Tekken

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Tekken (鉄拳, lit. Iron Fist) is a series of fighting games developed and produced by Namco. Originally an arcade game, it has been ported to the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, Gameboy Advance and the PSP consoles with a version for the PlayStation 3 in the works.

Information

The series is one of the earliest 3D fighting game franchises, with the first game released less than two years after Virtua Fighter. There are five Tekken sequel games, Tekken 2, Tekken 3, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 4, and Tekken 5. An update of Tekken 5 dubbed Tekken 5.1 is now out in arcades. One can easily differentiate it by the red spotlights in the character selection background and green lifebars. A second more major update named ' was released in arcades in late 2005. Also, Tekken 6 is thought to be in development for release on the PlayStation 3 console. The series also has one game for a non-PlayStation console called Tekken Advance which was released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2001; however, Namco did not release any more Game Boy Tekken titles after this due to the franchise's exclusive deal on the PlayStation platform. A PSP version of ' simply called is due sometime in July of 2006. [link]

As with many fighting games, players each choose a character from different, exotic worldwide settings and fight hand-to-hand with each other. It is primarily a competitive two-player series, but a human player can fight an AI-controlled character for practice or amusement.

Tekken differs from other hand to hand combat games in some important ways. Traditional fighting games are usually played with buttons that correspond to the strength of the attack (for example, strong punch or weak kick). Tekken, however, dedicates a button to each limb of the fighter, making learning special attacks more of an intuitive process. The player could watch the animation on screen and figure out the appropriate command (if the character kicks low with his right leg, the move is probably executed by pressing down and right kick, or some variation thereof). Whereas traditional fighting games, such as Street Fighter, involve inputting commands as rapidly and accurately as possibly, Tekken slows the action down, emphasizing rhythm, strategy, and deception over speed and reaction.

The Tekken games are popular within the martial arts community thanks primarily to the fact that most of the characters' fighting techniques can be found in real life martial arts. However, there is some question as to the accuracy of the style labels ascribed to certain characters. For example, in previous releases of the game the character Paul Phoenix is listed accurately as fighting using judo (his fighting style is listed as integrated Martial Art based on Judo...) in spite of the fact that competition judo does not generally include punching and kicking (striking is known in Judo as Atemi-waza, but it is not allowed in competition). Similarly, the character of Marshall Law is listed as being a practitioner of "martial arts", yet in fact the fighting techniques of fellow characters Nina Williams, Hwoarang or Eddy Gordo are as much "martial arts" as anything Marshall Law does. Indeed, one who is familiar with the work of Bruce Lee would not fail to see the similarity between the Jeet Kune Do founder's fighting in movies and the techniques of his fictional counterpart in the game series as well as the similarities in physical appearance. This misunderstanding concerning Marshall Law's 'martial arts' is commonly attributed to the fact that in the manual for the American PS1 release of Tekken 2, the translator for the manual missed a small pun whereby Marshall Law practiced 'Marshall arts', a reference to his own name. Other Tekken characters also draw heavily from real life action heroes, such as Lei Wulong & Craig Marduk, video game analogues of Jackie Chan & large wrestlers/mixed martial artists such as Bill Goldberg, Nathan Jones and Bob Sapp, respectively. Namco themselves have stated that the styles in Tekken are not supposed to accurately represent real styles but merely give the impression of them.

Gameplay

Tekken shares some gameplay mechanics and characters with the other Namco-produced 3D fighter series, Soul Calibur.

The original Tekken bears not much resemblance to the most recent release. The series' trademarks are: the using of separate buttons for right/left punches and kicks, resulting in 4-button combat, wile most 3D games (except later Mortal Kombat) used two, throw escapes and, starting from Tekken 2, autoblock. Each iteration was improved upon both graphically and technically. Tekken 3 introduced the ability to move into and away from the background, commonly referred to as "sidestepping." Tekken 4 gave players even greater mobility adding true 3D movement whilst simultaneously including geometrically complex arenas of varying heights complete with obstacles and walls to the series. This was a large break from Tekken tradition, as one of the characteristics of previous games was that all of the arenas had no boundaries - the player could walk forwards or backwards infinitely far. Tekken 5 saw the return of both walled and infinite arenas, while the very fluid mobility of Tekken 4 had been toned down to appease many players who felt it made the game more focused on evasion. Tekken Tag Tournament is not a part of the normal series, but it is considered by some as the pinnacle of the Tekken series. It involved each player controlling one of two fighters which they could swap in and out of the fight at will, and tag team attacks and juggles which were both damaging and visually appealing.

Continuity

The Tekken storyline tends to leave a decent amount of plotholes. For example, in the Tekken spin-off game Death by Degrees, Nina works in a joint operation run by the CIA/MI6. Anna works in the Tekken Force, run by the Mishima Zaibatsu. The Tekken Force was actually established some time after Tekken 2 to give world leaders the impression that Heihachi wanted to keep peace, masking his true intention of world conquest. What's even more confusing is that this game implies that this was how the rivalry between Nina and Anna started in the Tekken canon, though an already-present sibling rivalry turned worse when their father, Richard Williams, seemed to favor Nina and taught her the assassin trade, making Anna jealous; both also seem to blame each other for their father's death.

Appearances in other media

• The Young and Dangerous series featured scenes where the cast played Tekken 3. The Young and Dangerous series was directed by Andrew Lau Wai Keung who also directed Kuen sun (a.k.a. The Avenging Fist) which is loosely based on the Tekken storyline.
• Tekken: The Motion Picture, an anime movie, was released in 1997.
• Charles Stone III is directing a live-action movie tentatively titled Tekken which is said to only be loosely based on the games.
• Comedian Dane Cook acknowledges Eddy Gordo's kicks on his comedy album Retaliation released July 26, 2005.
• One of the most popular Indonesian thriller movies, Tusuk Jelangkung, shows one of the actors playing Tekken 4 on a PlayStation 2.
• Tekken 4 is seen being played in the French-Canadian movie Les Invasions Barbares.
• In the movie Ichi the Killer, Ichi is seen playing Tekken Tag Tournament when he's finished killing his targets.
• In episode 7 of the first season of Spaced, an argument between the the two main characters (Tim and Daisy) is spliced with excerpts from Tekken 3. Daisy wins the argument and acts out Nina Williams' victory animation complete with a superimposed score/energy bar etc. A voiceover proclaims in true Tekken style: "Daisy Steiner Wins!"
• In the movie Shaun of the Dead, a reference is made to a night in which Shaun, Ed and Pete played Tekken 2.
• A TV commercial by the Swiss Milk Producers Association aired in 2000 features their cow mascot Lovely fighting (and winning) against Tekken character Forrest Law.
• In the British soap opera, Hollyoaks, numerous characters are seen playing Tekken regularly.
• In the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, actor Ben Affleck's character tries to get Jimmy Fallon's character to remember the good times they had sneeking into the arcade and playing Tekken until 2 in the morning.
• In the British gangstar film Bullet Boy, the a child is seen playing Tekken 4 arcade mode and again later on playing the first level of the Tekken 4 Tekken Force Mode with Kazuya Mishima.
• In the Great Teacher Onizuka manga vol.15, Eikichi Onizuka endures an arm wrestling match with 50 people, one of them looking like Heihachi Mishima.
• In popular Japanese manga Love Hina, the female lead Naru Narusegawa is a pro tekken player and even has a trademark punch the hero calls "Tekken Punch".

Games

The following is a list of titles in the Tekken series:

• Tekken - Arcade (1994), PlayStation (1995)
• Tekken 2 - Arcade (1995), PlayStation (1996)
• Tekken 3 - Arcade (1996), PlayStation (1998)
• Tekken Tag Tournament - Arcade (1999), PlayStation 2 (2000)
• Tekken Card Challenge - Wonderswan (1999)
• Tekken Advance - Game Boy Advance (2002)
• Tekken 4 - Arcade (2001), PlayStation 2 (2002)
• Tekken 5 - Arcade (2004), PlayStation 2 (2005)
• - Arcade, PSP (2005, 2006)
• Tekken 6 (working title) - PlayStation 3 (2007)

Trivia

• The characters Paul, Nina, Yoshimitsu, King (different person in Tekken 3), Kuma (Kuma Jr since Tekken 3), and Heihachi have been in all Tekken games. However, both Forrest Law and Marshall Law have the exact same fighting style and both look similar, but are father and son so therefore Law cannot be accounted for, in which the same goes for Michelle Chang/Julia Chang.
• The game Karateka is misattributed to Tekken on the Power Player Super Joy III albeit lacks technological advances that Tekken has.
• Creator of Mortal Kombat Ed Boon revealed in one of his recent interviews with [GameDaily], that his favorite fighting game is Tekken and he likes to play it in the free time.
• It has been announced that Tekken will be the next fighting game series to be featured in the trading card game Epic Battles, which currently features Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
• Yoshimitsu appears in all of the games from the Tekken series and in Soul Calibur, Soul Calibur II and Soul Calibur III (though they are usually represented as different characters), and one of Tekken's main villains Heihachi appears as a "guest character" on the PS2 version of Soul Calibur II. Furthermore, both Tekken and Soul Calibur characters appeared in Namco x Capcom, a crossover RPG involving various Namco and Capcom franchises.
• Apart from Yoshimitsu and Heihachi, there are many cross-overs between Tekken and Soul Calibur series, such as King's mask available for custom characters in Soul Calibur 3, Isabella "Ivy" Valentine hairstyle for Anna in Tekken 5. Yoshimitsu and Heihachi, being originally Tekken characters, obtained many new moves when brought to the Soul Calibur series. In later Tekken versions some of these attacks were added to their moves lists. Kunimitsu in Tekken Tag Tournament has a leaping uppercut slice move very similar to one of Taki's (from Soul Calibur).
• Tekken 5 celebrates the 10th anniversary of the original game and includes the first three games in the Arcade History mode of the PS2 version as well as the Star Blade arcade game (a portion of this is playable while the game loads right after it’s turned on), later also unlockable for Arcade History. It is also the first in the series to feature character customizations, color palette choices and additional items that can be added to give an extra degree of individuality to player's characters.
• Tekken characters Law and Paul make appearances as unlockable playable characters in the Namco made brawling game Urban Reign.
• The PlayStation version contained two sets of soundtrack; arcade and remixed. Namco kept the tradition with Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. However, due to the decision to put Tekken Tag Tournament on a CD-ROM for the PlayStation 2, that version only contained a remixed soundtrack, which wasn't favored by many fans to the original arcade soundtrack.
• IGN awarded Tekken 5 the "Best PlayStation 2 Fighting Game For 2005" award.
• GameSpot awarded Tekken 5 the "Best Fighting Game For 2005" award, and nominated the game for the "Best PS2 Game For 2005".

See also

• List of Tekken Characters
• Mishima Style Fighting Karate
• Devil Gene
• Tekken (2006 film)

External links

• [Tekken Official Website]
• [Tekken Zaibatsu]
• [Tekkenomics]
• [Tekkenpedia.com]
• [Tekken Portal Site]
• [Tekken at The Killer List of VideoGames]
• [Former GamesMaster commentator Derrick Lynch] on a UK television in 2001, giving his thoughts on the Tekken/Virtua Fighter rivalry
• [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy entry on the first 5 Tekken games]

Regional

• [Arcadepimp] (Australia)
• [Tekken Australia] (Melbourne, Australia)
• [Tekken Forces] (France)
• [Tekken Central] (Korea)
• [Tekken Poland] (Poland)
• [SBTEKKEN] (Santa Barbara)

 

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