Tekken

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 (Australasia), Windermere (Great Britain), Venezia (Italy), Akropolis (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 Iron Fist Tournament, a fighting competition with a one billion dollar prize money. There are eight competitors, and one of them is an undefeated world champion who is apathetic towards the prize money and solely wants to take his revenge on Heihachi.

This man's name is Kazuya Mishima, the son of Heihachi. As history puts it, when Kazuya was five years old, Heihachi threw Kazuya off a cliff to see whether or not Kazuya was really his son (and thus capable of surviving and climbing back up). Kazuya survived the fall, but with a deep and bloody scar on his chest, slowly claiming his life. The Devil appeared before Kazuya, offering him his strength back and a little more to take his revenge on Heihachi in exchange for his soul. Kazuya, driven by anger and hatred, accepted.

Twenty-one years have passed, and Kazuya is now an undefeated champion, the only blemish on his record being a draw against Paul Phoenix (a fellow competitor who wants to defeat Kazuya). Kazuya enters the tournament, and ultimately makes it to the final round, where Heihachi awaits him.

Kazuya and Heihachi clash in battle atop the same cliff from which Heihachi once tossed Kazuya, and the violent and bloody fight rages on for hours until Kazuya, 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, Kazuya is now the new owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Characters

Starting characters

• Kazuya Mishima
• King
• Nina Williams
• Paul Phoenix
• Michelle Chang
• Law
• Yoshimitsu
• Jack

Unlockable characters

• Anna Williams
• Kuma
• Kunimitsu
• Armor King
• Wang Jinrei
• Prototype Jack
• Ganryu
• Heihachi Mishima
• Devil

Ports

Tekken was ported to the PlayStation. The PlayStation version allowed players to unlock mid boss characters when the game was beaten and had FMVs. The PlayStation 2 version of Tekken 5 features the arcade version of the original Tekken.

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

Reception

Tekken was met with many positive reviews, with critics claiming it was a good start to the series. Its success and popularity has spawned five 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.

References

1. ^ PLAYSTATION HISTORY - Playstation Frequently Asked Questions in ABSOLUTE PLAYSTATION

External links

• Tekken Zaibatsu page