Namco had already experienced plenty of arcade success by the mid-1990s, but they continued in this trend when they released the first entry in the Tekken franchise in December 1994. The development began as simply using the program as a testing ground for 3D animation, eventually including texture mapping similar to the kind already used in Ridge Racer. But in 1994, with Namco having hired developers who had previously worked for Sega, the project moved into a proper fighting game development. Tekken ended up being directed by Seiichi Ishii, who had worked for Sega on their own 3D fighting game, Virtua Fighter. The game was intended to play in a similar fashion, but look much better by having more advanced textures and an increased frame rate; it also ran on Namco’s System 11 arcade board, based on PlayStation hardware, and becoming the first arcade game to use the hardware.
Tekken’s plot focuses on Kazuya Mishima, who is thrown off a cliff by his father, Heihachi, when he’s five years old to test his strength. Though Kazuya survives the fall, the incident causes a demonic entity called the Devil Gene to activate within him, giving him incredible strength. Kazuya travels throughout the world to participate in martial arts tournaments and becomes stronger. Heihachi holds a tournament himself – the King of Iron Fist Tournament – so that he may face off against his son in the finals. The climactic battle ends with Heihachi himself being thrown off the cliff.
The arcade version of the game featured eight characters available to play from the start; the PlayStation port of the game allowed sub-bosses to become unlocked along the way as well.
Tekken was positively received after its launch in arcades, and again for its home release for the PlayStation. As the arcade version was running on similar hardware to the PlayStation, the home port was considered one of the best arcade ports ever at the time. The game was successful enough to get an immediate sequel, Tekken 2, in 1995. This has since been followed by numerous direct sequels, spinoffs, and even a crossover with Pokémon.
