The release of Namco's highly anticipated fighting game, Tekken 5, is nearly upon us. The game is scheduled to ship to arcades nationwide sometime in October, and to build hype and give fans of the series a chance to check the game out, Namco has had a 70% build on tour, around the country. The game's first stop was just outside Chicago. After three solid days of play, we're back with our thoughts on how this fighter is shaping up.

If you've already read our hands-on with the game at the annual Evolution Fighting Game Championships, you have a basic idea of how the game plays. However, a few adjustments have been made to the game between the 50% Evolution build and the 70% build we played this past weekend. The best way to describe Tekken 5 in its current form is to say it's the way Tekken 4 should've been done. Tekken 5 effectively merges the best of each game in the main series (sorry, no tag option) into what could be the best Tekken title yet.

In many minds, Tekken 4 was a step back for the series. Your freedom of movement was seemingly stripped from you, and while walls were a novel idea, some players weren't pleased with how Namco implemented them. In Tekken 5, your freedom of movement has returned and feels much more like an evolution from the movement featured in Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament. In addition, Namco has made each stage a completely flat surface, so players won't have to worry about inclines and the randomness they caused in Tekken 4.

However, not everything in Tekken 4 was bad. Namco took the wall implementation and used a variation of it in Soul Calibur II. Now, that same variant will be making its way to Tekken 5. When a character is hit against the wall by a power move, that character will be stunned, leaving them open to another attack. As we've mentioned in earlier reports, the position change has been removed from the game.

One of the main changes between the 40% build and the current build was the addition of a working character customization system using a data card. Each data card runs $5, which is likely the price it will be when the game arrives at your local arcade, and resembles a credit card in size and durability. The cards used in Chicago were strictly for the test version featured there, and had the Tekken 5 logo on them. The final production cards will have character art with five different styles to choose from.

Each cabinet will have a bill slot that accepts 5 dollar bills or 1 dollar bills. You can insert your money at any time, and your card will be ejected from the card holder next to the bill slot. Once you have purchased a card, you can customize it at any point in time. Simply put in your tokens to play, and when the character select screen appears, place your card in the card slot over the control panel. You will be asked if you wish to customize this card. Once you select yes, you will be prompted to select the character you wish to have on the card. Each card will only hold one character.

Once your character has been selected, you will have three options: Item Shop & Equip, Game Start, and Name Entry. Each time you insert your card at the character select screen, you will have 30 seconds to do whatever customizations you wish. You can also edit your name at any point in time, so if you mess up the first time, or decide to change your name, you can.

For each versus game you win, you will be awarded 1,000 points to use toward customizing your character. Every versus loss will earn you 250 points, and every single player win will grant you 40 points. The 70% build we played did not have the stat tracking or custom color mode active, and only featured a limited selection of custom goodies for each character, but the final version will feature roughly 40 items for each character, along with stat tracking and custom color options. Some examples of the items we purchased were oven mittens that hung on Ling's side and cost 3,000 points. We were also able to earn pink glasses that Ling wore, which cost 20,000 points. However, the next available item was 120,000 points, so we were unable to earn enough points to purchase it. You can remove any item you've already purchased and reapply it at any time without additional cost.

When you first create a custom character, you will be ranked in the Beginner level. Your name and level are displayed on the screen during each match. For every three versus wins, you move from Beginner up to 9th Kyu, and finally up to 1st Kyu. When you win three times at the 1st Kyu ranking, you move to 1st Dan. From here you will only be able to move up in ranking if you beat other players of equal or higher ranking three times. Each card will last for 500 games, at which point you will be prompted to purchase a new card and transfer your data. Each time you return to the character select screen and insert your card, it will show how many plays you have left, counting down from 500.

From our limited play time, Tekken 5 appears to be shaping up to be one of the best Tekken games yet. After talking to many local arcade operators, the tentative ship date for the game appears to be around the middle of October. If you haven't begun asking your local arcades about getting Tekken 5, now is the time to start. We'll have more on Tekken 5 in the coming weeks. In the meantime, head on over to our download page to find a plethora of match videos from our time in Chicago, or check out the new screens just released for the game. We would like to thank Namco's Jason Arney for the opportunity to play the beta, and Tekken Zaibatsu member Hetfield for the match videos.