Baron Aloha
A Shining Example
My local arcade hooked up T5 today and I finally got to play it. They don't have the data card dispenser hooked up yet so regular folk can't buy the cards but I know people who work there and I got one for free - a $5 savings right off the bat. I will discuss the card system later.
The Cabinet
The cabinet itself is very oddly shapped..but still good.
The joysticks and buttons are japanese style and a lot people didn't like them. I knew this ahead of time so I came prepared with my Dual Shock 2 controller. The controllers plug into the sides of the control panel. I played for 5 hours today using only the controller since I didn't want to have to deal with the sticks. I think that adding this feature was a great idea. Those hoping that it would eliminate the problem of people blaming their losses on the controller will be somewhat pleased to know that this has now been eliminated....but its now been replaced with "you only won because you are using the home controller. Who comes to an arcade and doesn't use the sticks?" Yes. I heard this at least a dozen times today. My responses to these people ranged from "go home and bring in your own controller or got to EB and buy one" to "complain all you want but I won and you lost and that's all that matters".
The game uses some kind of flat screen monitor for the display and everything looks great.
The Gameplay
Ladies and gentlemen, TEKKEN IS BACK!. Forget Tekken 4. This game plays like its the true sequel to TTT and T3. The 8-way run? Gone! Sidestepping is back to how it was in T3/TTT. You can now jump and duck more easily like you could back in the day. The pushing moves from T4 (1+3) are also gone.
Single player mode is pretty easy. The last boss is VERY easy. After watching those (Korean?) vids of players losing to him left and right I thought he would be a challenge but he was a push over. Devil Jin was awesome and I will definitely start playing as him as soon as he is available.
The Graphics
This game looks great in motion; much better than the pics and those already looked great. The image quality is way up there and I think thats due in large part to flat screen (HD?) monitor that is standard with every T5 cabinet. The fact that the PS2 version looks almost identical to this is phenomenal! The characters are excellently modeled...everything is smooth with no blocklyness anywhere (except for Jack-5 but he's a robot so he is supposed to look like that).
The stages are AMAZING! The Moonlit Field (I believe its called) is the best looking one IMO. The moon casts a blue light on the characters and they glow. Its just awesome. They also brought back the arctic stage from the first Tekken only this time there are dozens of penguins in the stage with you. The bgm is a spruced up version of the original music for the stage and its very nostalgiac. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that in the rose garden stage (Secret Garden I believe its called in the game) if you character falls down on one of the frogs in the stage the frogs will die and you will see their souls fly up and go to heaven. Its hilarious! There is also a bg called "Poolside" which I haven't seen in any pics yet but it looked nice too. Basically you are fighting poolside at a resort.
The Characters
I didn't play any of the new characters today and neither did anyone else! The reason for this is because the game costs $1 to play so people stuck with characters that they were familiar with. I played single player a lot and from what I've seen Feng Wei looks like he is the best new character (keep in mind this was based on very early impressions of his moves). He has some very tricky attacks and quite a few of his moves are of the "looks like it hits mid but hits low" variety. The way I felt while watching him was the way I felt when I first saw Eddie Gordo. This moves flow together very well and they are unpredictable (again, at least initially). He's also pretty fast.
I stuck mostly with my bread-n-butter characters today: Julia, Xiaoyu, and Nina but I played a game or two with Lei and Paul as well.
Julia = raped. I didn't think she could get toned down again after T4 but Namco proved me wrong. Her juggles are now much harder to pull off. You are given very little time to pull something off after a pop up and the pop ups she has suck. She just felt completely different and broken. This was a huge disappointment because she used to be my favorite character to use.
Xiaoyu = virtually identical to T4. Still a powerful character in the right hands. She is who I played the most and who I set up my data card to use. She's got a few new moves here and there but they aren't really much to write home about. They feel very much like they were tacked on just so Namco could say that they did something with her. The only new thing that actually felt useful was her great wall...its now a full on reversal in some instances. I don't know how I did it but several times I would use the great wall and she would grab the opponents arm and flip them for big damage. This I liked... very much!!
Nina = Awesome. So many new moves and a few of her old ones look completely different. Of all the old characters she seems like she has gotten the most new moves and improvements. I'm tempted to get another data card just for her. I couldn't stand the T4 Nina because I didn't like the way she felt when playing her. T5 Nina feels very much like a mixture of TTT Nina and T4 Nina in terms of how it "feels" to play her but it leans more toward TTT IMO.
Paul = Pretty much the same as T4 except his d+1,4 or d+4 kick no longer staggers him when its blocked. All of his moves seem to have more impact this time around. Its kinda hard to describe. Its something you have to see/feel to understand.
Lei = Slightly better than in T4 IMO.
The Card System
A nice addition but there are serious flaws.
1. Your card stays trapped inside the machine until you lose. So if you have to go somewhere you have to lose a match to get it back. My only loss today was because of that (I had been standing for hours and hours and I just couldn't stand anymore... I had to go home and get some rest). It sucks.
2. If you are using your card-character in the single player mode you cannot change characters when someone joins the game. You are stuck with the same character. I am a firm believer that some characters are better suited against others and it was very frustrating not being able to pick a counter character. This forced me to try and fight my way though some tough matches and think of new strategies so its good in that sense but it is still very frustrating. At $1 a game I'd much rather be able to eject my card and "take the easy way out".
Conclusion
All in all I think T5 is great judging from what I've played so far and I think a lot of the people who were disenfranchised by T4 will fall in love with the series again. Its that damn good.
The Cabinet
The cabinet itself is very oddly shapped..but still good.
The joysticks and buttons are japanese style and a lot people didn't like them. I knew this ahead of time so I came prepared with my Dual Shock 2 controller. The controllers plug into the sides of the control panel. I played for 5 hours today using only the controller since I didn't want to have to deal with the sticks. I think that adding this feature was a great idea. Those hoping that it would eliminate the problem of people blaming their losses on the controller will be somewhat pleased to know that this has now been eliminated....but its now been replaced with "you only won because you are using the home controller. Who comes to an arcade and doesn't use the sticks?" Yes. I heard this at least a dozen times today. My responses to these people ranged from "go home and bring in your own controller or got to EB and buy one" to "complain all you want but I won and you lost and that's all that matters".
The game uses some kind of flat screen monitor for the display and everything looks great.
The Gameplay
Ladies and gentlemen, TEKKEN IS BACK!. Forget Tekken 4. This game plays like its the true sequel to TTT and T3. The 8-way run? Gone! Sidestepping is back to how it was in T3/TTT. You can now jump and duck more easily like you could back in the day. The pushing moves from T4 (1+3) are also gone.
Single player mode is pretty easy. The last boss is VERY easy. After watching those (Korean?) vids of players losing to him left and right I thought he would be a challenge but he was a push over. Devil Jin was awesome and I will definitely start playing as him as soon as he is available.
The Graphics
This game looks great in motion; much better than the pics and those already looked great. The image quality is way up there and I think thats due in large part to flat screen (HD?) monitor that is standard with every T5 cabinet. The fact that the PS2 version looks almost identical to this is phenomenal! The characters are excellently modeled...everything is smooth with no blocklyness anywhere (except for Jack-5 but he's a robot so he is supposed to look like that).
The stages are AMAZING! The Moonlit Field (I believe its called) is the best looking one IMO. The moon casts a blue light on the characters and they glow. Its just awesome. They also brought back the arctic stage from the first Tekken only this time there are dozens of penguins in the stage with you. The bgm is a spruced up version of the original music for the stage and its very nostalgiac. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that in the rose garden stage (Secret Garden I believe its called in the game) if you character falls down on one of the frogs in the stage the frogs will die and you will see their souls fly up and go to heaven. Its hilarious! There is also a bg called "Poolside" which I haven't seen in any pics yet but it looked nice too. Basically you are fighting poolside at a resort.
The Characters
I didn't play any of the new characters today and neither did anyone else! The reason for this is because the game costs $1 to play so people stuck with characters that they were familiar with. I played single player a lot and from what I've seen Feng Wei looks like he is the best new character (keep in mind this was based on very early impressions of his moves). He has some very tricky attacks and quite a few of his moves are of the "looks like it hits mid but hits low" variety. The way I felt while watching him was the way I felt when I first saw Eddie Gordo. This moves flow together very well and they are unpredictable (again, at least initially). He's also pretty fast.
I stuck mostly with my bread-n-butter characters today: Julia, Xiaoyu, and Nina but I played a game or two with Lei and Paul as well.
Julia = raped. I didn't think she could get toned down again after T4 but Namco proved me wrong. Her juggles are now much harder to pull off. You are given very little time to pull something off after a pop up and the pop ups she has suck. She just felt completely different and broken. This was a huge disappointment because she used to be my favorite character to use.
Xiaoyu = virtually identical to T4. Still a powerful character in the right hands. She is who I played the most and who I set up my data card to use. She's got a few new moves here and there but they aren't really much to write home about. They feel very much like they were tacked on just so Namco could say that they did something with her. The only new thing that actually felt useful was her great wall...its now a full on reversal in some instances. I don't know how I did it but several times I would use the great wall and she would grab the opponents arm and flip them for big damage. This I liked... very much!!
Nina = Awesome. So many new moves and a few of her old ones look completely different. Of all the old characters she seems like she has gotten the most new moves and improvements. I'm tempted to get another data card just for her. I couldn't stand the T4 Nina because I didn't like the way she felt when playing her. T5 Nina feels very much like a mixture of TTT Nina and T4 Nina in terms of how it "feels" to play her but it leans more toward TTT IMO.
Paul = Pretty much the same as T4 except his d+1,4 or d+4 kick no longer staggers him when its blocked. All of his moves seem to have more impact this time around. Its kinda hard to describe. Its something you have to see/feel to understand.
Lei = Slightly better than in T4 IMO.
The Card System
A nice addition but there are serious flaws.
1. Your card stays trapped inside the machine until you lose. So if you have to go somewhere you have to lose a match to get it back. My only loss today was because of that (I had been standing for hours and hours and I just couldn't stand anymore... I had to go home and get some rest). It sucks.
2. If you are using your card-character in the single player mode you cannot change characters when someone joins the game. You are stuck with the same character. I am a firm believer that some characters are better suited against others and it was very frustrating not being able to pick a counter character. This forced me to try and fight my way though some tough matches and think of new strategies so its good in that sense but it is still very frustrating. At $1 a game I'd much rather be able to eject my card and "take the easy way out".
Conclusion
All in all I think T5 is great judging from what I've played so far and I think a lot of the people who were disenfranchised by T4 will fall in love with the series again. Its that damn good.
