as well.
The pacing is much faster than previous games, and the combat is as deep as always.
You can have a good time both button mashing and playing with skill. If you've played Tekken before, you understand the button layout, if not: here's a quick run down of the controls (for the PS2 version at least).
The four face buttons each correspond to a strike move, Right Punch, Left Punch, Right Kick and Left Kick.
Pressing two of these buttons at once has three possible outcomes:
A grab move (usually from a punch and a kick)
A power strike
Nothing (game chooses which strike to carry out)
Pressing a direction in conjunction with any strike, grab or power strike can result in a variation of the move (back and kick can be a fast, lower kick) or nothing special.
There are exceptions to the control scheme like Steve Fox (a boxer), who has side-steps mapped to the kick buttons.
The moves also change as the context changes. If you are facing away, you might do some super-fancy turn-around face kick, as opposed to a normal torso kick.
The body is split up into three distinct areas: High, Mid, Low.
If someone does a standing block, you want to hit low. Different blocks are good for different situations, Standing block is good against Mid and High attacks. Crouching block is good against High (a High attack goes right over their head) and Low. A jumping block is good for just about any situation, but has a short duration.
There are plenty of gameplay modes, ranging from story to arcade to a failure of an action game called The Devil Within (You play as Jin Kazama, and the controls are iffy and entirely unlike Tekken)
In story mode you fight a few enemies, the characters mid boss (just a normal fight) a few more fights, Devil Jin, then Jinpachi.
Arcade mode is the best executed of any mode in the game, you pick a character, and fight a match, then pick the next opponent from a list of three. There is a ranking system that keeps you fighting AI at around the same skill as you.
Graphics: 4
Good for a PS2 game, and it could easily pass as a PS3 game. The graphics during gameplay are smooth, with a high framerate and no graphical glitches I can find.
The graphics for the character endings are amazing, they look very lifelike. It is obvious that Namco spared no expense in making these cutscenes.
Sound: 3
The music is passable. It is very generic, and gets on your nerves very quickly, some music is good, but most is sub-par.
That should be enough music.
The voice acting is very cleanly done, all of the characters speak their language (Steve speaks English, with a British accent, Feng speaks Chinese, Heihachi speaks an older dialect of Japanese that is very proper, Kuma (bear) growls and Roger (kangaroo) clicks)
This was a confusing choice, as characters have fully functioning conversations in multiple languages. Sometimes with the animals involved. How can someone speaking English have a clean, logical conversation with a bear?
Replay Value: 5
Each match is different, there are plenty of characters to unlock through story mode, you can improve your rank in arcade mode, and earn money to buy items and alternate costumes for your characters.
Oh and there is a mode called 'Arcade History' that contains arcade perfect ports of Tekken - Tekken 3, with an unlockable game called Starblade, which you can play a part of while the game is loading.
Challenge: 4
The characters are well balanced, for the most part.
All characters can be played either cheaply or with actual skill and clean strategy.
Jinpachi is too hard of a fight, the camera angle is awkward for this one fight, he can stun you, use attacks to drain your health, and fire a massive laser that can take away up to 75% of your health. I almost cried the first time I fought him due to the difficulty.
Altogether a great game, no to fighters are exactly the same (except for ones that only exist as alternate costumes)
The fighting styles are mostly real and range from capoeira to kick boxing, boxing, traditional martial arts. Don't forget Pro-Wrestling.
DO NOT TOUCH DEVIL WITHIN MODE.
It feels like a crappy afterthought to the game, and could have been decent if it was finished.
Linear Mode
