Namco, bless its soul, has never been especially prompt with the home ports of its arcade fighters ... or at least not enough. I still remember the agonizing half-year wait between the import and domestic version of Tekken 2, during which I played far more of the original Tekken than is healthy. More recently, Soul Calbur 2's shifting release date had the entire gaming world in a collective state of breathless anticipation that I'm surprised didn't end in more heart attacks and/or asphyxiations.

It's funny, then, just how fast Namco's moving with Tekken 5. The game was barely out in arcades last year, and now the home version's due out in March. You can even preorder a deluxe edition at your local retailer, complete with a very cool Hori joystick. I don't know what the big rush is, but I'm not complaining either. Namco recently stopped by the office to show off a very complete-looking build of the PlayStation 2 version of Tekken 5, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's Namco's best home fighting port since Soul Calibur. I can tell you a few reasons why today, but the full skinny must wait until next Thursday -- our hands are tied!

Tekken' Stock

If you haven't been following our coverage of Tekken 5, then there's one key thing to know: it feels a lot more like "Tekken" than Tekken 4 ever did. It's hard to pin it to any one thing, but Tekken 5 has a certain feeling of freshness that was lacking in the prior game, and playing it reminded me a lot more of the earlier games I enjoyed so much on PlayStation. That said, let's go into a few of the game modes.


Story Mode is first on the list, and its format looks similar to that of Tekken 4. It starts out with a 2D cinematic to setup your character's story, and then proceeds to fightin'. The fourth fight gets in-engine intro and outro scenes between your fighter and the opponent, complete with speech. Surprisingly (and awesomely) the characters in Tekken 5 speak in their native languages, complete with subtitles. It's a small thing, but anyone who's had to play Soul Calibur II with English voices will understand why this is great. Oddly enough, though, Hong Kong supercop Lei Wulong spoke in English, as did Brazilian flygirl Christie Monteiro. I guess Portugese wasn't in the budget.

Next up is the venerable Arcade Mode. The big news here is a Virtua Fighter 4-style ranking system. As you gain wins you'll ascend through 25 ranks, starting from lowly 10th kyu and aiming to achieve the coveted rank of Tekken Master. You'll be able to choose your next opponent between matches, and they'll get much harder with rank. Winning will also earn money, which can be spent in the game's extensive customization mode. Let's skip to that.