Namco DOES care!

It has come to my attention this week that Namco has been working on an update to their Tekken 5 game. Tekken 5.1 hit arcades in Japan this week and is scheduled for a North American release by the end of the month. This update addresses some problems that were found and complained about in the original T5, and also goes ahead with several engine changes, as well as tweaking almost every character in the game. This has sparked a TON of conversation within the Tekken community, with some people welcoming the announced changes with open arms, and others saying that Namco has gone too far.

The point I'll elaborate on here (if I started talking about every single change, I'd never see the end of it) is the abolition of "Tech Traps". In most recent Tekken games, when you're knocked to the ground, you have the option to hit a button as soon as you touch the ground to immediately roll on your feet. You could never block during a tech-roll, and if your opponent knew that you were going to tech-roll, he could hit you with a move that could potentially guarantee him ALOT more damage. This adds an interesting dynamic to the gameplay because, in a game with such damaging juggles, you sometimes WANT to stay on the ground, even after having half your life knocked off. One character in particular can turn a half-life juggle into an 80% combo if you tech-roll. Well that's gone now, because as of Tekken 5.1, you can now block while tech-rolling. You no longer have guaranteed damage when you know your opponent will tech, and alot of people are quite worried about this.

Some would even go as far as saying that it's retarded. What *I* find retarded is how quickly they can jump to ANY conclusion regarding this new dynamic. Removing tech traps from Tekken doesn't make the game inferior. It just makes it different. It's impossible to know whether this will have a positive or negative impact on the game until everyone's abusing it. THEN we can know for sure. In the mean time, all I see is people whining because something is different and they feel this change is un-necessary.

The main thing I see with this release is that Namco actually DOES care. When Steve's infinite was discovered prior to the console release, I told myself that this would be a true test of Namco's esteem for their hardcore fans. When the console version came out and Steve's infinite was still there, I took that as proof that Namco doesn't give a fuck what its fans think, because the community made ALOT of noise about that. It was impossible for Namco not to have known. No matter what you think of the actual changes in T5.1, this update is definitely an olive branch being held out by Namco.

The only BIG question mark concerns the console version. What do you do with that? No matter what Namco does, it involves a significant amount of risk. If you DON'T release T5.1 on console, you will have a situation where fans can no longer practice for arcade competition at home because the games are so different. If you DO release it on console, then there's the problem of making fans pay for an update to a game they already have. Their best bet is to release it as a "Greatest Hits" title, a bit like Sega-AM2 did for VF4:Evolution. Even then, some fans might be so resentful of the changes in T5.1 that they won't buy the game, even if it IS a "Greatest Hits" title.

Time will tell whether this was a good move on Namco's part or not, but I myself am very curious to get into T5.1 and see for myself. The changes all seem to aim for longer rounds with more opportunities for comebacks. That's ALWAYS a good thing in my book if done right. The timing of this update definitely has an influence on my opinion, because I was starting to get my fill of T5. The game is so juggle-dependent that I was starting to find it repetitive. Whenever I have 25% life or less, and my opponent launches me, I know the round is lost and I just hang onto my controller in case he messes up his juggle. It sucks to know the outcome of the round so long in advance. Hopefully, there won't be too many new doors open for OTHER ways to inflict sinful amounts of damage on your opponent.