It seems hard to believe, but the Tekken
series has been around for about a decade now. In that period, Tekken
became one of the premier 3D fighting games in arcades, but its real fame
was found at home. The PlayStation, and later the PlayStation 2, has been
the Tekken series' stomping grounds for the past 10 years, and
traditionally, the home versions have managed to outperform their
impressive arcade counterparts. That grand tradition holds true in Tekken
5, which offers additional modes not found in the arcade original, but
even more importantly, it offers fantastic 3D fighting and stunning
visuals.
Tekken 5 sort of pretends that Tekken 4
never happened. The previous installment introduced a handful of
position-change moves that weren't terribly well received. Tekken 5 takes
a back-to-basics approach and removes those moves, making for a game that
feels and plays more like the classic Tekken 3 did. The uneven floors
you'd sometimes find in Tekken 4 are also gone. Some arenas do have walls,
however, and you can still use these to set up some interesting combos. In
short, Tekken 5 might not be a total reinvention of the series, but
considering just how well it plays now, if Tekken had been rebuilt from
the ground up it would likely have been a huge mistake. The fighting in
Tekken 5 is some of the best fighting available in 3D or 2D, and its
multiple levels of depth give beginners enough flashy moves to quickly
feel comfortable playing it, while intermediate and expert players can dig
deeper and deeper to find more interesting (and damaging) techniques.