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This article is about the first game in the series. For the series itself, see here. For the 2010 movie of the same name, see here.

Tekken (鉄拳? lit. Iron Fist), also known retrospectively as Tekken 1, is a fighting game and the first entry in what would become the Tekken series and franchise. It was first released in 1994 in arcades and was soon ported to the PlayStation home console; in later years it was included in Tekken 5's Arcade History mode, in 2005 it was included in NamCollection, and in 2011 it was released for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita via the Playstation Network. Tekken was developed and published by Namco as one of the earliest fully 3D fighting games, coming a year after rival Sega's Virtua Fighter. Tekken was succeeded a year later by a sequel, Tekken 2.

Story[]

A worldwide martial arts tournament sponsored by a giant financial group, the Mishima Zaibatsu, is nearing its finale. A large purse of prize money and the King of the Iron Fist title are the rewards - but a competitor must defeat the Zaibatsu's ruthless leader, Heihachi Mishima, to win. Only one will have the chance to defeat Heihachi and take home the prize money and fame - however, some competitors have motivations beyond wealth and notoriety...[1]

One such competitor is Kazuya Mishima, Heihachi Mishima's son. When Kazuya was a child, Heihachi threw him off a cliff, ostensibly to find out whether he was resilient enough to inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu; Heihachi's reasoning was that, if Kazuya were truly strong enough, he would be able to survive the fall and climb back up.[2] Kazuya barely survived the fall, which left him with the prominent scar on his chest. Fueled by hatred for his father, he enters the tournament to exact his revenge.

Kazuya reaches the final battle and defeats his father in combat.[2] Taking his father to the very same cliff he was tossed off of in his childhood, Kazuya exacts revenge by dropping Heihachi over the cliff edge.[3]

Gameplay[]

T1gameplay

Gameplay (Kazuya Mishima vs Michelle Chang)

Tekken was one of the earliest 3D animated fighting games, applying many of the concepts found in Virtua Fighter by Sega. As with Virtua Fighter 2 released around the same time, Tekken was also among the very first 3D animated console video games running at 60 frames per second (except the PAL region release, which was limited to 50 frames per second).

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 a 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 can 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.

Traditional fighting games, such as the Street Fighter series, involve inputting commands as rapidly and accurately as possible, whereas Tekken slows the action down, emphasizing rhythm, strategy, and deception over speed.

Moves[]

Lists of moves by character that can be performed in Tekken.

See: Tekken Move Lists

Characters[]

Default characters[]

Unlockable characters[]

Cameos[]

Unlockable Characters[]

Character Condition to unlock
Anna Williams Beat Arcade Mode with Nina Williams.
Armor King Beat Arcade Mode with King.
Ganryu Beat Arcade Mode with Yoshimitsu.
Kuma Beat Arcade Mode with Paul Phoenix.
Kunimitsu Beat Arcade Mode with Michelle Chang.
Lee Chaolan Beat Arcade Mode with Kazuya Mishima.
Prototype Jack Beat Arcade Mode with Jack.
Wang Jinrei Beat Arcade Mode with Marshall Law.
Heihachi Mishima Beat Arcade Mode with any default character in under 5 minutes 30 seconds without losing a single battle.
Devil Beat all 8 stages of the Galaga loading screen.

Stages[]

Music[]

There were three major soundtracks released for Tekken, entitled Namco Game Sound Express VOL.17 Tekken, Tekken (UK Release) and Tekken (JP Release).

Voice cast[]

Voice Actor Character
Banjō Ginga
  • Jack
  • P. Jack
  • Ganryu
  • Heihachi
Katsuhiro Harada
  • Law
  • Yoshimitsu
  • Kunimitsu
Lynn Harris
  • Michelle
Scott McCulloch
  • Paul
Jōji Nakata
  • Kazuya
  • Lee
  • Devil
Tamio Ōki
  • Wang
Yumi Tōma
  • Nina
  • Anna

Gallery[]

Tekken/Gallery

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • This Tekken game is notable for having these distinctions:
    • All of the arenas are located outdoors.
    • The sub-bosses and the final boss do not have ending cutscenes.
    • Identical music is used for every character's ending.
    • The Arcade Mode is faithful to the original arcade game, allowing the player to achieve a time record with no need for default game settings.
    • The only game where the unlockable characters do not have ending cutscenes.
  • Devil Kazuya is unlockable by beating the Galaga mini-game that is playable before the actual game loads up.
  • Originally, Tekken was to be titled "Rave War". The development team later renamed the game Tekken. There is a homage to the original name in two of Marshall Law's attack strings ("Rave War Combo"; f+2,2,2, and Quick Rave War; 2,2). The name Rave War is also featured on one of the cars in the arcade version of Ridge Racer, which was released one year earlier.
  • Marshall Law's son Forest Law and wife Mrs. Law can both be seen in Yoshimitsu's ending.
    • This is the first time Forest Law appears. He is seen as a child in the ending.
    • The child version of Forest Law is wearing a white tank top and yellow pants.
  • Marshall Law was originally going to be called Dragon. In the arcade version, a voice clip of the announcer saying "Law the Dragon" still exists in the data, but it is never heard in full in regular gameplay; when the sound clip is used in-game, it is cut off early to only say "Law". The PlayStation and Tekken 5 Arcade History versions do not contain the unused portion of this audio.
  • King's ending features digitized footage of real children, a technique which would be used again in his Tekken 2 ending.
  • In the PlayStation version, the Stadium stage has a big screen in the background reflecting the fight. The image duplication effect would later be reused in Tekken 2 for the Mirror Darkness stage.
  • If a memory card with completed Tekken save data is inserted and the Tekken 3 disc is inserted (with Theater Mode unlocked), the player can view the endings for Tekken and listen to the game's soundtrack in the theater's 'Jukebox' menu; this also works for Tekken 2.
  • In Jack's ending video, the machine connected to Jack is named System 11, which is the name of the arcade hardware used in both Tekken and Tekken 2.
  • With the exception of Wang, the boss characters' voices are identical to other characters.
  • In the arcade version, each fighter's facial expression changes when they are selected, similar to Virtua Fighter.
    • In the PlayStation version, due to weaker system specs, the character animations on the character select were removed. Their still character images are taken from either the beginning or end of the animation, with the exception of Heihachi Mishima, who has a slightly different image.
    • Yoshimitsu and Kunimitsu share the same character select animation.
  • Each stage's background music has been recycled in later games.
    • In Tekken 2, with the exception of the Venezia stage, every other stage BGM was included as a soundtrack for the boss characters when playing in 2P mode (although the Venezia soundtrack was included in the Tekken 2 Strike Fighting Vol.1 OST).
      • The arcade version of Tekken 2 only recycled the Fiji stage music however, and only when Roger or Alex are fought.
    • Some tracks also made a comeback in Tekken 4, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Tekken 7.
  • The intro featuring Kazuya has remixed music in the PlayStation version.
  • If Heihachi Mishima is selected, he must fight all of the sub-bosses. The characters are fought in a specific order: Kunimitsu, Kuma, Wang Jinrei, Ganryu, Lee Chaolan, Prototype Jack, Armor King, Anna Williams, and Devil Kazuya.
  • The player can listen to all of the game's music by placing the game disc in a CD player.
  • The games cover art features part of a blue figure in addition to the eight default playable characters. Artwork showing the extended cover art shows that this figure is Prototype Jack.
  • The only boss characters to have their names announced are Wang, Lee, and Heihachi. Armor King, Prototype Jack, and Devil Kazuya are announced as King, Jack, and Kazuya Mishima respectively. With other characters, the announcer simply says You Win.
  • Paul Phoenix is the only character in the game to not have a clone as a boss, although some of his moves are shared with other bosses, namely Phoenix Smasher, Hammer Punch, Hammer Punch to Power Punch, Double Hop Kick High, Double Hop Kick Low, and Triple Kick Combo.
  • Yoshimitsu and Kunimitsu share the same winning poses.
  • Anna Williams, Armor King, Ganryu, Heihachi Mishima, Kuma, Lee Chaolan, Prototype Jack, and Wang Jinrei only have one win pose instead of two.
  • The arcade version only has the eight default characters selectable, with the bosses only being CPU players, similar to Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.
  • The arcade version has different costumes for King, Law, and Ganryu which are not available on the PlayStation version: King's second costume has a white shirt and red pants instead of a blue shirt and white pants; Law's first costume is entirely yellow with 03 IRON FIST on the back; and Ganryu's only costume consists of black shorts.
  • The arcade version only has one costume for the boss characters. Their additional costumes were exclusive to the PlayStation version.
  • The arcade version has significantly less moves for the bosses, with most boss characters having almost identical movesets to the selectable characters and only a handful of extra moves, which in turn are borrowed from other fighters. Ganryu is the only boss character in the arcade version to have a unique move, his Open Palm Combo.
  • This is the only game in the classic PlayStation trilogy to not have stages representative of the characters.
  • In the 1996 Filipino movie Batang Z, one of the characters can be seen playing Tekken. The character plays as Michelle Chang in a fight against King I.
  • One of the grunts which King, Armor King, and Kuma makes is present in the 2001 Disney/Pixar film Monsters, Inc. A minor character named Harley Gerson makes this grunt in the scene where Boo is revealed to be human and panic breaks out at Harryhausen's.

See Also[]

External Links[]

References[]

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