TEKKEN 5 REVIEW SERIES
Sounds like a very logical concept, but it was not always present in the Tekken series and has in fact been absent in many fighting games. Basically, if I am jumping and kicking at you while you crouch low and sweep, chances are that we are either going to completely miss each other or I am going to hit you without being hit. This huge boost in variety should help to ease the malaise for those of us who got tired with what felt like a minimal cast in Tekken 4.Īnother very important change to the system comes in the form of the "crush" system, which includes two varieties, the "High Crush" and the "Low Crush." The overall concept is relatively simple and has been present in other fighting games before. Namco saw fit to bring back a whole slew of favorites from the Tekken franchise, and each has been almost entirely redesigned with new sets of moves, animations and appearances. Just in case you didn't do the math in your head, that means that there are eight more character in this installment, not counting the three new combatants. The roster has grown from 18 characters in Tekken 4 to 29 characters in Tekken 5. Of course, it also doesn't hurt that these new characters are just plain cool. In my opinion, new characters often add more to a game than anything else, as they provide a whole new learning curve that is much steeper than minor system changes and tweaks. The new blood is composed of a Korean Kenpo practitioner who killed his master a Blade-esque black ninja named Raven who bears an uncanny resemblance to Wesley Snipes and Asuka, a somewhat new character who is basically Jun from Tekken Tag and Tekken 2 with a new look and a couple of new moves. The most noticeable change would be the three (mostly) brand new characters. Naturally, not many people would want a game where the primary feature was exactly the same as an earlier game with the same name, so there are a plethora of additional intricacies and dynamics. The change back to the higher-paced, more involved feel that was present in Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag has revitalized the series. The gameplay has changed drastically from Tekken 4's very deliberate jab-fest in which 90% of the fight consisted of poking at each other. Being an evil, pissed-off demonic martial artist, the mysterious entity decided that the best way to get revenge and destroy all of "existence" was through a fighting tournament (pass the tequila) … A mysterious entity has been buried beneath the building which was blown up, and was luckily freed by the explosion. Tekken 5 follows shortly after Tekken 4, which ended with a large number of explosive robots barging in to blow up Heihachi. The upside is that this messy ball of twine we call the plot is quite entertaining and interesting, even to those of us who generally could care less. It is a big confusing – and often convoluted – mess of intertwining plot twists and occasionally contradicting instances. The Tekken storyline is somewhat akin to what you would get from having a dozen relatively talented writers take turns writing pages of a story while being completely hammered. With much excitement among the arcade community, Tekken 5 has arrived. Tekken 4 was a step in the wrong direction, but Namco is quick to learn from its mistakes and took a step back towards combo-heavy game design and faster-paced action. Tekken 3 broke into the arcade as a force to be reckoned with, introducing new maneuvers, interesting characters, creative (if a bit eccentric) storylines, and also spawning Tekken Tag. If you stuck with the series, you would have witnessed its growth to the darling that has captured the attention of so many. The Tekken series has made some amazing strides in its lifetime, growing from an innovative yet clunky and somewhat contrived 2D fighter composed of blocky 3D characters into something that essentially defines a genre.