I actually enjoyed this more than I ended up expecting to. Tekken 1 is a neat game that was one of the pioneers of 3D fighting games, and that does come with the usual jank of the subgenre at this time. IMO, this game feels ok-ish to play. Not amazing, but it works, even if things like getting up from knockdown take absolutely forever. Inputs also don't exactly feel responsive, but that could be a skill issue? Not sure.
I think the main draw of this game is its... well for a lack of better terms unbelievable presentation. I'm a total sucker for old 3D graphics, I get that, but this is one of those titles where it leans so far into cursed territory. Like look at Jack's player model, it looks like something out of a fever dream. Or this peculiar as hell character select screen. Yoshimitsu's render on here was definitely used as creepypasta material at some point. Or just the entire game's visuals lol. There's also the infamous cutscenes and... they are nothing short of amazing. Green screen kids my beloved, or Law losing his everloving mind at money, and you KNOW the other famous one. This feels more like a random Japanese only PS1 game ThorHighHeels would show off in a video and not an actual well known revolutionary title.
The music and stages are also neat. I listened to the arranged soundtrack mostly, and almost every track has some kind of dated feel to them, but they make up for it by having some cool "atmospheric" part to the song (like the Chicago theme, which is probably the best track in the game). Doesn't have anything on 2 or 3's osts, but it's a nice listen.
Tekken is a very neat series with rather strange beginnings, and it was cool to see its foundations. The only reason this isn't rated higher is because of the super obnoxious cheating AI, otherwise this would be like a 6/10 or something. I actually got into this series because of my friend Tony (go read his review btw), who was ironically a person I was shilling the genre to him to begin with. Funny how it works like that sometimes. If you like Tekken, and want to see its odd beginnings, this is worth at least one arcade mode run, just be very tolerant to evil AI.
I think the main draw of this game is its... well for a lack of better terms unbelievable presentation. I'm a total sucker for old 3D graphics, I get that, but this is one of those titles where it leans so far into cursed territory. Like look at Jack's player model, it looks like something out of a fever dream. Or this peculiar as hell character select screen. Yoshimitsu's render on here was definitely used as creepypasta material at some point. Or just the entire game's visuals lol. There's also the infamous cutscenes and... they are nothing short of amazing. Green screen kids my beloved, or Law losing his everloving mind at money, and you KNOW the other famous one. This feels more like a random Japanese only PS1 game ThorHighHeels would show off in a video and not an actual well known revolutionary title.
The music and stages are also neat. I listened to the arranged soundtrack mostly, and almost every track has some kind of dated feel to them, but they make up for it by having some cool "atmospheric" part to the song (like the Chicago theme, which is probably the best track in the game). Doesn't have anything on 2 or 3's osts, but it's a nice listen.
Tekken is a very neat series with rather strange beginnings, and it was cool to see its foundations. The only reason this isn't rated higher is because of the super obnoxious cheating AI, otherwise this would be like a 6/10 or something. I actually got into this series because of my friend Tony (go read his review btw), who was ironically a person I was shilling the genre to him to begin with. Funny how it works like that sometimes. If you like Tekken, and want to see its odd beginnings, this is worth at least one arcade mode run, just be very tolerant to evil AI.
TonySADX
1 year ago