Video games - Tekken

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	Video games - Tekken

Tekken (鉄拳, "Iron Fist") is a series of fighting games developed and produced by Namco. Originally an arcade game, it has been ported to the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2 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 differentiate it by the red spotlights in the character selection background and green lifebars. A second more major update named Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection 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. Namco has also confirmed that a Tekken game is under developement for the Sony PSP, and will probably be a portable version of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.

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 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. Other Tekken characters also draw heavily from real life action heroes, such as Lei Wulong, a video game analogue of Jackie Chan.

Drawbacks

The criticisms of the franchise are few. Many reviewers have noted that the overall selection of fighters has suffered from somewhat poor balance throughout the existence of the series. For example, Kazuya Mishima in Tekken Tag Tournament had the "Wind Godfist," a move so powerful and easy to execute that few other characters could match it (except those characters who also possesed this move); the Wind Godfist was then weakened in Tekken 4, leaving Jin Kazama to fill the power vacuum with similarly unbalanced moves. These kinds of problems are very difficult to detect during character design, so they will probably remain not only in future versions of Tekken but in all fighting games for the forseeable future.

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Video games - Tekken

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