I got my hands on a copy of the Tekken 5 Demo CD that shipped with Death By Degrees. So heres my take on it.
The game opens with the Arcade FMV sequence, overlayed on this is the message insert coin(s) weird that a PS2 game needs coins.. anyways. There are only 2 characters in the demo , Raven and Asuka. Raven can only be selected by using P1 and Asuka by using P2. Following the Versus Screen you are taken to a 1 round match against your opponent, after this round ends you get the game over screen, there is no versus mode.
The graphics are totally sweet and flow nicely. They say it isnt as crisp as the arcade but since I never saw the arcade version I can't comment on that. The stages are gorgeous, the burning Honmaru stage especially has the heat effect which can play tricks on the eyes.
Musically the game seems to have the normal techno sound. Some sound great while others sound generic.
Gameplay wise I'm not sure if it's just me but the damage on some moves seem to be insane. Raven to me seems very n00b friendly. Most of his combos are pretty simple and do decent damage. The damage I've been able to do from his basic combos so far is nice. I've taken to him rather well. Haven't tried Asuka as much. The ingame demos show some other fighters but nothing too special. I got something that could be a infinite off the wall, but I can't be too sure if it is true. I wouldn't be too surprised though, the walls in Tekken 4 gave characters wall infinites.
Other characters I spotted so far include Kazuya , Jin , Feng Wei , Christie , Marduk , Bryan , Julia , Lee , Lei and King.
So far this has pretty much satisfied me even though its short and all. If you got cheat devices ( which I dont got) you can use codes for infinite round time and health which would make it like a big practice mode.
I give the demo a 3 outta 5 mainly because of the 1 round thing which sucks ass
The release date for Tekken 5 has supposedly been confirmed for the 25th of this month. This game will definately not fail to impress.
Oh and Heihachi is alive... big surprise huh