Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
I had a chance to dabble with the playable demo of Tekken 5 that was bundled with Death by Degrees. I noticed that the disc itself was on a CD blue disc, so if you're PS2 isn't to keen on playing CD-based PS2 games, then you're outta luck...heh.
Anyway, upon loading it up it plays the intro. then goes to the title screen. Pressing Start on Player 1 side you become Raven. Pressing Start on Player 2 side you become Asuka. It loads to a "stage" splash screen followed by the versus portraits of said characters.
The demo randomly selects from 2 stages....one stage with rock-faced serpent dragons atop mountains, and another stage on the rooftops of the city at dusk. Both stages looked nice with good detail, and the rooftop stage gets a good nod with lens flares, shadowing, and orange hues cast upon the city and the fighters. The serpent mountain stage offered blue skies, with structures made of rock in the background. The floor on this stage was solid concrete with wire-type panels. Typical with Tekken games, receiving and dishing out attacks cause obligatory red and green burst flares. The voices spoken by both characters were still in Japanese, but there were English subtitles.
Both Raven and Asuka animate fluidly and well. Raven is your Dennis Rodman/Zack wannabe with power attacks; Asuka is quick with acrobatic kicks. I haven't played Tekken 3/Tag Tournament in the longest time, but the overall gameplay seemed kinda slow. The Square and Triangle buttons were punches, and the X and Circle buttons were kicks. Combo fighting harkens back to Tekken 3/Tag Tournament as there wasn't full 3-D rotational movement like Soul Calibur.....you tap up and down on the pad to move inside and outside to evade attacks. Blocking was done by holding back, and combos and assaults can be implemented on each arena's environments.
What sucks is that the demo is really, really short. You only fight one round (Final Round), and once you beat the CPU or vice-versa, then the demo is over....back to title screen for you. No options to change anything, no other characters to try out......nada.
This demo was truly a "work in progress" (there's even a disclaimer on the title screen), but for what's presented, Tekken 5 looks to be a solid fighter. The wow factor of the Tekken franchise was waned over the years, and Tekken 4 wasn't quite the effort Namco Limited could have done, and I don't think Tekken 5 will totally revitalize the franchise, either. However, Tekken 5 does show off some impressive stuff for PS2, and the gameplay (with customizations, extras, etc.) will be deep in the final build.
Tekken 5 for PS2 (both standard and LE packages) is due to arrive at the end of February. Pre-ording the game (at EB; standard or LE versions) will also net you an exclusive artbook. MSRP for the standard edition will be $49.99; MSRP for the LE package (with bundled Hori Fighting Stick) will be $99.99. Namco will produced less than 20,000 units of the LE package, so all you collectors out there better leap on this one.
