Tekken 5

[Reno]

Picked this up last night after some good Chinese food. And so far it does not disappoint.

So far as I can tell, all the characters from Tekken 4 appear again, as well as most of the ones that were cut after Tekken 2 and 3.

There are at least three new characters. I haven't played as Feng, Asuka or Raven yet, though, so I don't know much about them. Asuka, though, looks like she's based on Jun Kazama from Tekken 2, much like Jin in 3 was based on Kazuya Mishima.

And this game also has one of the hardest final bosses I've ever seen in a fighting game. Jinpachi Mishima, Heihachi's father whose corpse has been possessed by some sort of demon apparently, has a few TRULY unfair moves. Like a giant fireball that, for some characters, is almost impossible to dodge and takes more than half your energy in one hit. Or, much more common, an all-purpose move that can knock you out of any move that you're trying to do, or break through your guard, AND stuns you for about 2 seconds, during which he can do whatever he wants.

[Reno]

Well, now I've had some time to form an opinion on the game. It's a nice improvement over Tekken 4 in a lot of ways. The ability to customize character costumes is nice. Building up the money to unlock customizations takes WAY too long, but it's nice to at least have the option. I do wish that you could customize the unlockable costumes, though.

It's also nice to be able to play the arcade versions of Tekken 1, 2, and 3. Except that Tekken 1 and 2 are HARD. And I have Tekken 3 on the PSX anyway, and the home version contains a lot of niceties that the arcade version does not (Gon and Dr. B as characters, Tekken Ball mode, practice, team battle, survival, etc.). So I don't really play those modes much.

Then there's the Devil Within minigame. I HATE THIS. The only reason to go through it is that you get 1,000,000 G the first time you beat it. You also unlock Devil Jin as a playable character and the final stage. But you can get that just by fighting 200 matches, so really it's only the 1,000,000 G that makes it worthwhile. A second playthrough lets you find a lot of expensive (500,000 G) items for free, but I'm still debating whether it's worth the frustration.

The real fun of the game (with one player, anyway) is in Arcade mode. I've sharpened my skills with several old favorites, a few of whom I hadn't been playing lately. Finding some sweet new moves with Xiaoyu, Hwoarang, Nina and Lei, for example. Also, I'm glad to see a lot of characters that I had previously only seen in Tekken Tag, since I had never played Tekken 2. I'm convinced that Bruce is a good character if I can just learn to use him.

All in all, definitely worth the $20 it now costs to buy.

[black heart]

it IS a good game from what i've played, it just seems to be missing...something, and i cant quite put my finger on what though. With all that it has, its kinda hard to imagine it missing something...but it is.

[Reno]

Well, could you name a game that has that something that you feel Tekken is missing?

[black heart]

soul calibur...i guess, and no, its not the almost complete lack of things swordy.

though i do remember that i was depressed when down, farward and some random button didn't do anything with any of the characters i've played, down,farward, random button is the basics that all fighting games are based on!

[Reno]

That's how Yoshimitsu does that thing where he sticks his hand in your face and absorbs energy from you.

Personally, I think they should adopt the 8-way run system from Soul Calibur as I think the 3-dimensional movement is one of Tekken's biggest weaknesses.

Here's a theory of what you might see as missing: in a way, Tekken is less "interactive" than some of the other fighting game series that are out there now. Like Soul Calibur and especially Dead or Alive, though I don't know how much if at all you've played that. What I mean is, with Tekken you're going to win by hitting with your moves and not getting hit by your opponent's. Timing and distance are the keys, and knowing a variety of moves helps for different situations and throwing off your opponent. Countering and blocking are not a big part of the game, compared to those other series I mentioned. In fact, blocking in Tekken isn't very effective at all (especially since I have the guard damage option on). While there are some counter moves in Tekken, they aren't that common and aren't as effective or easy to use as the guard break in Soul Calibur or the counter system that's such a big part of Dead or Alive.

Could it be that, in addition to the down/forward not being a move on a lot of characters?