Hello everyone I'm Jack Red, I always been a huge fan of fighting games since my child hood. But there's always one particular franchise I really look forward to beyond them all. Tekken is something truly special to me in so many ways. Honestly, this franchise is still a major inspiration to me. I really can not speak highly enough of it's greatness.
I am aware I made a similar blog talking quickly why I loved Tekken among all of it's competitors. I easily could've went deeper with it. Which is exactly why I'm making this post here. To me, that post was quick to the point yet lacked my real passion for this franchise. So I just hope this post greatly makes up for it.
Tekken started a few years after Sega's Virtua Fighter. Now currently the most successful 3D fighting game franchise in the world. Just in terms of sells seems to be more directly going head to head with Mortal Kombat. Now that in itself is virtually mind blowing. Tekken may have stories that are weird, silly & sometimes doesn't add up to anything.
At the same time, it actually is one of the select few games I'm great at. The controls are complex yet parts of it are simple enough to help get you going. Let's be honest, Tekken always had some of the finest songs in this genre alone. You probably could spend hours among hours to possibly days listening to em I'm not kidding.
Of course, it has so many characters. Tekken is widely known for having a huge roster of characters. Most of it's competition is keeping it around twenty maybe thirty in some cases. Tekken seems to constantly increase the amount of characters. Obviously, a move like this comes with a huge risk. Yet I strongly felt they pulled it off.
Only two of these games had guest characters that's weird. I could see how a handful of them fit in. Then you have characters like The Walking Dead's Negan. Now that's more of a guest character for an Mortal Kombat game than Tekken. I still say they made it fun to play as Negan. You also can customize existing outfits or create new ones for most characters.
It's hard to take Tekken characters seriously for so many reasons. You actually have animals that fight in these games. We're talking Alex (Raptor), Kuma (Grizzly Bear), Panda (well a Panda), & Roger (Kangaroo). It is still not common to see animals as fighting game characters. I should also mention there's a couple machine characters as well, which is more common.
Such as Jack series, NANCY-MI847J & Bryan Fury. You also have some characters that can transform like Jin, Kazuya & Ogre. No I'm not talking about Shrek lol. I loved they have so many fighting styles. Actually more than you usually see within an fighting game. I also loved most of the stages as well. I still don't have a particular favorite because there's plenty of great ones.
Tekken is evolving at a fast rate. If you been playing since the original, you should be great at the newer games. I personally loved both Tekken Tag Tournament games. Sure they aren't canon yet it's an excuse to play with more characters including those that haven't been in one for some time. Think of them as all-stars Tekken games.
Tekken originally done ports exclusively to PlayStation 1. Following Tekken 4, Tekken 5 started to be on more PlayStation consoles. By Tekken 6, the series was also on Xbox consoles. Of course, like many fighting game franchises there's joke characters. I know some see Mokujin as one of them. This may come as a huge surprise.
Mokujin is one of my personal favorite characters to play as in this franchise. This training dummy in every round will randomly have someone else's moves. Which means, you as well as your opponent have to guess whose moves Mokujin is using at that point in time. Now this is something I wish more fighting games have done.
Yes, I am well aware about the original Unknown, Combot and Tetsujin (metal counterpart). To me, none of them are as unique or even as fun to play than Mokujin. This character also cameos in Street Fighter X Tekken as well as in the movie Tekken: Blood Vengeance. There's a lot of endings in these games too.
I think the best way to describe them is most of them are just the right length. I still felt Tag Tournament 1's are a little too short to be called endings no offense. It just leaves you wanting more with little to no real way to satisfy. I also need to mention the newer ports are adding stuff not found in the arcade versions.
Usually this includes a handful of characters. Tekken 7 brought in the seasons system. Originally started with 2013 Killer Instinct game. Now all of them are doing it that comes with it's own pros as well as cons. Obviously, the pros is they add some stuff to the game. But the cons is they might not do it in a way that's good or at least excusable.
Let's be honest, Tekken is now getting the hang of how to do it. Season 1 was kinda lackluster but both it's guest characters works perfectly for this. By Season 2, now that's how you do it guys. Season 3 adds more direct things than just characters. Now they are adding a new top rank among other things. Tekken has the best difficulty balance of all it's competitors in my opinion.
I also loved it's incredibly easy to earn money at a fast rate. Some of it's competitors really makes you grind for that alone. You also can unlock more stuff to customize characters with is a nice touch. Surprisingly lacking in SoulCalibur series which is made by the same team. Tekken also has parts of some stages you can destroy to explore more of it.
By now you knew at some point I have to talk about the bosses. They started fair to Tekken 5 getting unfair in several ways. Now back to fair with Akuma in Tekken 7. The story mode of Tekken 7 is perfectly done in my opinion. The final fight not the bonus one, it greatly reminds me of MGS4's Solid Snake vs. Liquid Ocelot.
I am not kidding, both of them reference moments with those characters. It really was their last fight that literately wore both fighters down. The way it played out giving us the players a very satisfying conclusion to legendary rivalries. There's bonus portions with most of the characters. However it's just literately one fight which is kinda disappointing.
Some of the previous games has an arcade mode as well as an story mode. Yes I know a smaller scale variation of the concept. But at least, everyone having a great acceptable length story mode made me much happier. Well it's still better than only PS ports of the first Tekken games has endings. I do need to talk about the mini games.
This concept officially started in Tekken 3 on PS1 version. There's actually two additional mode that are interesting in their own right. Tekken Ball is like a dodge ball with a huge ball. There's two methods to unlock the guest character Gon. One of them actually is through this mode with the other for the scores input GON to get him.
The other mode is Tekken Force which plays like an beat em up game. There's a selection of bosses unlike you play as Mokujin. In that regard, every boss in this mode suddenly is Mokujin no joke. You actually have to beat it four times to unlock Dr. Bosconovitch. Whose the other console exclusive character.
More recently, he returned in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Yet he fights very differently that I ended up preferring. In Tekken 4, there's just Tekken Force mode which is not as good. Sadly, you don't get much from even playing it. Also, the game has a difficult time having you face multiple opponent. When they are on several sides of you.
Tekken 5 has The Devil Within which is exclusively played as Jin. Sure it's disappointing you don't get to choose your character. But I felt this mini game was way better than Tekken 4's Tekken Force mode. This mini game actually comes more off like it's own game. There's even an exclusive form of Ogre's too.
It also marks the first time you face Jack-4s since you don't play as any model in Tekken 4. As a huge Jack series fan myself, I really wasn't happy about that. Tekken 6 has Campaign Scenario mode which also brought confusion with where's everyone's endings located. Sadly, where majority of them are both Lars and Alisa doesn't have endings there.
Although, the reason is because this mode acts as their own story mode. A better way of saying it is Scenario Campaign was an early attempt at a bigger story mode. They learned what they can from it to make Tekken 7's story mode being way better. This mode has a lot of stages with every character cameos.
You actually can play as other characters in this mode too. There's also hidden stages that will require things to get. This mode is filled with boss fights as well as a few surprises. Like the bonus stage NANCY can be playable in a stage, the game will give you the option. In both Tekken Tag Tournament and 7, there's also Tekken Bowl mode.
Obviously, it's bowling one of my favorite sports believe it or not. Originally Dr. Bosconovitch cameos in Tag Tournament's. Can you imagine playing this as Negan lol. Some of the later games also allows you to switch out songs including from other Tekken games. Yes, you had to paid for them with real money for Tag Tournament.
Later in Tekken 7, you can use in game money to buy em or play enough hours to get everything unlocked. Tag Tournament 2 also done that with intros as well as endings excluding Gon's since they no longer had the rights to him. Once again, Tekken 7 made it more reasonable to get. It is so cool to have all of that in one place.
I don't see many fighting game franchises doing that either. Tekken really means a lot to me without question. Honestly, this franchise is so damn good sometimes I don't wanna play something else. I also loved how they done the ranking system. Especially with Tekken 7 allowing us to see the process getting to the next rank was a welcome feature.
Sometimes, you fight for hours not getting a single promotion match. This does include going a long time not losing an match. Tekken has some silly stuff as well. I recently finished Fight Lab from Tag Tournament 2. This is when the humor gets well Tekken humor lol. Some endings also have that going for them.
I also liked some endings in Tag Tournament 2 have characters self aware what happened. There's likely an Tekken character you're going to love. Not as many you won't dislike either. Honestly, this franchise set the bar extremely high for me. Sure, some of the movies aren't great. I still like two of the animated movies.
I could talk days possibly longer about Tekken. I think it's time to start rapping things up. Bryan Fury is another personal favorite of mine. It's difficult to believe they still make arcade versions. When most of it's competitors no longer does that. Tekken is like anime character such as Monkey D. Luffy & Goku. They never give up no matter what.
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