| Tekken |
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REVIEW: The original 3D fighting series known as Tekken emerged in arcades around the world in 1994. The title offered an interesting cast of characters and some particularly hard-hitting gameplay. Each fighter has your basic punches, kicks, special moves and throws; a comparable set-up to Virtua Fighter / Virtua Fighter 2. Tekken's control scheme introduced a
unique 4-button layout. Each button is assigned to each limb on the character,
making it feel natural for players. Combining buttons allows for alternate
attacks and various throw techniques. Each character can also execute at least
one 10-hit combo string, which requires hitting a series of buttons in order and
with proper timing.
In Tekken, the 3D stages go on
indefinitely, as characters will never encounter a wall. This original gameplay
element offers unique mind games, allowing players to better set up their
attacks, as well as run & tackle each other after creating a distance. Each
character presents a unique fighting style, packed with a nice variety of
priority attacks and some brutal looking throws. There were, however, a handful
of more "awkward" animations in the original Tekken, but the apparent
weirdness of the animation actually allowed the game to stand out even more
among its competitors (which wasn't a bad thing). Even with its awkward moments, what Tekken's
animation did right was collision detection and “ouch factor”. Characters
have a considerable amount of weight to them and nearly all of the moves in the
game look painful when they connect, possibly more so than in any other fighting
game in 1994/1995! Tekken also didn't feature any projectile attacks,
which really set it apart from the wildly popular Street Fighter 2 series (where
Hadokens & Sonic Booms ran rampant). Most of the moves that fighters can
pull off in Tekken also came off as "original" and didn't blatantly
copy other fighters from other games (which some other games were doing).
The biggest downside of Tekken was its
somewhat odd presentation. The character selection screen shows off some pretty
funny looking 3D-rendered character faces... did I say funny? I meant to say
UGLY. The Playstation version of Tekken was a faithful port of the arcade version and presented a new, and very graphically impressive, opening cinematic for the time. Tekken was the first PlayStation game to sell over a million copies and was awarded a Guinness World Record for "The Best Selling Fighting Series for PlayStation Consoles". The Playstation version also featured 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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Arcade)
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PS1)
Honestly, the game itself was also on the ugly side, even for the time.
Character models are a polygonal mess and the actual backgrounds are 2D,
basically warping around the 3D characters and square floor (which actually
became a 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 its original characters and unique style of animation &
gameplay. The fighting was also semi-realistic, an achievement which so few
fighting games even attempted, although characters are still able to jump
incredibly high (much like in Virtua Fighter).