Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online

Tekken is one of the more established fighting games on the market today and the most respected in martial arts communities for having techniques that reflect each discipline accurately. Back in 1994 we saw it released in the arcades and then on the Playstation in 1995. Competitors get to fight it out in Heihachi Mishima’s ‘King of the Iron Fist’ tournament in one of the first fighting games to use the 3D fighting arena.

Out of all the fighting games available to us Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online is the one that I would choose. The Street Fighter series may be the obvious choice but with its combinations of quarter and half circles plus the attack buttons, I just don’t have the coordination to pull off all those geometric shapes and to throw a spanner in the works, reverse all those when I move to the other side of my opponent.

Disabilities aside, the combat system in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online is smooth and the majority of aesthetically pleasing moves are an easy roll of the right thumb over the correct buttons. The controls work with a simple left/right system for kick and punch so they don’t change when you move from the left to right sides of the screen. This differs from most other fighting games where the buttons are for different strength attacks. Add a couple of well timed directions and you are onto some really nice combos. Namco have gone from eight characters in the original to now over thirty characters so there are a huge varieties of attack chains to watch and learn.

Namco have always been working to improve Tekken from the start by adding features like throw escapes, auto blocks, sidestepping was introduced in Tekken 3 which also included reduced recovery times. Tekken 4 brought in true 3d fighting and the ability to roll away for instant recovery from knockdowns. Now you get a chance to watch some really nice work through the new, most exciting and life extending feature of the game, the online mode.

After knocking the shit out the A.I. you can flex that mighty thumb muscle over the Playstation Network. You can be matched up against players of a similar standard of ability to go for the quick match where you could end up against anyone. When you join a room you goto the back of the queue and watch some of the action until it is your turn and then its winner stays on. There is nothing better in a game that you love than getting shown that you really aren’t that good, getting frustrated to controller throwing extents then getting back in the fight.

When you are fighting online its great too, the endless possibilities for character customisation. Each character can have so many different looks. As you fight you earn currency and with this you can purchase new outfits, change the colours, alter your hairstyle and add trinkets like sunglasses or wrist wraps. The only problem I found with this is that these items are expensive. Namco may have done this as a kind of ‘look how good I am’ tag on your character.

The level design is really good too. In previous versions Namco used ‘infinite’ arenas where you could keep walking forever. Tekken 4 removed this feature though and now they include walls and obstacles. They almost seem interactive and you have items from pink balloons that move when you land near them to wolves that move out the way from you. A lot of fighter games have nice backdrops but it can quite often interfere with the frame rate. In a style of game when timing is everything frame rate cannot suffer and in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online it doesn’t.