How Tekken Has Evolved Over the Past 31 Years

The fighting game genre has plenty of established franchises. Especially in the 90s, when several IPs were taking a chance on the style of game in hopes of emulating the successes of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, a slew of fighting games flooded the market. One of the key ways some series like Virtua Fighter stood out was by embracing the evolving visual potential of the medium to deliver a 3D fighting game.

Tekken took that idea and ran with it, refining the gameplay and focusing more on the bombastic potential of the franchise than its more grounded competition. The result was a sprawling multi-game narrative, a deep roster of playable fighters, and some of the best-received fighting games of all time. Here’s how the first Tekken, which made its world debut in Japanese arcades 31 years ago today, evolved from a tech tester into one of the premier fighting franchises in gaming.

How Tekken Went From Tech Demo To Classic Fighting Game

Tekken began life as a test case for 3D character models, with Namco using it internally. After developers who had previously worked on Sega’s Virtua Fighter made the move to Namco, executives at the company suggested turning Tekken into a fighting game competitor for Virtua Fighter. Initially titled Rave War, the game that would become Tekken took the 3D fighting mechanics of Virtua Fighter and added some bombastic edges to distinguish it from the competition. Although Virtua Fighter 2 beat Tekken to the arcades (the latter of which became available December 9, 1994), Tekken‘s release on the original PlayStation a few months later made it one of the first commercially available 3D fighting games for home markets.

With a full roster of 18 playable characters, Tekken‘s storyline about Heihachi Mishima’s King of Iron Fist Tournament established the core storyline that has continued to drive the franchise for years. With a greater emphasis on fun combat and strange characters than the more grounded Virtua Fighter 2, Tekken was met with solid reviews from critics and became a major success for the PlayStation. In fact, the first Tekken became the first PlayStation game to sell over a million copies. This helped cement the series as a mainstay of the console, with subsequent sequels introducing plenty of new modes and functions — along with a truly massive number of playable fighters.

Tekken Has Been Refining Itself For Decades

As the series went on, the gameplay became more refined into what it is today. Tekken 2 established the “neutral guard,” which gave fighters a natural block against attacks. Tekken 3 allowed players to roll to recover from punishing hits, speeding up the momentum of the game. Tekken 4 took the increased speed of Tekken 3 and enhanced it, with evasive attacks taking more prominence. An entirely new engine was designed for Tekken 5, which became one of the most critically acclaimed entries in the series. More elements like “Rage,” “Power Crushes,” and “Heat” added more inventive layers to the gameplay. This focus on gameplay tweaks ensured that the series never felt stale.

Throughout it all, the franchise has expanded its central narrative into a surprisingly emotional saga detailing the conflict between multiple generations of the same family, as Heihachi, Kazuya, and Jin find themselves locked in a cycle of violence and fury that continues to threaten peace around the world. This overarching story gave Tekken a surprisingly effective emotional throughline that extends to many parts of the game’s expansive character roster. It reflected the way the series has continued to try and grow.

King OF The Iron Fist

While the series launched in 1994, Tekken quickly expanded into a wide-ranging and typically well-received foundational entry in the fighting game genre. Even rival developers like Ed Boon, the co-creator of Mortal Kombat, revealed that he enjoyed the Tekken series. Tekken has become a frequent focus of crossovers, with fighters from the franchise making the leap to rival series like Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, and Super Smash Bros. The influence of Virtua Fighter on the series was even paid off in Project X Zone, which brought together Namco and Capcom characters for a cross-company crossover and finally pitted the two franchises against one another.

While Tekken has broken out onto other consoles on occasion, the series remains a foundational part of the PlayStation legacy, with the Sony platform still serving as the primary platform for the franchise. Even in the modern day, when titles like Tekken 8 are available on Windows and Xbox Series X/S, the PS5 version remains a fan favorite. The Tekken series has been one of Namco’s most successful franchises, selling over 61 million copies since the first entries in the series. More than that, though, the series has evolved from a fresh-faced competitor to established franchises like Street Fighter into something uniquely compelling and addictive. The Tekken series will continue to grow, and the machinations of the Mishima family will expand in new ways.