Tekken

Year: 1995
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Console Played: Playstation

Tekken is now known as one of the greatest fighting game series of all time (and my personal favourite), but it didn't actually start off so hot. The game is essentially a Virtua Fighter rip off (minus the ring out). It's a blocky, slow and dull affair that only really showed off the basics of the what the new Playstation console could deliver. I still like it though, don't get me wrong. The music and sound effects are great, Tekken really tried to have a story to it with its great cutscenes that each character recieves upon completing the game. Tekken also tried hard to have a much larger movelist than most games previous. It's a simple little fighter and I like it, even if it has been overshadowed by every subsequent game in the series. It's the aesthetic of Tekken that won my heart really, the characters, the music, the locations, all great, and our introduction to these unforgettable elements here is what outshines the flawed technical aspects of the game. The characters may just be based on old martial arts film stars, and other beat em up stereotypes, but Tekken tried harder than any beat em up previous to flesh out these characters and really give them a backstory, and that is where Tekken wins out. This is the genesis of it all.

A surprisingly robust fighting game considering how early it came in the original Playstation's life and how new-ish the 3D fighting genre was at the time. The total roster of playable and unlockable characters is pretty decent, though many are simply just pallet swaps. Still, to have so many characters introduced that are still important parts of the series is pretty impressive.

The audio and graphical fidelity for the release is pretty decent. The models look surprisingly good, though they all would be greatly improved in each later release. The music and fx are, while certainly not pushing any boundaries in the franchise or for the console, pretty fitting and add to the game as a whole.

Tekken is a great first entry in the series and doesn't really falter in too many aspects. While it certainly doesn't offer too many modes or varied play styles, it has a great roster of characters and still feels complete as a total package.