(LAST UPDATE: 9/15/09)
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Developer(s): Namco
Publisher(s): Namco
Platform(s): Arcade,
Playstation
Release: December 9th 1994 (Arcade), March 1995 (JP PS1), November
1995 (NA PS1)
Characters:
Kazuya,
Law,
Jack,
King,
Nina,
Michelle,
Paul,
Yoshimitsu,
P.
Jack, Lee,
Armor
King, Wang,
Anna,
Kuma,
Heihachi
Related Games:
Tekken
2, Tekken 3,
Tekken
Advance, Tekken 4, Tekken
Tag Tournament, Tekken 5, Tekken
5: Dark Resurrection, Tekken: Dark Resurrection,
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online,
Tekken 6, Tekken 6:
Bloodline Rebellion
Story:
Heihachi Mishima, the powerful and ruthless
owner of the multi-national Mishima Zaibatsu, has announced the King of the Iron
Fist Tournament, a fighting competition with a one billion dollar cash prize.
There are eight competitors, and one of them is an undefeated world champion who
is apathetic towards the prize money and solely wants to take his revenge on
Heihachi. This man's name is Kazuya
Mishima, the son of Heihachi. As history puts it, when Kazuya was five years
old, Heihachi threw him off a cliff to see whether or not he was really his son
(this would be determined by Kazuya's ability to survive the fall and climb back
up). Kazuya did indeed survive the fall, but it left a deep and bloody scar on
his chest which was slowly claiming his life. The Devil appeared before Kazuya,
offering him the opportunity to retrieve his strength back to take his revenge
on Heihachi in exchange for his soul. Kazuya, driven by anger and hatred,
accepted.
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The King of the Iron Fist
Tournament takes place twenty-one years later, and by now Kazuya is an
undefeated champion (the only blemish on his record being a draw against Paul
Phoenix, another character from the game who wishes to win the tournament as
well as defeat Kazuya). Kazuya enters the tournament, and ultimately makes it to
the final round where Heihachi awaits him. Kazuya
and Heihachi clash in battle atop the same cliff from which Heihachi once tossed
Kazuya, with the violent and bloody fight raging on for hours until Kazuya,
powered by the strength given to him by the Devil, overpowers Heihachi and beats
him into unconsciousness. Kazuya picks up his father's broken body, and drops it
from the cliff. Smiling to himself in triumph, Kazuya is now the new owner of
the Mishima Zaibatsu.
Review: The original
3D fighting series known as Tekken emerged in arcades of the world in 1994,
offering an interesting cast of characters along with some hard-hitting gameplay. Each character has your basic
punches, kicks, special moves, and throws which was a comparable set-up to Virtua Fighter
/ Virtua Fighter 2. Tekken had a unique control scheme however, featuring
a more natural 4-button layout which assigned one button to each limb on the character... Two
punch buttons (arms) & two kick buttons (legs). Combining buttons allowed
for alternate attacks &
various throw techniques. Each character could execute at least one 10-hit combo
string, which required hitting a series of buttons in order and with the right
timing.
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In
Tekken,
the 3D stages go on indefinitely, as characters will never encounter a wall. This
gameplay element offered some unique fun, as characters can run and tackle
each other after creating a distance. Each fighter offered a unique fighting
style with a variety of priority attacks, and notably some brutal
looking throws which were executed very well in terms of animation. There were, however, a handful
of more "awkward" animations, but the weirdness of the animation actually made the
game stand out among it's competitors, which wasn't exactly a bad thing. 
Even
with it's awkward moments, what Tekken's animation did right was the collision
detection and ouch factor... Characters had a considerable amount of weight to
them and nearly all of the moves in the game really looked like they hurt when
they connected, possibly more so than in any other fighting game at the time. Tekken also
didn't feature any projectile attacks, which really set it apart from the well
known Street
Fighter 2 series (where Hadokens & Sonic Booms ran
rampant). Most of the moves the fighters could pull off in Tekken also came off
as "original" and didn't copy other fighters from other games.
The biggest
downside of Tekken was it's somewhat odd presentation. The character selection
screen showed off some pretty funny looking 3D rendered character faces... Did I say
funny? I meant to say UGLY. 
Honestly, the game itself was also on the ugly side. The character models were
a polygonal mess, and the actual backgrounds were 2D, and basically warped
around the 3D characters and floor (which actually became a memorable trademark of the series). Even though the graphics weren't nearly as impressive
as some of the other 3D fighting games in '94, Tekken managed to stand
out with it's original characters, and unique style of animation. The
fighting was also semi-realistic, although characters were able to jump
VERY high.
The original Tekken
was the first PlayStation game to sell over a million units, and was
awarded a Guinness World Record for "The Best Selling
Fighting Series for PlayStation Consoles." The Playstation version was an
improvement over the arcade version, featuring an all new game intro, impressive
FMV character endings, and allowed players to unlock mid boss
characters when the game was beaten. It was a killer console fighting game at
the time, addicting as well as fun!
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- Review is for Playstation version of Tekken - |
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7 / 10 |
Closing Comment:
This silly little game was the start of what became one of the best fighting game franchises ever...
Although, the first Tekken was quite far from the word "epic". Most of
us know Tekken as a 3D fighting game, but the first Tekken
actually played more like a 2D one... There was no sidestepping, and characters
could jump incredibly high which made it comparable to many of the top 2D fighting games at the
time (which were running the arcades in 1994).
The first Tekken had a certain coolness about it, but
definitely came off as more "laughable" than serious, though at the same time it didn't seem to take itself
too seriously either (which also became a trademark of the series). Tekken
was a huge success on the first Sony Playstation and quickly became a favorite
among fighting game fans... Only a year later, Tekken
2 made it's way to arcades and built upon the solid foundation created by
the original Tekken. ~F.Yagami,
Webmaster
of TFG
