Game review: Tekken 5

After the completion of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, a fierce battle between father and son unfolded at Mishima Zaibatsu headquarters. Jin emerged as the victor in this battle, and continued onto defeat Heihachi, his grandfather - but spared both Kazuya and Heihachi's lives in honor of his mother who loved peace.

Soon after Jin's departure, a swarm of Jacks arrived at Honmaru, and began to attack Heihachi and Kazuya - and in order to escape, Kazuya thrusted Heihachi into the swarm of Jacks. A great explosion destroyed Honmaru, and a man watching from afar reported "Heihachi Mishima is dead." To those who have never played the Tekken series before - you'll be sitting there completely clueless, but this is a game that has a lot of history behind it.

While many presumed the death of Heihachi Mishima (the big giant mogul of the Mishima Zaibatsu Corporation), an announcement was made for the fifth King of Iron Fist Tournament, with an unknown replacement to Heihachi leading the organisation.

The roster of characters in the game mirrors the arcade game, with a host of returning favorites, including Marduk, Lee, Jin, Kazuya, Lei, Paul, Law, Julia, Christie, Jack-5, Nina, Hwoarang, King, Steve, Bryan, Xiaoyu, and Yoshimitsu. In addition, three new characters - Raven, Feng, and Asuka - join the fray with unique moves and their own personal motivations for entering the Iron Fist Tournament.

Raven is an edgy fighter with a Rodman-esque look to him and an accessory-heavy outfit which includes a fair amount of leather and buckles. Feng is a buffed-up wushu fighter who is big on combos that cause a lot of damage. Finally, Asuka is a Japanese girl who handles a bit like Xiaoyu but whose forte appears to be grappling. Plus there are also plenty of unlockable characters and game-play modes, including an extension to the popular Tekken Force mode - an action adventure-style mode called "Devil Within," starring a slightly demonic, Jin Kazama.

The game is also rumoured to ship with a special "arcade history" mode featuring fully playable arcade versions of the original Tekken, Tekken 2, and Tekken 3.