Tekken (1994)

Tekken (1994)
Welcome, To The King Of Iron Fist Tournament.
Genre(s): Fighting Platform(s): PlayStation Arcade Release Date: Arcade JP December 9, 1994 WW May 12, 1995 PlayStation JP March 31, 1995 NA November 8, 1995 EU November 29, 1995 Developer(s): Namco Publisher(s): Namco Successor: Tekken 2

Tekken (鉄拳) is a fighting game developed and published by Namco. It was originally released for arcades in 1994, and ported to the PlayStation in 1995. It is the first entry in the Tekken series

Plot

When Kazuya Mishima was five years old, his father, Heihachi Mishima carried him to the top of a mountain and threw him off a cliff to test his son's strength in order to see whether or not he is fit to lead the Mishima Zaibatsu, the family business, and to also see if he will be able to climb back up the same cliff. Kazuya survives the initial fall, but was left with a large scar on his chest, which causes a supernatural power within him, known as the Devil Gene, to activate, giving Kazuya the opportunity to gain immense strength and power. Driven by his thirst for revenge, he climbs up the mountainside. To further motivate Kazuya, Heihachi adopts the Chinese orphan Lee Chaolan and raises him as a rival to his true son, who he felt was too weak to lead their family's Mishima Zaibatsu company. Years later Heihachi announces the King of Iron Fist Tournament where the winner has a chance to challenge him and the one who beats Heihachi gets to be called the King of Iron fist as well as rewarded 1 million dollars

Why it's the King of Iron fist

1. It started the iconic fighting game series Tekken which would later on become one of the best selling fighting games ever as well as one of the most popular esports titles
2. Unlike other fighting games, you get to have for types of simple attacks depending on the limb (for example, square is for right punch while triangle is for left punch) which helps in making lots of combos
3. The game is a 2 round match by default but you can alter the match to make it from 1 round match to even 5 round match, you can even alter the time length of a match to even make it infinite, giving you lots of possibilities to play the match
4. 9 stages, second final stage has a sub boss that differs depending on the character, beating said sub boss lets you fight Heihachi, a challenging but fun boss.
5. 17 Characters including iconic characters like Kazuya, Paul, Nina and Heihachi, 8 of them unlocked from the start including at least:
   • Kazuya Mishima: Heihachi's father and enemy, a character that's easy to play but hard to master.
   • Heihachi Mishima: Kazuya's father, enemy and the leader of the Iron Fist Tournament, he can be easy to learn but also hard to master.
   • Nina Williams: An assassin who's well known for her grappling moves, she would be one of the most iconic women in gaming.
   • King: A wrestler well known for professional fans, once mastered you're almost guaranteed to win
   • Yoshimitsu: A ninjistu with a swordsman that's great for beginners.
   • Jack: A robot that can be easy to learn but hard to master.
6. Each character has a different sub boss and defeating Heihachi with said character unlocks said sub boss (PS1 version only)
7. At the beginning of the game you can play a Galaga mini game, if you beat all 8 stages of Galaga, you unlock Devil Kazuya
8. Controls are fluid, you can alter the shoulder buttons (L1,R1,L2 and R2) to have combos done, for example you can make L1 button make left punch and right punch instead of just pressing the buttons yourself
9. Defeating Arcade mode unlocks an ending for said character which is satisfying.

Bad Qualities

1. The game is the first game in the series so unsurprisingly it aged badly and many of the problems below are the reason
2. Like many fighting games at the time, the characters jump really high
3. Graphics don’t look good, the characters have weird faces when expressing emotions, most notable the iconic Kazuya Smug face
4. The 8 characters unlocked from the start are the only characters with endings at the end of the game, not to mention that they all share the same music.
5. Galaga minigame at the beginning is very hard and unforgiving, one mistake will stop you from unlocking Devil Kazuya (who is just a skin here)
6. Most characters sound the same, many of them sound the same as Jack robots in the series
7. Heihachi’s Ai can be really cheap and hard to beat sometimes.
8. The sub boss characters are clones of the character you’re fighting with, with few moves that distinguish them

Reception

The game received positive reviews with many praising the gameplay and the arcade to console transition for the Playstation version.

The game sold 1 million units, the first Playstation game to do so

Trivia

1. Kazuya’s smug at the ending cutsence became a meme
2. The game wasn’t supposed to be a fighting game, but rather as an internal Namco Test Case for animating 3D Character models similar to that found in Namco’s 1993 racing game Ridge Racer.
3. 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."
4. This is the only game in the series where the stages are based on real life locations.
5. The Arcade version was re-released in Tekken 5 as part of Arcade History.
6. Although not the only game to have Kazuya as the main protagonist, it's the only one where he's the good guy.
7. Namco released this game with a low budget, that's why many characters have the same voice actor/actress.

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