The Grand Tekken Saga

This I believe is  a game we all know, have heard about and also played at some point in our life. Tekken is a game franchise owned by the developer of the game Bandai Namco Entertainment. The main game follows the storyline of the events of King of Iron Fist Tournament hosted by Mishima Zaibatsu, one of the characters in the game. The story revolves around the feuds of the Mishima Family. All major editions of the game are arcade games and other than that most of them have been provided on PS2. In this blog we’ll be talking about the Tekken Game series and all it’s editions.

 

1. Tekken

The first part in the series was released by Namco in 1994 in arcades and in 1995 for the playstation. The game had 8 playable characters while the PlayStation version had 17 characters. It contained real life locations where you could fight including Angkor Wat, Fiji, Acropolis etc. 

2. Tekken 2

Tekken 2 succeeded its predecessor after it’s launch in 1995. Further in 1996 it was released for PlayStation. The game featured new moves and attacking strategies but most importantly it involved various modes which would become default for the games in the future such as the Survival Mode, Team Battle Mode and Time Attack Mode.

3. Tekken 3

The third installment in the series released in 1997 was a game changer. It introduced various new characters which then further became very important to the series such as Jin, Ling, Bryan etc. It sold a total 8 million copies worldwide making it the 4th best selling PlayStation game till date. 

4. Tekken Tag Tournament

The game was released as an arcade game in 1999 and further went on to become the launch title for PS2 in North America and Europe in 2000. As the name goes this contains 2v2 battles, at any point in the game the character can tag in the teammate whenever he/she feels like.

The team is defeated even if the health of only one of the players finishes, making tag a very important aspect of the game. Thus players will have to strategically tag their teammates in order to get maximum fight.

5. Tekken 4

 Tekken 4 was the 4th installment in the original Tekken series. Released in 2001 as an arcade game and then in PS2 in 2002. It introduced 6 new characters to the game. Also it brought about quite some change in the gameplay with interactions with walls and obstacles. The console version also featured a mini-game by the name of Tekken Force which was added after the succes in Tekken 3.

6.Tekken 5

Tekken 5 was released in 2004 as an arcade game and in 2005 as a PS2 game. It was the 1st game in the series to provide the ability to have accessories on the characters. In total there were 32 playable characters out of which 7 were new. The edition was a commercial success selling around 6 million copies.

7. Tekken 5:Dark Resurrection

This version was an update to Tekken 5. The arcade version was released in December 2005 only in Japan and worldwide in February 2006. Further it was also released on PSP in 2006 and as a downloadable game on PS3 in 2007.

The game features 3 new fighters with excellent back stories. What was a big update in this version was that it now kept track of the players statistics. Also there were some moves in Tekken 5 that overpowered the opponent but they were re balanced in the Dark Resurrection Update.

Although it wasn’t initially supposed to be released on PS3 but it was after fans wanted this version too to be released on the home console like all the previous ones. 

8. Tekken 6

It was the 6th edition to the original Game series launched on 27th November 2007. The game had quite some new big changes. It included addition of a rage mode which could be used if the health of the player was low to give him some extra power. A year later an updated version by the name of bloodline rebellion was also introduced. Both the console versions, Xbox 360 and PS3 included online versus multiplayer modes in Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. The story too, just like all the editions before was quite worth it.

9. Tekken Tag Tournament 2

This game was a sequel to Tekken Tag Tournament 1 after a long period of 12 years. It was released in 2011 and another updated version by the name of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited was released on 27th March 2012. It contained almost all the characters from the series which gave the player a lot of choices to pick from and make the best team. The game was very positively received by the critics, getting quite a few fighting-game-of-the-year awards. The game involved features such as ‘Tag Combo’, ‘Tag Throws’ etc. 

10. Tekken 7

Tekken 7 developed and published by Namco Entertainment is the latest Tekken game in the industry and the 7th installment to the original Tekken series.It was released in March 2015 and an updated version by the name of Tekken 7 : Fated Retribution was released in July 2016. It was published as the final chapter of the Mishima Saga. It is set shortly after the events of Tekken 6 and leads up to the fight between Heihachi Mishima and his son Kazuya. The game introduces various key new actions such as Rage Arts and Power Mechanics. The game was considered more beginner friendly than the previous iterations of the series. Tekken 7 was widely accepted and has gone on to sell over 5 million copies by the end of 2019.

Tekken Gaming saga has been a key one not only in the arcade gaming industry but the console industry as well. Games like Tekken and Street Fighter have in a way paved the way for fighter games in the future but at the same time they have also set the standard pretty high.