I personally prefer the Soul Calibur series...with the Dead or Alive series in close 2nd.

Another series I grew fond of is the Virtua Fighter series...but there' s a new entry on the block...well, not really a new entry...but another entry known to gamers as the Tekken series.

What' s your favorite fighting franchise?

It appears that the Tekken series is coming back, and in a BIG way!

Read on...

PUMPED UP, PIMPED OUT: WE GO FISTS-ON WITH TEKKEN 5

Namco' s arcade fighting master bounces back with hot new stages, characters and awesome network features

17:15 Pure, uncut arcade fighting thrills, shorn of any excess bodyweight and punching with enough graphical force to derail a freight train. Take that. That' s our reaction to Tekken 5.
Question is, is that enough? You' ll already have heard that Tekken 5 is a return to the simpler, old-school scrapping mechanics of the first three games and turns its back on Tekken 4' s more realistic approach. But will fans flock back to arcades to re-learn a game that hit its zenith two iterations ago?

Well, judging by the reaction of the legions of hardcore Tekken masters packed into Namco' s Tekken 5 arcade showcase, the answer is probably yes. We were there to get hands-on with the first T5 arcade cabinets in the UK and continually get our ass handed to us in a basket by guys who twitch out 15-hit combos without flinching.

These are the same guys who found Tekken 4' s foray into the world of hyper-accurate pugilism a little alienating. These are the guys who didn' t want another variation of Virtua Fighter 4' s sober technicality. These are the guys that wanted a return to stripped-back gameplay muscle of Tekken 3. They' ve got it.

The initial impact comes in the controls. While in Tekken 4 pushing up and pulling down on the stick sidestepped your character, in T5 these controls have returned to jumping and crouching respectively. This alteration instantly makes the game feel more familiar and intuitive and actually seems to add more strategy to scraps.

When your character is in crouch mode you' ll avoid incoming high attacks from your opponent, and if you launch a low or mid special attack you' ll also duck incoming high attacks and counter with a powerful blow.

The same is true of jumping attacks: you can hurdle incoming low and mid attacks from your opponent and smack their dazed faces as you land. Simple? Yes. Common sense? Yup. But what we admire so much about the way Tekken 5 has implemented this system is that the balance and reactivity of these different states (crouch/jump) is so perfect that the flow of a bout is far more organic than any other fighting game.

Watching two Tekken experts go toe-to-toe became an experience akin to witnessing capoeria. One character flashes a blow which the other hurdles sublimely, and so on, and so on. It' s almost akin to Virtua Fighter 4' s highly technical stand-offs, but with an irresistible touch of arcade fluidity and action movie excess.

These tit-for-tat shadow battles happen often among the best players, but when someone lands a blow Tekken 5 wants that blow to count. The legendary Tekken juggle combo system is back and meaner than ever before. Through a skilled and fluid combination of joystick taps and button mashes we watched players juggle their opponents all the way across the fighting arenas before sending them crashing into a stone wall or wooden fence. It' s the ultimate humiliation for your opponent, and Tekken 5' s making it happen again.

But it' s not all just ultra-fast combos. A new long distance throw has been added to enable you to close down large gaps between you and your opponent. It' s slower than a normal throw but it' s got twice the reach. For smaller characters like Julia and Ling it' s a great way to catch an opponent napping, and for bigger brawlers like King and Marduk it' s an awesome addition to their grappling repertoire.

The stages reflect this return to the series' earlier influences. There are 15 fighting arenas in total, from Heihachi' s burning mansion to a penguin-infested iceberg. While some of the stages are enclosed by boundaries every area is larger than those in Tekken 4. Plus, walls and fences aren' t just there to stop you: you can involve them in the fight by smashing your opponent against them, send bricks and wood showering onto their limp body. For that truly transcendent scrapping experience, though, check out some of the beautiful infinite stages that are making a return.

The characters themselves are another area where Tekken 5 shows a return to the series' roots. 20 default characters are available from the outset, with the famous time-release characters promised to appear.

While the models are as detailed and well animated as ever, the visual style definitely has a slightly super deformed look to capture the true personalities and body structures of the fighters. We love it: it' s retro, it' s excessive, but it really communicates the impact of Jack' s huge fist or Christie' s long, lean legs.

The character models are exceptionally malleable, too. We winced as we watched Paul get juggled in a vicious flurry of blows, his limbs twisting at horrifically unnatural angles and his lifeless body spinning into the scenery. It adds a whole new level of brutality to the over-the-top combat.

And, of course, there are three new characters to master. First up is Asuka Kazuma, a 17-year-old Japanese lass who' s renowned for the traditional martial arts fighting style her father taught her. She' s entering the tournament to track down the guy who beat up some of her father' s students. Asuka is light, lithe and should suit fans of Christie and Jin' s quick-fire fighting styles.

Feng Wei is a Chinese Kenpo master who killed his sensai in a dispute over whether he should fight against proponents of other martial arts. His goal is to become the strongest fighter alive, and he uses a combination of fat kicks and powerful punches to this end. Having trained under a master with ' divine fists' Feng Wei' s particularly handy with his mitts up.

Lastly, there' s Raven. He' s the guy that looks like Wesley Snipes in Blade. He' s a Ninjitsu expert who works for a mysterious government agency and was present at the assassination of Heihachi Mishima. With quick feet, some powerful hand-to-hand moves and some killer juggles Raven proved a big hit with the Tekken experts on hand.

With the increased (and ever increasing) range of characters there' s plenty of scope for players to develop their own identity and fighting specialities. Namco want to expand this aspect of the game even further, though. With an IC Card you' ll be able to store your details for one character and transfer it from arcade to arcade. It keeps a hold of all your records like player name, money, rank, results and visual data.

Winning fights earns you cash in-game, which you can then spend on changing your clothing colours and even purchasing accessories that will henceforth adorn your model. You could buy, for instance, a military helmet and rocket launcher for Jack which will then hand off him as he fights.

But here' s where it gets really cool. Your IC Card will also store your fighting style in the form of a Ghost Character. As you move from arcade machine to arcade machine your Ghost will remain on each system, randomly popping up in the one-player mode to challenge other players of a similar standard to you. Not only does this add a brilliant touch of uncertainty to one-player games, it also means there' ll be a Ghost Character who fights with your traits and idiosyncrasies out there, kicking ass by remote control.

It' s the crowning feature in a new iteration of Tekken that has been brave enough to both return to the proven formula of a nine-year-old series and innovate it with clever new touches. In a lot of ways Tekken 5' s a little like the return to the ring of a fighter who has already reached his peak, only souped-up with a fat stack of amphetamine-induced speed and steroid-enhanced muscles.

The arcade version will be hitting arcades at the end of November, with a PS2 version expected to make the jump around May next year. Don' t worry about the wait: you' ll need the time to trawl through our amazing photos from the event which, like the multitude of awesome screens we' ve got, we' ll posting throughout the week.

Once you' ve done that you simply have to check out the game' s awesome trailer here. If you' ve already seen it, watch it again. It rocks.

We' ll bring you more info on the PS2 version as it emerges.


Graeme Boyd