Tekken

Tekken was an ahead-of-its time 3D beat 'em up. It made a flawless transition to the Playstation, as one of its first titles, and was a true showcase for the new console.

Not only were the visuals a real treat, the gameplay was superb as well. Relying more on hand-to-hand combat rather than the fantasy special moves seen in previous titles such as Street Fighter 2, it excelled in the playability department, it succeeded where the frankly disappointing Virtua Fighter released a couple of years previous did not.

After spawning many follow-ups, I feel the series hasn't really progressed much since the original set the standard of 3D fighters (despite Tekken 2 being excellent). Nonetheless, the Tekken series will be remembered as the first truly addictive fighting game to use the 3D engine.

I think that many Tekken players will agree with me when I say that one of the best things in the Tekken series has always been the background music. Well, you should try putting your Tekken 1 disc in a CD-player... Voila, all the BGM from the game on an audio CD. If you put your Tekken 3 disc in it you can listen to the Staff Roll-song. It doesn't work with Tekken 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament though.

Tekken was the very first fighting game and I found it very interesting but it was hard. However I am able to complete no matter how hard or easy it is to play. The fighting styles of each fighter is cool.

The year was 1994, and no-one other than SNK could match the arcade 2D dominance of CAPCOM.

Namco wisely took a different direction, and decided to hire the architect of SEGA's 1993 3D hit "Virtua Fighter", Mr. Seiichi Ishii, (and a other former SEGA employees connected to the development of Virtua Fighter) as well as utilizing it's own in-house staff to help develop Namco's own (and first) 3D fighter.

Thus was born "TEKKEN". (originally under the development title of "RAVE WAR")

The basic wafer thin plot revolved around the "Iron Fist" (the literal translation of the games Japanese title "TEKKEN") tournament in which various contestants entered for numerous motives and reasons, bizarre or otherwise.

The game? In comparison to the likes of "Street Fighter II", "The King of Fighters '94" and "Mortal Kombat II", which were highly popular during the time, TEKKEN lacked the speed and glitz of it's 2D rivals. However, it DID have great, yet highly memorable 3D character designs, fascinatingly unique fighting styles and more importantly played like a dream. Released when Sega's Virtua Fighter was also wowing the arcade crowd, TEKKEN offered a depth and intuitiveness of play not found in any other game. The simple idea of four buttons corresponding to each limb and hold the joystick backwards to block made triggering complex attacking and defending maneuvers almost instinctual. Pure genius.

Fast Forward...

The date: March 31st, 1995. The place - Japan. A mere three months after it's original arcade debut, TEKKEN was released alongside Sony's first video game console - the PlayStation. The transition from arcade to PlayStation was almost nigh-on flawless. With the inclusions of a new rendered opening introduction, individual character ending movies, an optional arranged soundtrack, all exclusively and painstakingly created for the Sony Playstation release of TEKKEN, not to mention the extended number of playable characters which were not available in the arcade version...it was indeed TEKKEN nirvana for those able to afford Sony's behemoth. Namco had surpassed any and all expectation, as TEKKEN went on to become a global best seller....and the rest as they say, is history.

Ultimately, TEKKEN, was and is the game that would give Namco a worldwide franchise, following and recognition that only few other video game companies could perhaps ever match or hope to achieve.

A franchise that continues to this very day, on todays generation of PlayStation.

In 1994, the beat`em-up-genre was dominated by series such as "Street Fighter", "Mortal Kombat" and "Virtua Fighter", but Namco`s first fighting-game blew them all away.

Tekken was the second fighting-game to be released for the playstation, and it did away with its playstation-competition easily, since the playstation only had one fighting-game at the time, namely "Battle Arena Toshinden"(4,5/10), which never was THAT fun.

Tekken is a classic now, and still worth playing. The graphics rocked at the time, and are still okay. The gameplay, moves and characters made the Tekken-series.

A game that is surpassed only by Namco`s later fighting-games. 9/10