Tekken 5 I really liked Tekken 4. It took the popular "King of Iron Fist" series to an interest

User Rating: 6.2 | Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection PS3
I really liked Tekken 4. It took the popular "King of Iron Fist" series to an interesting place by successfully borrowing ideas from competitors like Dead or Alive 2 and Virtua Fighter 4 while adding its own unique touch. It presented a legitimate revamping of a franchise that had remained relatively unchanged for close to seven years, and brought such novel additions as uneven surfaces, strategic wall damage, destructible objects, and position changes to an already addicting gameplay mechanic. It was a great sequel and definitely worth picking up.

As cool as I thought Tekken 4 was, however, it couldn't hold a candle to Tekken Tag Tournament. I loved that game. It was the reason I plunked down the cash to pick up a PlayStation 2 in the first place, and it became an after-work obsession of mine for nearly two years. I'd spend entire weekends participating in pleasant competitions with my closest friends, I'd devise bizarre and unworkable strategies with my co-workers, and I'd practice Jin and Jun's crazy ten-strings with my woman between dinner dates. We had fun... lots of fun, and it was all because of that game's terrific timing, pacing, and balance. To be honest, though, I had secretly hoped that the developers would go back to something closer to Tekken Tag for Tekken 5 -- and wouldn't you know it? Somebody at Namco apparently read my mind, because Tekken 5 is awesome.

To be more accurate, Tekken 5 is really more of a Tekken series melting pot. Though it more closely resembles the Tekken 3/Tekken Tag pair of games, it still takes the best elements from the previous four titles and combines them into a single kickass experience. So while the bothersome wall infinites from Tekken 4 have been completely eliminated, players can still use the occasional barrier to get an advantage on their opponent. The uneven, mulutiple-elevation stages have been nix too, but to acknowledge the fact those destructible goodies from the last game were a pretty good idea, the floors, walls, and certain other environmental spots still show damage when you smash into them. On a slightly less important note, the crouching command has thankfully been returned to its old "down press" designation instead of down-diagonal -- meaning that players probably won't end up walking forward by accident when trying to duck as they did in the last one.