Review

Since the birth of the PlayStation, we’ve had Tekken. Namco’s fighting series had gone from strength to strength with massive improvements in each of the PSone instalments. With the arrival of PS2, things went a bit wrong: Tekken Tag was more of a Tekken 3.5 than a proper sequel and Tekken 4 added many innovations like uneven surfaces and enclosed arenas but lost something.

Tekken 5 tries to redress the balance by going back to basics. Removing everything that didn’t feel right and concentrating on the one area where Tekken used to be the master: the fighting and the graphics. The controls remain as intuitive as ever so newcomers will settle right in whereas there are plenty of new attack combos for veterans to master, and in the graphics department only Soul Calibur II can top it.

As ever there are new fighters too. Raven is a hired government assassin with more than a passing resemblance to Wesley Snipes. His moves are complex to master but incredibly rewarding with a number of very powerful attacks. Asuka is Jin’s cousin and a seemingly innocent looking schoolgirl but she should definitely not be underestimated. Both these are welcome additions to the finest roster in beat’em-up gaming.

Then there are the extras: no entry into this series would be complete without some sort of mini game, but Tekken 5 goes that bit further with Devil Within. This probably started out as a spin-off title like Death By Degrees as it features Jin Kazama in his own storyline. Truth be told it wouldn’t work as a stand alone game but it’s a great addition to the package. The ability to personalise the clothing of the fighters is interesting but ultimately serves no real use. To round things off however, there’s inclusion of arcade perfect conversions of the first three chapters in the saga.

If there’s one thing that stops Tekken 5 from being the champ, however, it’s Jinpachi – the game’s final boss. Difficult to the point where things stop being fun, beating this opponent on the Easy setting proves to be insanely unfair, many times I have feared for the health of my joypad. Every time you seem to have the upper hand he’ll take a step back and unleash an unblockable fireball attack that will sap half of you energy bar. You may think that this is just me being rubbish but let me assure you that I’m more than capable of beating all-comers on Hard!

It’s a shame that this drags down the whole package, but it doesn’t stop Tekken 5 from being arguably the best in the series – it’s certainly the best entry on PS2. SoulCalibur II is still the best fighting game around but Tekken 5 gives it a good run for it’s money.

About the Review

Platform

Sony Playstation 2

Developer

Namco

Publisher

Namco

Released

24th June 2005