Tekken 5 review (PlayStation 2)

The Tekken series has been putting in weird offshoot modes for years now. This year's model contains a new story known as Devil Within. This story-driven mode puts you in control of Jin as he raids the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation's headquarters, smashing up enemy robots along the way. The fighting has been extremely simplified for this behind-the-back mode, and you're given a lock-on button that lets you make sure you're always targeting one foe. You're always outnumbered, though, so locking on is less effective than simply dishing out damage to everything within the reach of your hands and feet. Devil Within is a neat idea that's executed about as well as you'd expect for a minor extra, but with its stripped-down fighting, cookie-cutter corridors, and monotonous platforming, it's not the sort of thing you'll come back to time and time again.

You might come back to the arcade history mode, which, right off the bat, gives you access to the arcade versions of the original Tekken, Tekken 2, and Tekken 3. These serve as an excellent reminder of how far the series has come over the years, but more importantly, it reminds you that these games still play very well. It's tough to go all the way back to the first game, but Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 are still very, very playable. They also don't have any loading time between fights, which is cool. In fact, even when Tekken 5 does stop to load, the load times are nice and fast, which really helps to keep you in the action. It also probably helps make the game so addictive, since you aren't given too much time to think about anything else between fights.

The fighters in Tekken 5 hit hard. That's one of the major factors that makes the game look so fantastic. The moves look like they hurt. This is something that many other fighting games seem to miss, but here, even the most basic dashing punch moves practically look like they're capable of shattering every bone in your body. Part of that is due to the great-looking particle effects that blast off of heavy hits, but a great deal of it is also due to the game's outstanding animation. The characters move extremely fluidly, and the motion-captured movements are really, really cool, even though some of them have been recycled from previous games.

When it comes to image quality and character models, you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking PlayStation 2 game than this. Tekken 5 looks simply astounding--way above and beyond what you would think the PlayStation 2 is capable of. The character models are smooth and lifelike, with skin tones and textures that make them look alive, as opposed to the plastic-looking fighters found in some other games. The backgrounds are widely varied, and some of them are even breathtaking. Again, it's the sort of stuff you'd expect from a high-end Xbox title or a great-looking PC game--not something you'd expect from the PlayStation 2 hardware. From the fight arena that surrounds you with bloodthirsty onlookers and their van--which happens to be hanging from a hook a few feet above the ground--to the inside of a temple that happens to be on fire, you'll find a wide variety of amazing stuff here. This may be the PlayStation 2's best-looking game to date, and it's hard to imagine anything else topping it this far along in the cycle. Support for widescreen displays and progressive scan support only helps to make the image look that much better. But make no mistake, Tekken 5 looks incredible regardless of the mode you run it in, and the quality of the visuals of course helps make the action itself that much better.

Tekken's soundtrack has usually consisted of a particular style of electronic music that fits the action, but it was never particularly memorable and it got a little tiresome over time. Tekken 5's soundtrack is much more varied than that of its predecessors, and this variety meshes very well with each individual background in the game. There's also a load of speech in Tekken 5, and it's all really good. Each character speaks in his or her own native language, which is a great touch. It's also really funny in some cases, such as when you have Kuma speaking in subtitled bear growls that the other characters can somehow understand in a weird, Lassie-style sort of way. And wait until you see Mokujin and boxing kangaroo Roger Jr. converse in their "native" tongues.

Also, we have to give some of the credit for the game's hard-hitting moves to the sound effects. You can expect to hear many of the same snaps and cracks that you've heard in previous games, but this time there's a lot more bass. The thundering low end on some of the strikes definitely makes the impacts sound as damaging as they look.

A big part of Tekken 5's appeal is due to the quality of its execution. While some of the extra modes aren't as strong as they could have been, the core fighting is nearly perfect, whether you're playing against other humans or computer-controlled opposition. Toss in a fantastic soundtrack and some of the best-looking graphics you've seen on a console, along with an insane number of different moves to learn and master from a variety of interesting characters, and you've got a fighting game that's even more addictive and exciting than Tekken was when it exploded onto the PlayStation back in 1995.