Tekken

aka: Rave War
Moby ID: 3612
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Description official descriptions

The powerful fighter Heihachi Mishima throws his five-year-old son Kazuya off a cliff, saying that the child will survive the fall if he is truly his son. The fatally wounded boy is approached by the Devil, who offers him his life and a chance to become a fearsome fighter in exchange for his soul. Determined to get even with his father, Kazuya agrees. Twenty-one years later Heihachi, now the head of a corrupt corporation, organizes a fighting championship his son is eager to join.

Tekken is a versus fighting game similar in concept to Virtua Fighter. Besides Kazuya, other fighters of the tournament all have their own range of moves, something to prove, and a reason for any combat opponent to fear them. For example, Nina Williams is a trained assassin, Yoshimitsu is a robotic recreation of a ninja, and Marshall Law aims to set up a fighting school to pass on his knowledge.

As one of these eight figures, the player must come through fights in a 360-degree 3D environments with texture mapped backdrops and polygon graphics. After beating the seven rivals there are two bosses to beat. There are three difficulty levels, and fight lengths and number of rounds can be varied.

Each limb's movement is controlled with a different button, making finding the right combos a matter of instinct and planning rather than experimentation. Pure martial arts inspire most of the moves. The slow-motion replay of the final moves allows the player to see where and what went right or wrong.

Spellings

  • 鉄拳 - Japanese spelling
  • 鐵拳 - Chinese spelling (traditional)
  • 铁拳 - Chinese spelling (simplified)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Arcade version)

51 People (33 developers, 18 thanks) · View all

Director
Main Designer
Coordinator
Game Maintenance
Design Supervisor
Character Design
Motion Design
Visual Design
Logo & Graphic Design
Program Supervisor
Main Program
Game Program
System Program
Stage Program
Effect Program
Motion Picture Program
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 20 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 68 ratings with 1 reviews)

Continue ?

The Good
Tekken. What other game besides Street Fighter comes to your mind when you think of fighting games ? Besides Virtua Fighter, DOA, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, oh never mind.

Gameplay-

Gameplay is what makes or breaks a game. Does Tekken make the cut ? Press start to continue ! OK, there's nothing out of the ordinary here. Punches, kicks, and throws. What makes it different from every other non-descript fighter before it ? It's in 3D ! Sure, there was Toshinden and Virtua Fighter, but neither of those were this smooth. For masters of all the awesome combos, you can be an unstoppable machine ! Pummel, throw and fight your way to the top ! And in addition to regular throws and such, you can punch and kick opposing fighters while they're still on the ground ! There are two different kinds of throws for each character to make it extra juicy. (Extra juicy if it's your friend playing against you !) If you beat the game with all eight characters, you get eight more to play with. Oh, did I mention you get to play Galaga at the load screen ? Why did that never catch on ? So much fun.

Sound-

HIGH-YA! Sound is really not a strength for fighting games, so the sound here is pretty average.There's plenty of easy to listen music.(Why did I say easy to listen to ? Because most game's music of that time when on a CD format was total garbage.) Most of characters have their own unique sounds, but some are recycled for opposite personality fighters. It's not bad by any stretch, but not terribly inventive either.

Graphics-

This is where Tekken has showed it's age, but I'll get to that later. The animation is still as smooth today as it was back then. I was shocked when I got to the boss fight and saw how fast he moved, without loosing his smooth animation. The fighters are all polygon based, and are fairly well designed. It's still easy to tell what part of the fighter is what. With some older polygon games, it's awfully confusing to tell what exactly you're looking at some times.

One thing that's not confusing are the backgrounds. All are very varied, and highly imaginative. The baseball field is really cool. You can even see yourself on the big screen TV in the distance ! I personally like Windermere and Fiji the best. (Nothing says bloodsport like a tropical island.)

But aside from it's excellent graphics, Tekken is also know for it's highly realistic FMV. As always, there's one true ending, and fancy endings for the other characters. (It's Kazuya ! I won't spoil what it is though. Maybe.) FMV and all, this is still a great looking game.

Control-

Another reason Tekken is so long lived. The controls are dead simple. You have a left and right punch. A right left kick, and you press two of those buttons to throw your opponent clear across the screen. The controls are responsive, but really flexible. I'll get to that later though. To help, you can customize the button layout, but there's no real need. All in all, a good setup.



The Bad
Gameplay-

THIS GAME IS HARD ! Even with the fights down to one round, and the time set to twenty seconds, this game can still be unreasonably difficult near the end. I have always played Tekken on the medium setting, but this was almost too much for me. OK, a lot of this stems from the controls, but we haven't got that far in the review yet. (Unless you're skipping you lazy bums !) And some of the unlockable characters aren't worth the time. Devil Kazuya, and Heihachi require PERFECT precision to unlock. No two characters are worth all that trouble.

Graphics-

This game has aged better than most, but still shows it's age just like other games. Even by 1998 this game would have old. The characters are made up of lots of polygons for a 1994 game (It was in the arcade first.), but it still looks awfully blocky at times. Particularly Kuma. And the texture mapping on some of the characters looks ugly. (Kuma and King come to mind.)

Control-

The controls are smooth, but only after you spend more time than you should getting used to them. For new comers, and people that have other Tekkens first, they're awfully stiff. And even when you get good with them, you'll still be trounced by characters later on in the game. This makes the game harder than it should be.

The Bottom Line
Definitely a must have for Tekken junkies like myself, and great fun for anybody looking for a good fighting game. And since you can get it so cheap, there's no reason not to get it !

PlayStation · by GAMEBOY COLOR! (1990) · 2008

Discussion

Subject By Date
Sub-Bosses Bobby Funderburke Oct 15, 2021

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Tekken appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Mini game

As with other Namco games of it's day (like Ridge Racer), Tekken's PlayStation version includes Galaga as a diversion while the game loads.

Title translation

The name Tekken literally translated, means "Iron Fist".

Working title

When the game was being developed for the arcade, the original title of the game was Rave War.

Awards

  • Game Players
    • 1995 (Vol. 8, No. 13) - Best Arcade-to-Home Translation Award (togetehr with Mortal Kombat 3)

Information also contributed by Big John WV, Donatello and Zovni

Analytics

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Related Games

Tekken 3
Released 1997 on Arcade, PlayStation
Tekken 4
Released 2001 on Arcade, PlayStation 2
Tekken 2
Released 1996 on PlayStation, 2006 on PSP, PlayStation 3...
Tekken 7
Released 2017 on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Tekken Card Challenge
Released 1999 on WonderSwan
Tekken Tag Tournament
Released 1999 on Arcade, PlayStation 2
Tekken 5
Released 2004 on Arcade, PlayStation 2
Street Fighter X Tekken
Released 2012 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows
Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus
Released 2003 on Xbox

Related Sites +

  • Tekken Zaibatsu
    Great fan page with information on Tekken, including FAQs, secrets, soundtrack info etc.
  • Wikipedia: Tekken
    Information about Tekken at Wikipedia

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 3612
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Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

PS Vita, PSP, PlayStation 3 added by GTramp. Android added by CrankyStorming. Arcade added by 666gonzo666.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Apogee IV, Shoddyan, Игги Друге, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added April 3, 2001. Last modified March 19, 2024.