Tekken is a fighting game franchise created, developed and published by Namco.
Beginning with the original Tekken in 1994, the series has received several sequels as
well as updates and spin-off titles.
The series has also been adapted into three films and other media.
The series' official English name is always written in all-capital letters.
The story in each game in the main series documents the events of the King of Iron Fist
Tournament, hosted by the Mishima Zaibatsu corporation.
The prize is typically control of the company, which then allows the winner to host the following
tournament.
Games
Each major installment debuted in arcades, and the hardware used to run them traditionally
had PlayStation-based hardware.
Subsequently each Tekken installment was eventually ported to its respective PlayStation console.
The first game in the series, Tekken, was released in 1994, first as an arcade game
and then as a port for the PlayStation.
Two sequels, Tekken 2 and Tekken 3, were released in the same fashion in 1996 and 1998, respectively.
Tekken 3 was also ported to the Game Boy Advance as Tekken Advance in 2001.
The next two sequels, Tekken 4 and Tekken 5, were ported to the PlayStation 2 in 2002
and 2004, respectively, following their release in arcades.
A PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 version of Tekken 5, retitled Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection,
was released in 2006.
An online version of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection was also released in 2007 for the PlayStation
Network.
Tekken 6 was originally released for arcades in 2007, followed by an updated version in
2008 titled Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.
In 2009, the update was released for the PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 as Tekken 6.
Tekken 6-based Tekken 3D: Prime Edition was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2012.
The seventh installment, Tekken 7 was announced at the EVO 2014 event on July 13, and will
be powered by Unreal Engine 4.
Spin-off and crossover games A spin-off title under the name of Tekken
Tag Tournament was released in 1999.
In contrast to previous titles, Tekken Tag Tournament features tag battles.
In 2000, Tekken Tag Tournament was the first Tekken game ported to the PS2.
A remastered version of the game, Tekken Tag Tournament HD, was included in the 2011 collection
Tekken Hybrid, which also contained a playable demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and the film
Tekken: Blood Vengeance.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was released in Japanese arcades in 2011.
Its console version was released the next year and is based on the updated arcade version
that contained new features.
A free to play version of Tekken was released in 2013 for PSN as Tekken Revolution.
Tekken Card Challenge was released on the WonderSwan, a Japan-exclusive handheld, in
1999.
A spin-off action adventure game featuring series' character Nina Williams as the protagonist,
Death by Degrees, released for the PS2 in 2005.
Two mobile Tekken spin-off games were released in 2011: a 2D fighting game Tekken Resolute,
which was the first game not to include Heihachi Mishima, and Tekken Bowl, the bowling mini-game
from Tekken Tag Tournament, for the iOS operating system.
Tekken Bowl was first game not to include Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix, or
King.
In 2013, a third mobile game titled Tekken Card Tournament was released by Namco Bandai
to the App Store for iOS and Google Play Store on Android.
It is currently in public beta status, featuring virtual cards, an in-game store to buy booster
packs, and online tournaments.
Namco Bandai also plans to release real world cards that have QR codes to upgrade the virtual
cards and unlock new characters.
That same year, Namco Bandai also released Tekken Arena to the Google Play Store on Android.
Namco and Capcom agreed to create crossover games of the Tekken and Street Fighter franchises.
In 2012, Street Fighter X Tekken was released, followed by Tekken X Street Fighter.
The former game was developed by Capcom and includes 2D gameplay mechanics as seen in
Street Fighter IV, whereas the latter game will be developed by Namco and will include
the gameplay mechanics from Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
Gameplay As with many fighting games, players choose
a character from a lineup and engage in hand-to-hand combat with an opponent.
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 of the four limbs of the fighter.
In the original Tekken, players could not block attacks.
From then on, starting with Tekken 2, characters automatically block while not moving forward
or performing actions, a feature called "neutral guard."
Standing or retreating characters will block high and middle attacks with no input from
the player, while crouching characters will duck high attacks and block low ones.
Normal middle attacks will hit crouching players, but some special mid-attacks can be blocked
by both stand and crouching neutral guards.
Meanwhile, pressing backwards will give the player an "active guard" that can withstand
certain combo attacks that would normally penetrate the neutral guard.
The gameplay system also includes throws, escapes, and ground fighting.
Some characters are equipped with parries and reversals that act like traditional "press
button to block" systems.
Tekken 3 introduced several gameplay possibilities that were retained in later games, including
the ability to sidestep into the foreground or background.
Tekken 3 and later games also reduced recovery time after being knocked down and gave characters
rolls to recover instantly after hitting the ground, allowing the player to get back into
the fight more quickly at the risk of being hit while rolling.
Tekken 4 gave characters even greater mobility by adding true 3D movement inside geometrically
complex arenas with uneven ground, obstacles, and walls.
The 3D gameplay allows damaging side and back throws as a reward for outmaneuvering the
opponent, as well as evasive attacks that develop directly from a sidestep.
Tekken 5 saw a combination of walled and infinite arenas, while discarding uneven ground.
Tekken 6 retains much of the design from Tekken 5 but also includes a "Rage" mode, which actives
when a character is near the end of his vitality bar and earns a damage multiplier.
"Bound" hits were also added, in which a player connected with an airborne opponent will place
him in an inescapable grounded state, allowing combo extensions.
Tekken 6 also has destructible floors that allow the fighters to fall through to new
fighting areas when broken.
Characters
Players can choose from a diverse cast that hails from a variety of ethnic backgrounds
and fighting styles.
A few characters have supernatural origin, such as Devil, Angel, Mokujin and Ogre, while
animal characters like Kuma, Panda, the Roger family, and Alex provide comic relief.
In the story mode of the game, each character generally has their own personal reasons for
entering the tournament and competing for the prize.
So far, only three characters have appeared in all nine Tekken installments: Heihachi
Mishima, Paul Phoenix and Nina Williams.
The Jack cyborgs, Kazuya Mishima, and Lee Chaolan appeared in eight installments.
Other recurring characters includes Anna Williams, Lei Wulong, Armor King, Marshall Law and King.
In fact, all nine games feature Law, King and Kuma style fighters, even if they were
represented by different characters.
Characters with background connections in the story typically have styles or moves in
common.
For example, the three playable generations of the "orthodox" Mishima family have handed
down many family techniques, such as their signature "crouch-dash" and the moves that
chain from it.
Jin Kazama is more divergent, because his mother Jun Kazama was also a playable character,
and he inherited some of her moves along with Kazuya's.
There are other story relationships that affect gameplay, such as Wang Jinrei and his granddaughter/student
Ling Xiaoyu, or Baek Doo San and his student Hwoarang.
Some, like Anna Williams, started as an "alternate costume" for an existing character before
branching out and getting some unique moves in later installments.
Some Tekken characters have been featured as guest characters in other video games,
such as Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis, Digimon World Re:Digitize, Naruto Shippuden:
Ultimate Ninja Storm 2, Pac-Man Fever, Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2, Soulcalibur
II, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Ridge Racer 6 and Urban Reign, as well as in some
crossover role-playing video games, including Cross Edge, Namco × Capcom, Project X Zone
and Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos.
Adaptations Animated films
Tekken: The Motion Picture, a two-part OVA anime series, was released in Japan in 1998.
It was developed by Studio Deen and directed by Kunihisa Sugishima.
Its story follows Kazuya Mishima's revenge against his father Heihachi in the King of
Iron Fist Tournament.
Tekken: Blood Vengeance, a full-length CGI-animated film in Digital 3D directed by Youichi Mouri,
premiered in the United States in 2011 and was released in Japan two months later that
same year.
Digital Frontier developed and Bandai Entertainment distributed the film.
Blood Vengeance is an alternate retelling between the events of Tekken 5 and Tekken
6.
It was released in Japan in December 2011 as a part of the Tekken Hybrid collection.
Live-action films Tekken, a live-action film directed by Dwight
H. Little and starring John Foo, Ian Anthony Dale and Kelly Overton.
It was released at the AFI Film Festival on November 5, 2009 and in Japan on March 20,
2010 through Warner Bros. Pictures.
The film focuses on Jin Kazama who enters into the King of Iron Fist Tournament after
his mother's death.
Katsuhiro Harada, director of the Tekken video game series, has panned the film.
A prequel to the 2009 film titled Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge is set to be released on
August 21, 2014.
It is directed by Wych Kaosayananda and stars Kane Kosugi and Kelly Wenham, with Cary-Hiroyuki
Tagawa and Gary Daniels returning from the first film.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2, a live-action short film by Wild Stunt Europe, was released on
Namco Bandai Games Europe's YouTube channel on October 19, 2012.
Other media There have been five printed adaptations of
the Tekken games.
Knightstone Comics published both Tekken Saga and Tekken 2, released in October 1997 and
September 1998 respectively.
Both comics were written by John Kim and illustrated by Walter McDaniel.
Tekken Forever, a comic book by Dave Chi, illustrated by Paco Diaz, and published by
Image Comics in December 2001, features a story that focused on the Kazama family and
also the Unknown character from Tekken Tag Tournament.
Tekken: Tatakai no Kanatani is a manga written by Keiichi Suzuki and published by Shogakukan,
which was collected in two tankōbon volumes with the first one on December 5, 2000 and
the second one on April 5, 2001.
Tekken Comic is a manga illustrated by Rui Takato and published by Ultra Egg Jump in
2009.
Although the story leads up to the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6, it is non-canonical
to the main video game series.
Characters and settings from the series also appear in the collectible card game Universal
Fighting System by Fantasy Flight Games and in Epic Battles by Score Entertainment.
Reception As of August 2010, the Tekken franchise has
sold 41 million units of games.
Critical reception to the games has been positive with Tekken 3 receiving an average of 96%
at Metacritic and GameRankings.
Developers of non-Tekken games have commented on the series in various ways.
Ed Boon, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat, revealed in one of his interviews with GamePro
that his favorite fighting game out of his competitors is Tekken.
Both Sega and Namco have shown interest in a possible crossover between Virtua Fighter
and Tekken.
The series has often been labelled as a "rival" to Virtua Fighter as the two became the most
famous 3D fighting game series.
On the other hand, Tomonobu Itagaki, designer of the Dead or Alive series, expressed dislike
for the Tekken franchise to the point of placing it as one of his most hated games.
In 2012, Complex ranked Tekken at number 11 on the list of the best video game franchises,
commenting: "Just when we thought that the Street Fighter franchise was going to be the
epitome of fighting games, Tekken came to make it share its portion of the knuckle-busting
pie.
Tekken has cult-like fans who live and breathe the moves and storylines."
Tekken Museum In May 2012, Namco Bandai opened Tekken Museum
in Osaka, Japan.
The museum showcases goods, action figures, artworks, life-size statues of Tekken characters,
and various merchandise.
The items on display will be rotated regularly so that the museum is worth multiple visits,
but the admission is free.
Namco held a grand opening on May 26, 2012 which featured a tournament for visitors.
References
External links Official website
Official website Official website