Tekken (video game)

For other uses, see Tekken (disambiguation).

Tekken
File:Tekken arcadeflyer.png Front side of North American Tekken arcade flyer.
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 (as part of Tekken 5 's Arcade History mode), PlayStation Network
Release	Arcade PlayStation PlayStation Network
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to two players
Arcade system	Namco System 11

Tekken is a fighting game and is the first of the series. It was released at arcades in late 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995. A simplified "arcade" version of the game was later released in Tekken 5's Arcade History mode. It was developed and published by Namco. It is succeeded by Tekken 2, which came in 1995.

Gameplay

Tekken is one of the earliest 3D fighting game franchises, with the first game applying many of the concepts found in Virtua Fighter by Sega.

As with many fighting games, players choose a character from a lineup, and engage in hand-to-hand combat with an opponent.

Tekken differs from other hand-to-hand fighting games in some ways. Traditional fighting games are usually played with buttons which correspond to the strength of the attack, such as strong punch or weak kick. Tekken, however, dedicates a button to each limb of the fighter, making learning special attacks more of an intuitive process. The player could watch the animation on screen and figure out the appropriate command (if the character kicks low with their right leg, the move is likely to be executed by pressing down and right kick, or a similar variation).

By default, there will be two rounds of combat. However, the players have a choice from one to five rounds, as well as options for the time limit of each round. If the winning character retains all his or her health without the time having run out, the announcer will say, "Perfect!" If the winning character is near knock out, the announcer will call, "Great!" Occasionally, both characters will be knocked out simultaneously, and the announcer will call "Double K.O." If the time limit for the round expires, the character with more health will be declared the winner. If one does not exist, the round will be a draw. In most cases, the announcer will call "K.O." when one character is victorious.

In the game, the name of the location was displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen. The locations were all real places and included Angkor Wat (Cambodia), Szechwan (China), Monument Valley (USA), Chicago (USA), Kyoto (Japan), Fiji, Windermere (Great Britain), Venezia (Italy), Acropolis (Greece), King George Island (Antarctica), and Chiba Marine Stadium (Japan). However, in later Tekken games the location names were removed and the locations themselves became more generic.

Story

Heihachi Mishima, the powerful and ruthless owner of the multi-national Mishima Zaibatsu, has announced the King of the Iron Fist Tournament, a fighting competition tournament with a one billion dollar cash prize to the winner. There are eight competitors, and one of them is an undefeated world champion fighter who is apathetic towards the prize money and solely wants to take his revenge on Heihachi himself.

This man's name is Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi's lost son. As history puts it, when Kazuya was only five years old, Heihachi carried him on the mountain threw him off a cliff to see and prove whether or not he was really his son (this would be determined by Kazuya's ability to survive the fall and climb back up). Kazuya did indeed survive the fall to the bottom, but it left a deep and bloody scar on his chest which was slowly claiming his life. The Devil appeared straight to Kazuya, offering him the opportunity to retrieve his strength back to take his revenge on Heihachi in exchange for his soul. Kazuya, driven by anger and hatred, and with life-threathing wounds, accepted the deal.

The King of the Iron Fist Tournament takes place twenty-one years later, and by now Kazuya is an undefeated champion of street fighting tehniques (the only time he didn't win is when being a draw against Paul Phoenix, another character from the game who wishes to win the tournament as well as defeat Kazuya). Kazuya enters the tournament, and ultimately makes it to the final round of the Iron Fist tournament, where Heihachi awaits him, angry about the winnings and success of his son.

Kazuya and Heihachi clash in battle atop the same cliff from which Heihachi tossed Kazuya years earlier, with the violent and bloody fight raging on for hours until Kazuya, now powered by the strength given to him by the Devil, overpowers Heihachi and beats him into unconsciousness. Kazuya picks up his father's broken body, and drops it from the cliff. Smiling to himself in triumph and final victory, Kazuya is now the new owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu Corporation.

Character roster

Main article: List of Tekken characters

The original arcade version had 8 characters available by default. Each character have "sub-boss", a special character that was fought on Stage 8. The sub-bosses were clones in term of movesets (they generally share the same moveset as the original character with few exclusive attacks). Heihachi, the main antagonist serve as the final boss for the game. All sub-bosses and Heihachi are not playable in the arcade version. When the game was ported to PlayStation, all sub-bosses and Heihachi were made playable. Also, Kazuya's alter-ego, Devil were made available as an unlock for completing the Galaga mini-game.

• Anna Williams (Nina's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Armor King I (King I's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Devil Kazuya (unlockable costume for Kazuya in home version and Heihachi's final boss)
• Ganryu (Yoshimitsu's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Heihachi Mishima (Final boss for all characters, except himself) (unlockable)
• Jack
• Kazuya Mishima
• King I
• Kuma (Paul's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Kunimitsu (Michelle's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Lee Chaolan (Kazuya's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Marshall Law
• Michelle Chang
• Nina Williams
• P. (Prototype) Jack (Jack's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Paul Phoenix
• Wang Jinrei (Marshall's sub-boss) (unlockable)
• Yoshimitsu

Note : Unlockable characters are only playable in home version

Ports and related releases

Front cover of North American PlayStation version.

Tekken was later ported to the PlayStation. The PlayStation version allowed players to unlock mid-boss characters when the game was beaten and had FMVs.

While the game loads for the first time upon turning on the console, a version of Galaga plays. If the player is able to shoot down all ships before they fly off screen, a secret 'Devil' version of Kazuya Mishima becomes selectable by selecting Kazuya and pressing the start button.

The PlayStation 2 version of Tekken 5 features the arcade version of Tekken (being an emulated version of its arcade counterpart as well as the other two that were included in the arcade history mode).

In 2005, Namco re-released Tekken as part of the NamCollection compilation for the PlayStation 2 to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary.

Reception

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
AllGame	Arcade: PS:
IGN	7.5 of 10

Tekken was met with many positive reviews, with critics claiming it was a good start to the series. Its success and popularity has spawned six sequels. The Tekken games have been highly popular with the martial arts community due to moves of the fighters being close to the actual style of fighting.

Tekken was the first PlayStation game to sell over a million units.

Guinness World Records awarded Tekken with multiple records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These include, "First PlayStation Game to Sell Over One Million Units", "First Fighting Game To Feature Simulated 3D", as well as a record for the entire series as "The Best Selling Fighting Series for PlayStation Consoles."

See also

• Namco Arcade Stick (PlayStation peripheral)

External links

• Tekken page at Tekkenpedia
• Tekken Zaibatsu page
• Tekken for PlayStation at GameSpot.com
• Tekken for Arcade Games at GameSpot.com
• Tekken.wikia.com