Developer: Namco |
Publisher: Namco |
Producer: Katsuhiro Harada |
Platform: Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 (as part of Arcade History mode in Tekken 5) |
Release date: Arcade
Playstation
Playstation Network |
Genre: Fighting |
Mode: Single-player, Multiplayer |
Arcade System: Namco System 11 |
Tekken (鉄拳? lit. Iron Fist) is a fighting game and is the first in the series of the same name. It was released at arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995 and was later released again in Tekken 5's arcade history mode. It was developed and published by Namco.
Story
A worldwide martial arts tournament is nearing its final, with a large purse of prize money to the fighter who can defeat Heihachi Mishima in the final round of competition. The contest is sponsored by the giant financial group, the Mishima Zaibatsu. There are eight fighters that remain after winning death matches all over the world. The winner of the tournament will receive The King of the Iron Fist title. Only one will have a chance at defeating Heihachi and taking home the prize money and fame. The player is initially able to select one of those eight fighters at the start of the game, each one having their own personal reasons for entering the tournament aside from the prize money.
Kazuya Mishima is the main character. Heihachi's biological son, he was thrown into a ravine by his tyrannical father when he was five years old. Heihachi, believing his son was too weak to ever inherit his conglomerate, decided that if he were truly strong enough, he would be able to survive the fall and climb back up. Kazuya barely survived a fall that left him with the scar prominently visible on his chest. Fueled by hatred for his father, he enters the tournament to exact his revenge.
Although all playable characters in Tekken have their own ending upon completion of their particular scenario, depicting events following the tournament as if they were the one victorious, it became a staple in later Tekken games of having only one character's ending as the true canonical one, and the following sequel's storyline is based on what happened after that particular ending.
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.
Traditional fighting games, such as Street Fighter, involve inputting commands as rapidly and accurately as possible, whereas Tekken slows the action down, emphasizing rhythm, strategy, and deception over speed.
Characters
Starting characters |
---|
Jack |
Kazuya Mishima |
King |
Marshall Law |
Michelle Chang |
Nina Williams |
Paul Phoenix |
Yoshimitsu |
Unlockable characters |
---|
Anna Williams |
Armor King |
Devil (acts as a costume swap for Kazuya) |
Ganryu |
Heihachi Mishima (final boss) |
Kuma |
Kunimitsu |
Lee Chaolan |
Prototype Jack |
Wang Jinrei |
Stages
Stage |
---|
Acropolis |
Angkor Wat |
Chicago |
Fiji |
King George Island |
Kyoto |
Marine Stadium |
Monument Valley |
Szechwan |
Venezia |
Windermere |
Gallery
Videos
Trivia
- This Tekken game is notable for having these distinctions:
- The sub bosses and the final boss do not have endings.
- The only game where Nina Williams fights barefoot.
- All the fighting stages are located outdoors.
- Identical music for every character's ending aside from Tekken Tag Tournament.
- The arcade mode is actually faithful to the original arcade game, allowing the player to complete a time record without being stuck with default game settings. The player can even pause the game, play vs. matches and change characters upon losing, however selecting the latter will void any time records.
- 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" but the development team later replaced it to Tekken.
- 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 appeared, he is seen as a toddler in this ending.
- King's ending features real digitized children, a technique which would later be used again in his Tekken 2 ending.
- On the PlayStation version, the Stadium stage has a big screen in the background reflecting the fight.
- If a memory card with completed Tekken data is inserted and the Tekken 3 disc is inserted (with theatre mode unlocked), the player can view the ending animations for Tekken. 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 by Tekken and Tekken 2.
- With the exception of Wang, the boss characters' voices are identical to other characters.
- On the arcade version, after selecting a fighter, their facial expressions would change, similar to Virtua Fighter. The character's name is also announced upon character selection.
- The only boss characters to have their names announced are Wang, Lee and Heihachi. Armor King, P.Jack and Devil Kazuya use the same samples as their default characters, King, Jack and Kazuya Mishima respectively. With other characters, the announcer simply says You Win.
- Each stage's background music, with the exception of the Venezia stage, would later be recycled in Tekken 2. Some tracks also made a comeback in Tekken 4, including Venezia.
- The intro featuring Kazuya has remixed music on the PlayStation version, but cannot be changed to the original arcade music like the Heihachi intro in Tekken 2.
- If Heihachi is selected, he must face all of the boss characters, then face Devil Kazuya at the end. The characters are in a fixed order: Kunimitsu, Kuma, Wang, Ganryu, Lee, P.Jack, Armor King, Anna and then Devil Kazuya.
- The player can listen to all the game music with a CD Player.
- The cover has a blue figure in addition to the 8 default playable characters. Based on certain artwork showing more of the cover, it would appear to be a version of P.Jack.