Players familiar with recent editions in
the Tekken series will feel right at home once they download and start
playing Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection on the Playstation 3. Unlike many
other recent arcade fighting conversions, Namco hasn't put an excessive
number of extra features into the game. Instead, they have streamlined the
game into a straight port of the arcade title. You can select from one of
30 different characters, including the boss character from last time
around. Each fighter has a number of different costumes you can select
from the menu, and further customization options are also offered. There's
a broad range of characters including many returning favorites and the
series' trademark oddities like a punching kangaroo and giant panda.
Players will find a number of different, slick looking arenas to battle in
that range from rooftops to open fields and even satellite stations.
Players can choose to play Tekken 5: DR in one of several modes. You can
select an arcade mode, where you fight a number of other characters until
you reach the boss battles. There are different difficulty levels
available for players to choose from and you can see a huge difference
when you move up the ranks. If you want to compete against another human
opponent, you can select Versus mode and battle it out head to head.
Sadly, players won't be able to fight online against other gamers since
this isn't supported, which is disappointing. The game also allows you to
set various options such as match length, difficulty and time in the
options menu as well, which shows there's some depth under the hood.
In
addition to offering these standard game modes, players can also choose to
compete in Ghost Battles. In these battles, you face a succession of
enemies of varying degrees of difficulty. When you defeat them, you are
given a choice of which character you'll face next time around, which can
range from beginners to experts. As you defeat opponents in Ghost battles,
you can earn money that can be used to purchase unlockable content such as
movies and artwork. You can also use this money to purchase accessories
and items to customize your character's appearance and this adds to your
motivation to keep playing through the rounds. Interestingly, these take
the form of downloads and aren't included in the main title download,
apparently. The ghost mode is the only major addition to this arcade port.
This is probably the most challenging part of Tekken 5 since the pace is
relentless and the harder opponents are much less forgiving. These modes
are fairly standard and the game offers pretty much what you'd expect a
Tekken game to have when you get down to playing. The classic Tekken-style
play mechanics are very much in evidence and whether this is appealing to
you depends on whether you think it's approach to the genre is accessible
and intuitive or merely senseless button mashing. The game hasn't
undergone a major revision with this installment and offers what players
have come to expect. The range of characters and their different fighting
styles is excellent, and while the AI seems a bit easy at first, your
opponents become much harder to defeat as you move up the rankings and
fight smarter foes who know how to perform combos and special moves
effectively.
From a visual standpoint, the game looks
razor-sharp in 1080i, with richly detailed textures and colors that
accurately ape the look and feel of the arcade game. It doesn't look quite
as sharp as Sega's Virtua Fighter 5, but Tekken still offers some decent
graphics. The characters models don't sweat and its fabric models seem a
little bit flat, but the gameplay is much faster and more adrenaline
fueled than the previous games in the series. Anyone who played the PS2's
Tekken 5 will see an immediate upgrade and the title also improves on the
PSP version of the title released last year. Those used to these standard
definition games will immediately notice the many improvements that Namco
has made in the visuals, and this makes for a stunning appearance with
sharp textures and smooth animation. Tekken 5's sound and music are
excellent as well and the numerous cut-scenes add to the atmosphere. While
extra modes aren't as elaborate as you'd expect them to be, their
execution is decent this adds replayability to the title. All of these
features make for a more enjoyable game that should make fighting game
fans happy. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection plays well with the standard
controller, but players who own Hori's arcade stick will be happy to know
that the game supports this and plays smoothly when it is plugged in.
While
releasing a standard port of the game at full-price would probably have
been met with derision, the fact that Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is
available for a third of the price of regular disc based releases helps to
mitigate this to some degree. It took some time to download the game via
the PS Network, but the process was relatively smooth and wasn't as
painful as you'd expect it to. The game's large selection of characters
and arenas means this wasn't really a compromise title with basic features
taken out. It doesn't offer the bonus modes or mini-games that other
fighters do, but it offers what really matters: a solid and challenging
fighting game. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection isn't as technically brilliant
as a full-fledged release probably would have been, but it is still a
polished enjoyable title that offers a highly enjoyable and polished
experience that's well worth the time and money to download.
Grade:
B
