Like most games, the Tekken series has an interesting range of changes that have been
made to the games over the years, either in different countries around the world or sometimes
changes being made worldwide for one reason or another.
For instance, did you know that this PlayStation ad for Tekken 3 got banned in the UK by the
Advertising Standards Authority?
As this magazine reports, the ASA thought the ad was likely to cause offense and so
not only pulled the advertising campaign, but also forced Sony to first vet all future
poster advertisements through them in future.
Sony defended the poster, saying it was meant to show "a surreal situation by positioning
the body parts in the manner reminiscent of a cartoon character" - but, nonetheless, the
ASA's decision still stood by.
Moving things over to Korea, where the character Alisa has been censored in all versions ever
since her introduction in Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.
Whilst elsewhere, the humanoid robot can sprout chainsaws during combat, all Korean versions
have instead replaced these with lightsaber-like devices.
That's not all though.
The Korean versions also make other changes to Alisa so that her body parts can no longer
detach.
This includes her head which she will usually use in combat in various creative ways.
It's not known why exactly this change has been made in Korea, although it is suspected
to be due to not wanting a higher age rating or due to the title's heavy Korean eSports
presence, and the fact it is often broadcast on TV.
Back to Tekken 3 and this time for some censorship that was made to all English versions of the
game.
As shown here in this split screen footage from Anna WIlliam's ending, in the original
Japanese version on the right, the ending is longer and goes very differently.
In the English versions, the scene ends with Anna meeting some guys by the pool and walking
towards the camera with them.
Over in Japan though, Nina isn't happy about this attention that she and her sister are
receiving and walks up to Anna and unhooks her bra.
The Japanese version then ends with Nina, not Anna, walking towards the camera.
Next up, we go to Germany, for an interesting change that had to be made to Pokkén Tournament
for Wii U and Pokkén Tournament DX for Nintendo Switch.
Whilst not a true Tekken game, the title fuses elements from the Tekken series into the Pokémon
universe and this is hinted at with its "Pokkén" name.
Over in Germany though, this name has the unfortunate effect of being similar to the
German word for "smallpox".
Thus, for all German versions, the game now instead goes by the name Pokémon Tekken instead.
For another Tekken cross-over game, this time we have an explanation on how this over 9000
meme was inserted into Street Fighter X Tekken's English translation...
As the website Legends Of Localization reports, everything is kept pretty similar in the Japanese
version, except that instead of "over 9000" the power level is given the precise number
of 8782.55...
It is clear that the English localizers decided to use this as an opportunity to reference
Dragon Ball Z and its popular over 9000 quote...
However, it's possible that the original Japanese version was also referencing this scene from
Dragon Ball.
You see, in the Japanese Dragon Ball dub, Vegata doesn't say Goku's power level is "over
9000" but "over 8000" - meaning the Japanese Tekken line still fits.
Moving things to Tekken 2 and another regional difference between the Western and Japanese
versions.
The Japanese PlayStation release actually contained a theatre mode that you could unlock,
which allowed you to watch all of the game's cutscenes at your leisure.
It's unknown why this was removed over in the West but thankfully the theatre mode would
return in Tekken 3 and this time would be available worldwide.
And, as an added bonus, it even allowed you to insert Tekken 1's and 2's discs and watch
their cutscenes too.
This time for not a regional difference but an example of a game having to be altered
worldwide, following a piece of text being unknowingly put in the game that was likely
to cause offense.
In the original versions of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, there was Arabic text on the floor of the
Saudi Arabia stage and some of this text said Allah - the Muslim name for God.
Fans took to Twitter to point this out and the series producer responded, saying:
"We didn't know that.
We will change stage design data as soon as possible.
We couldn't read that."
The fact that God's name was on the floor of a fighting arena was considered disrespectful
and so the stage was promptly changed to remove this.
The Tekken series is far from being a stranger to some controversy though.
You may recall some of the many twists and turns that Tekken 7 took leading up to its
release.
For instance, at one point Harada blamed, to quote, "SJWs" and suggested that the swimsuits
would be removed from English versions to avoid any controversy.
During another incident, the producer said that Lucky Chole would be removed from the
US version following criticism from some over her being too 'cutesy'.
And then there was another incident, where the same producer told the world that Roger
Jr had to be removed from the Western versions over fear of complaints from "animal activists".
When release day came around however, it was found that none of these reports turned out
to be true.
It was likely that the producer was just trying to be provocative and so perhaps this is something
you may want to keep in mind when it comes to any future incidents like these.
Sticking with that last point about "animal activists", though, it is often reported on
the web that PETA, aka People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, actually got in touch
with Namco in the early 2000s and complained over Anna's Tekken 3 Zebra outfit and that
it promoted wearing fur.
Whatever the case, whilst Censored Gaming can't prove or disapprove this as being true,
it seems to be a very commonly held belief and it's also interesting to note how the
outfit didn't make a return all the way up until Tekken 6.
Anyway, that's all we have time for today but hopefully you have now learnt a few new
things about the different versions of Tekken around the world.
Think we've missed anything?
Please let us know in the comments below and let us know what games you want us to take
a look at next!
Until next time, thank you for watching!