Game veteran Tekken 5 delivers on a new graphics engine for this latest entry. All images © 2004 Namco Ltd., All rights reserved.

Tekken 5 is the latest entry in the more than 10-year veteran fighting game series. This time around publisher Namco is touting the new graphics engine as a main feature. This new engine is more than a back of the box check mark, though; it truly delivers. Other highlights of Tekken 5 include lush cinematics, three brand new characters, all new in-game animations, a story mode, all-new environments and unlockable bonus accessories for all characters. Fighting games are a mainstay of any console generation and as the likely final installment of the Tekken series on the PlayStation 2, Tekken 5 is an excellent conclusion. Naturally, for the purposes of this review, I will focus on the animation and visual effects.

The cinematics are top-notch, satisfying in almost every way. Characters are highly detailed, beautifully lit and hand animated to near perfection. There doesn't appear to be any MoCap, a very good thing in my book. The cinematics utilize many modern rendering techniques to create believable muscles, sweat and hair/fur. Opening cinematics have a tradition of being a treat in fighting games and the cartoonish nature of Tekken's over the top brag-fests is exactly the adrenaline pumping exercise suited to getting into this universe. After the opening cinematic you're bound to be either scared away or ready to kick some butt. Lighting, environments and vfx are all plentiful and just as richly detailed as the characters themselves. Motion blur is everywhere to wonderful effect. If you've seen the Final Fantasy movie, that's about the level the Tekken 5 cinematics hit. We're not talking Pixar or Blue Sky level of quality, but very close.

In fact, the new engine does the impossible: Tekken 5 is the best looking PS2 game ever released. There are Xbox games that don't look this good. The game features full-screen anti-aliasing, a true rarity in PS2 development. Most textures appear to be of much higher resolution than previous PS2 titles, some allowing the camera in for quite close scrutiny.

The facial animation is well done, especially when the in-game characters partake in trash talk. Flowing clothing and hair contribute to the fluid and fast in-game animation.

The classic characters are all present, newly modeled, textured and animated. Three new characters round out the crew. All characters are customizable once you finish certain challenges. Playing through multiple times unlocks various accessories such as glasses, outfits and hats. This feature is fun, but I would have preferred they spend the extra time on additional animations. It is clear that these characters received significant attention, especially the characters' textures and facial animation. On the PS2, texture memory is at a premium, so faces generally use higher resolution textures than characters bodies. This works well for Tekken 5 and is especially pleasing when the in game characters partake in a bit of trash talk. The facial animation is quite well done in these parts.

The in-game animation is both fluid and fast. This doesn't mean Namco has cut any corners. They polish their animations nearly as much as they do the rest of the game. Characters move in accordance with their appearance: big guys are a bit slower, little folks are fast, fast, fast! Flowing clothing and hair is present on many characters. Each character has appropriate victory movies, which usually string together a few moves. These range from entertaining to silly. Still, when combined with the often cheesy quotations, they add to the overall charm of the game.

My only complaint in regard to the animation is the repetition. Animations get repurposed so often that it becomes obvious and distracting. The restrictions of modern game development make some animation sharing a necessity, but some are repeated due to gameplay, and these deserve special attention. The most obvious example is the death animation. Each character plays an arched back, cringe inducing animation every single time they are defeated. That's right, no variety. In some games the death animations are as much of a highlight as the special move animations. When you're defeated, it's all the more painful to have to suffer through this same sequence over and over again.