Fans of the Iron Fist tournament should be aware that Namco's Tekken series turns 30 this weekend.
Created by Seiichi Ishii, the original Tekken was released on 21st September 1994 on the System 11 arcade board, which was based on the PS1 hardware.
This made a home port relatively easy, and in 1995, PlayStation fans got a true rival to Sega's iconic Virtua Fighter (Ishii was a designer on that particular game before joining Namco).
The focus of the original Tekken was very much around Kazuya Mishima and his father, Heihachi Mishima, who famously hurls his son off the top of a mountain to test is strength.
Since the release of the first Tekken in 1994, we've seen eight direct sequels and several spin-offs, with the latest game arriving this year. The series has sold an impressive 58 million copies.
Comments 8
That’s hilarious seeing how many times the Mishimas have thrown each other from a great altitude. You’d think they’d learn by now it doesn’t stop them coming back!
I never really got into any of the Tekken games after the third, although I quite enjoyed the JAMMA version of Tag Tournament. After that the games just felt a bit uninspired and I missed the unique CGI endings you’d get for each character.
Thank you, Seiichi Ishii — and ***** Katsuhiro Harada.
What a trip! It certainly doesn't feel like 30 years ago...
I remember renting this game back in 1996 and being blown away by the visuals. It looked very close to the arcade version. The sequel which I pre-ordered (before I even bought a PSone!), also blew me away. Then a third time with Tekken 3, a game I poured a lot of time into, and really enjoyed it. NAMCO really hit it out of the park 3 times in a row, and offered more content, and fun CGI endings that SEGA wasn't giving us on the Saturn unfortunately.
Happy Anniversary to my personal favorite fighting game!!! Tekken 2 was the game that made me want to a PS. I remember playing it at my local Blockbuster and really enjoying it. Then a few months later my friend got a PS along with Tekken 2 and we would play it all the time.
My favorite overall was 3 especially King I played that one so much at home that when I went to the Arcade I rarely lost as King. So many fond memories thank you again!!!
Tekken 2 was my introduction to the series, what a ride it has been since then.
I've been playing tekken for the last 20 years , tekken 3 is my favourite in the franchise & my favourite game of all time. I think the storylines has hot increasing more ridiculous over the years but the gameplay is still great 😀
@Badboykilla187 Totally agree. Wish Sony would hurry up and re-release it on the PSN store. I enjoyed playing the upscaled version of Tekken 2 but Tekken 3 would be even better. Or perhaps a Tekken 1-6 compilation with both PS and Arcade versions, taking a leaf out of Capcom and Konami’s book?
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