Tekken 5

Tekken 5
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Director(s)	Katsuhiro Harada
Producer(s)	Hajime Nakatani
Composer(s)	See music section
Series	Tekken
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	Arcade JP November, 2004 NA December, 2004 PlayStation 2 NA 20050224February 24, 2005 JP 20050331March 31, 2005 EU 20050624June 24, 2005
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Distribution	DVD
Arcade system	Namco System 256
Display	Raster (Horizontal)

Tekken 5 (鉄拳5) is the fifth main installment in the popular Tekken series. It also marks the tenth anniversary of the series. It was first released for the arcades on 2004 running on the Namco System 256 arcade board and later ported to PlayStation 2 in North America on February 24, 2005, with the Japanese and European releases following on March 31 and June 24, 2005, respectively, which added the Ghost feature. The game removes several major gameplay changes introduced in the previous game, including uneven stage terrain, in favor of a faster gameplay akin to the older games in the series. It is also the first game in the series to feature the ability to customize characters with accessories, clothing, and other aesthetic items purchased with in-game currency. The game was upgraded to Tekken 5.1, which had mostly balance changes to the gameplay, and later Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, which added new characters, features, and customizations in addition to gameplay rebalancing. Tekken 5 was a major critical and commercial success, averaging 89.20% from GameRankings and 88/100 from Metacritic, and has sold 6 million copies as of July 2009.

A sequel, Tekken 6 was released on 2007 in the arcades and later ported to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 2009.

Gameplay

Tekken 5 is credited with taking the series back to its roots. It incorporates a faster, more fluid fighting system, improved graphics, returning characters, and some of the Tekken series' trademark infinite stages. New to Tekken 5 is the crush system which affects the vulnerability of a character while they attack. For example, a move with jumping properties, such as a hopkick, will be completely invulnerable during most of its animation time to all of an opponent's low attacks.

It also retains its wall juggling concept from Tekken 4, but the element is effectively less easy to abuse and easier to defend against. The home version is a collector's edition of sorts, as it includes the arcade versions of Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken 3 and StarBlade (as a hidden game). Tekken 5 also allowed players to customize their fighter for the first time, allowing them to change the colors of their outfits, buy additional costumes (only available to a few characters), and equip them with items by using money gained from playing the Story, Survival, Time Attack, the side-story Devil Within, and Arcade Battle modes.

Tekken 5 includes a beat 'em up minigame in direct lineage to the Tekken Force modes in Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 called Devil Within. This minigame follows the adventures of Jin Kazama as he searches the G Corporation in search for information on his missing mother and other answers. Being somewhat story oriented, the player is not permitted to use their own choice of characters like previous iterations. The game also uses a limited button system, incorporating a Block and Jump button as well as sizing down the attack buttons to simple "Punch" and "Kick" buttons (though, some of Jin's fighting special moves can still be performed such as his Demon's Paw). Along with fighting various Jack models in the mini-game, the player must pursue minor key quests to proceed. This mode is one of the two ways to unlock the playable version of Jin's Devil incarnation, Devil Jin. As opposed to Tekken 4 where every character spoke either Japanese or English, the developers had some of the characters speak their native languages in Tekken 5. Hwoarang and Baek were given Korean voices while Wang and Feng Wei were made to speak Mandarin. Ganryu, Heihachi, Kazuya, Yoshimitsu, Asuka, Jinpachi (non-playable character), Jin Kazama and his alter-ego Devil Jin retained their Japanese voices while Law, Paul, Marduk, Julia, Nina, Anna, Raven, Bruce, Bryan, Christie and Eddy speak English. Lee Chaolan and Ling Xiaoyu speak Japanese despite being ethnic Chinese. Steve Fox has his own British accent and Lei Wulong speaks American English with an occasional accent.

The raised and lowered sections of floors featured in the Tekken 4 levels were removed for the fifth installment. This change made gameplay throughout each stage generally similar, aside from wall placements. In addition to removing the uneven nature of the Tekken 4 styled stages, the design team returned to the style of stages from previous games by having some stages without barriers by allowing them to be infinitely scrolling. For walled stages, the fights take place in fairly symmetrical boxes without any uneven walls (again, removing a feature introduced in Tekken 4). Floors could also crack after one of the characters hit it hard enough. Only one part of a stage can be cracked at a time, however.

Other changes over the Tekken 4 design included the removal of the positional change techniques (throws were once again controlled by combinations of LP+LK or RP+RK instead of designating LP+LK as a position switch maneuver; only Steve Fox was given a position change attack), bringing back traditional air combat (Tekken 4 removed back and vertical leaps in favor of a more fluid 3D combat model) and using a juggle system more akin to Tekken 3 as opposed to the 4th game's less juggle-friendly gameplay. The fighters were also forced to remain stationary prior to the round beginning (Tekken 4 allowed the fighters to move freely before the opening of a round, fitting in with the more position-based gameplay of that game).

The single biggest change is 'Devil Within' mode. This is the fourth installment in the 'Tekken Force' series (the first 2 installments can be found in Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 respectively. The third installment was released as the Tekken spin-off game Death by Degrees). Similar to Death by Degrees, 'Devil Within' focuses solely on one playable character, Jin Kazama. This is a traditional platform game in which players must guide Jin through a series of labyrinth style levels and entire enemy armies. This mode features bosses, such as True Ogre (from Tekken 3), who is not playable in Tekken 5.

The opening loading screen features a few seconds from a video game based on an early 3-D Namco space flyer StarBlade. Like with Galaga in the PlayStation version of the original Tekken, players can control the space ship in the demo. Pressing START prompts Tekken 5 to load. However, this game can be unlocked for full play in Arcade History mode. In addition, players can also play the Arcade versions of the first 3 Tekken games. Each game comes with an option to use only the default characters, or use the bosses and sub-bosses too. Console only characters are not featured.

Plot

Mere moments after Jin Kazama's departure from the Hon-Maru dojo, military helicopters approach and begin deploying Jack-4s pods into the building. Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya, are awaken to a squadron bursting through the walls. At first, the two battle the Jacks together as father and son. However, Kazuya eventually betrays Heihachi by throwing him into a group of the androids and escapes. The Jacks hold down Heihachi while one activates its detonator, creating a huge explosion as Hon-Maru goes up in flames. The only witness to the event is Raven, a mysterious agent clad in black, who relays to his command the death of Heihachi and destroys a Jack-4 coming for him while leaving. Heihachi, while managing to survive, is rendered in a coma, and the following day, Heihachi's supposed death is declared all over the world with everyone foreseeing the end of the Mishima Zaibatsu. However, someone else has already taken over the company and business continues as usual. Two months later, the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 is announced. Meanwhile, Jin is plagued by nightmares triggered by his Devil gene and tries to end it by entering the tournament. His father, Kazuya deduces that the Jack-4s are sent by G Corporation to assassinate him and decides to enter the tournament so he would be able to take revenge against whoever had sent them.

The secret sponsor of the tournament and owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu is finally revealed to be Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Heihachi who was confined below Hon-Maru by Heihachi after a coup d'état thirty years ago. However, he was possessed by the Devil entity who granted him insurmountable power, after which he broke out of Hon-Maru during the Jacks attacks. Jinpachi, in the last act of morality, announces the tournament in the hope that someone is able to kill him before his potential reign of terror starts. Eventually Jin makes it to the final round and faces his Devil-infused great-grandfather in combat. Ultimately, Jin manages to defeat Jinpachi, who dissolves into dust and disappears shortly after, with his wish being fulfilled. Jin, after defeating him, becomes the new head of Mishima Zaibatsu.

Characters

The game features a total of 20 playable characters. Most characters from Tekken 4 are returning, including Bryan Fury, Christie Monteiro, Craig Marduk, Eddy Gordo, Heihachi Mishima, Hwoarang, Jin Kazama, Julia Chang, Kazuya Mishima, King II, Kuma, Lee Chaolan, Lei Wulong, Ling Xiaoyu, Marshall Law, Nina Williams, Panda, Paul Phoenix, Steve Fox, and Yoshimitsu. Like its predecessor, the game also sees the return of several characters from earlier games (mostly from Tekken 2) that previously were cut from the canon series, including Anna Williams, Baek Doo San, Bruce Irvin, Ganryu, and Wang Jinrei.

In addition to returning characters, the game introduces 7 new characters, 6 of which are playable: Asuka Kazama, a hot-blooded high school student practicing Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts who enters the tournament to take revenge against Feng Wei for having injured her father and destroyed her family's dojo, Feng Wei, an arrogant prodigy of the God Fist style who searches through Japan for information about the scrolls of God Fist, Jack-5, the fifth model of Jack series again sent by his creator, Jane to retrieve Jack-2's memories from Mishima Zaibatsu, Raven, a mysterious ninja agent who is the first to report Heihachi Mishima's supposed demise, Roger Jr., the wife-and-son duo of boxing kangaroo of Roger set out to rescue their husband/father from Mishima Zaibatsu, Devil Jin, the Devil form of Jin who uses Jin's old move set composed of his parents' martial arts and also serves as the Stage 8 sub-boss, and Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Heihachi who is resurrected from the dead by the Devil Gene and serves as the unplayable final boss of Arcade mode.

Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Available in the version for the arcades, the PSP and the PlayStation 3 (via the PlayStation Network), Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is an update of Tekken 5. It was officially announced at the 2005 JAMMA AM Show but news of it leaked slightly beforehand. Unlike Tekken 5.1 which merely tried to balance Tekken 5, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection adds a host of new content.

Music

Tekken 5 and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection feature a large cast of composers, including Akitaka Tohyama, Tetsukazu Nakanishi, Yoshihito Yano, Yuu Miyake, Junichi Nakatsuru, Satoru Kosaki, Rio Hamamoto, Keiichi Okabe, Ryuichi Takada, Kohta Takahashi, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Keiki Kobayashi, Nobuyoshi Sano, Hiroshi Okubo, Go Shiina, Katsuro Tajima, Tetsuya Uchida.^[1]

Reception

Tekken 5 was met with mainly positive critical response. Among these positive responses are the reviews from GameSpot and IGN. Tekken 5 has a score of 89.20% on Game Rankings^[2] and a score of 88% on Metacritic.^[3] Tekken 5 also has a score of 89% on Wazap.^[6]

The game's critical praise was matched with commercial success. As of July 2009, it has sold around 6 million copies.^[7]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Tekken 5 for PlayStation 2 at MobyGames
• Tekken 5 for Arcade at The Killer List of Videogames