This review contains spoilers
Not really something I would ever see myself playing at all, but one day I randomly got the urge to play Tekken. For no particular reason, and I really didn't knew Where To Start Playing A Tekken Game, so by my own rules I just started by the very first game in the franchise.
And well, the very first Tekken from 1994 is, indeed, the very first Tekken from 1994. It's a game definitely of its time and a very primitive 3D fighter, being really closely connected to Virtua Fighter since both titles share the same game designer, but Tekken is pretty much a step in the right direction and was practically revolutionary for its time, for its graphical fidelity in comparison to its smooth framerate, for its fast gameplay and fun combo potential coined its great critical reception. I also want to think they gave merits to it because of its really good soundtrack and honestly fun in-game movies you get at the end of each characters' arcade mode coupled with the creativity of some of the playable characters and their backstories(Only really included in booklets and in summaries since the in-game cutscenes don't really follow a cohesive story).
Looking at the game in retrospect there's a bunch of glaring flaws about it, mostly the stiffness of the movement when trying to engage with a combo or trying to punish your enemy more often than not this'll take a while to actually happen so you can be very vulnerable and then be a victim of a grab attack that'll drain a quarter of your health from one second to another, rounds in this game are so short because of that and most games are pretty much decided from the first few seconds unless you actually clutch up and combo the other person which is a hard task, at least with the AI that very unfairly reads your inputs and perfectly deflects any attack that you do at them, making the only resource you can have to punish them be to bait them into attacking you somehow, it is still pretty difficult.
For the singleplayer completion list, you have unlocking all the "secret" characters which is a pretty easy task just by completing every arcade mode, and then unlocking an alt of Kazuya Mishima being controlled by the Devil Gene by playing a really hard game of Galaga to perfection, which is something I didn't really do but I can imagine how back in the day this was an incentive to pop in the disc every now and then and try to unlock new stuff, so that's cool that there's a couple of unlockables here and there besides only the fighting game.
And overall I don't have much else to say, having played it I was surprised on how in many aspects Tekken has mantained its roots pretty gracefully, this game wasn't short on the visual department and a lot of things in it look very good for its time, and there's also this cool PSX-era cool ass charm the game exudes which is something unremarkable from this era of video games, Tekken isn't an exception. This series of games still kinda rules nowadays, so that's a testament of how beloved the series is and how its original trilogy still kind of holds up.
Yoshimitsu my beloved space Robin Hood...
And well, the very first Tekken from 1994 is, indeed, the very first Tekken from 1994. It's a game definitely of its time and a very primitive 3D fighter, being really closely connected to Virtua Fighter since both titles share the same game designer, but Tekken is pretty much a step in the right direction and was practically revolutionary for its time, for its graphical fidelity in comparison to its smooth framerate, for its fast gameplay and fun combo potential coined its great critical reception. I also want to think they gave merits to it because of its really good soundtrack and honestly fun in-game movies you get at the end of each characters' arcade mode coupled with the creativity of some of the playable characters and their backstories
Looking at the game in retrospect there's a bunch of glaring flaws about it, mostly the stiffness of the movement when trying to engage with a combo or trying to punish your enemy more often than not this'll take a while to actually happen so you can be very vulnerable and then be a victim of a grab attack that'll drain a quarter of your health from one second to another, rounds in this game are so short because of that and most games are pretty much decided from the first few seconds unless you actually clutch up and combo the other person which is a hard task, at least with the AI that very unfairly reads your inputs and perfectly deflects any attack that you do at them, making the only resource you can have to punish them be to bait them into attacking you somehow, it is still pretty difficult.
For the singleplayer completion list, you have unlocking all the "secret" characters which is a pretty easy task just by completing every arcade mode, and then unlocking an alt of Kazuya Mishima being controlled by the Devil Gene by playing a really hard game of Galaga to perfection, which is something I didn't really do but I can imagine how back in the day this was an incentive to pop in the disc every now and then and try to unlock new stuff, so that's cool that there's a couple of unlockables here and there besides only the fighting game.
And overall I don't have much else to say, having played it I was surprised on how in many aspects Tekken has mantained its roots pretty gracefully, this game wasn't short on the visual department and a lot of things in it look very good for its time, and there's also this cool PSX-era cool ass charm the game exudes which is something unremarkable from this era of video games, Tekken isn't an exception. This series of games still kinda rules nowadays, so that's a testament of how beloved the series is and how its original trilogy still kind of holds up.
Yoshimitsu my beloved space Robin Hood...