Tekken is one of Namco's most popular franchises, and possibly the most successful 3D fighting game series.The game's plot starts with the Mishima Zaibatsu, a conglomerate of the Mishima family, run by Heihachi Mishima, sponsoring a tournament called King of Iron Fist. The winner is promised a huge prize... if they can beat Heihachi, that is. As it turns out, the tournament winner is in fact his disgruntled son Kazuya Mishima. Having been thrown into a ravine when he was only five years old by Heihachi himself, Kazuya made a Deal with the Devil, survived, and trained himself so he could exact revenge. Heihachi, too late to realize Kazuya's devilish power, was soundly beaten and was thrown by Kazuya into the same ravine where he was thrown by Heihachi.Eventually, Heihachi comes back and reclaims his place, killing Kazuya by throwing him into a volcano. The third game takes place after a Time Skip and deals with Kazuya's son, Jin Kazama. The fourth deals with the return of Kazuya, and later games continue to cover the struggle inside the Mishima family, with the Devil Gene complicating matters.
Tekken Hybrid - A Blu Ray release of Blood Vengeance, packaged with Tag Tournament HD & Tag Tournament 2 Prologue for the PlayStation 3.
Tekken has been extremely successful in arcades (and later in console ports), with characters' fighting styles influenced by real life martial arts. The series contains six games so far, as well as a dream tag match game called Tekken Tag Tournament, and a seventh game on the way. It has also spawned 3 separate movies; one traditionally animated, one live-action and a CG movie. Ports were exclusively to the PlayStation consoles until the 6th installment, which received an Xbox 360 port. The series has often been derided by the father of the Dead or Alive series, Tomonobu Itagaki; however, other fighting game developers (such as Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon) enjoy the series.Lately, the series has been going from strength to strength; Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was confirmed in late 2010 to much fanfare and approval, and looks to be one of the most expansive and exciting entries of the series so far. Nintendo fans are finally seeing some Tekken love for the first time since Tekken Advance also, with Tekken 3D: Prime Edition for the Nintendo 3DS. Lastly, but certainly not least, the series is finally going head-to-head with its old rival, in the form of Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter, 2 separate Crossover games developed by Capcom and Namco respectively. An updated version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited, was released as a patch to arcade units in March 2012, and a home console version of Tag 2 with the changes introduced by it was released in September for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. This will notably be the first time a Tekken title has ever been available on a Nintendo home console. In June 2013, Namco released Tekken Revolution, a free-to-play installment based on the Tag 2 engine exclusively for the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store featuring gameplay mechanics such as customizable character stats, Critical Arts, and Special Arts.Furthermore, a 3D CG movie based on the series (and developed by Namco itself) premiered in July 2011, called Tekken Blood Vengeance, a canonical movie expanding on the series lore of the Devil Gene. The movie saw a limited theatrical release, but saw most of its distribution via DVD and Blu-ray releases in 2011, as well as being bundled with Tekken Hybrid (a Blu-ray which also includes Tekken Tag Tournament HD and a demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2) and Tekken 3D: Prime Edition.The series' many, many characters can all be found here.
All Love Is Unrequited: There's Kuma for Panda, Ganryu for Michelle, and later her replacement Julia, and Xiaoyu for Jin.
Amazonian Beauty: In Tag 2, the in-game models some of the ladies who are traditionally more slender, toned, and athletic (i.e. Nina, Anna, Michelle, Julia, Christie, etc.) are a bit more built this time around, particularly in the arms, shoulders, and back. Considering that they're martial artists who presumably train/workout on at least a semi-regular basis, it makes sense. While the T1 ladies did have some muscle on display, handing out the Heroic Build to both genders (not unlike where Street Fighter has been going of late) might be an attempt to go back to that portrayal for some sense of "realism" (i.e. a somewhat viable explanation for why a 5-foot-something woman can powerbomb a man, robot, or bear nearly twice her size).
Anime Chinese Girl: Xiaoyu, despite being arguably the most stereotypically Japanese character. She doesn't even speak any form of Chinese. Possibly justified in that she's enrolled in a Japanese high school, having been taken to Japan personally by Heihachi after she impressed him by knocking out all of his security personnel on a Mishima Zaibatsu boat she snuck aboard.
Anime Hair: Pretty much all of the Mishima kin, as well as Paul.
Special mention must go to new guy Lars, who looks like a Super Saiyan. Of course, he is Heihachi's secret son and so has inherited the Mishima blood (and hair).
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Feng, who was actually based on evil, arrogant kung fu movie villains.
To be fair his ending shows him exploding mountains with his kung fu, so maybe he can afford to be arrogant...
Artificial Brilliance: Just to give an example, using Asuka. After a few matches the game will know you like to go for the uppercut/back kick/gun combo, so it will completely shut down that. It will then read when you go for the leg sweeps and block, it predicts you using a tag throw when in trouble so it puts a stop to that, then juggles because it knows you just tag normally when low on health.
Done again with Mokujin's western animation-inspired Tekken 6ending.
The endings in Tag 2 have a lot of this. Some of the more drastic examples include a sketchy animation style in Combot's ending, Forest's ending using paper dolls, and a comic book style in Bob's ending.
Not counting legitimate Art Shift endings/aspects in Tag 2, some of the more realistic CGI endings are noticeably lower quality than in the game itself. YMMV on this.
Awesome, yet Impractical: Some of the characters have unblockable attacks that will instantly knock out your opponent (or leave very little health left) but performing these attacks either takes too long or is very hard to input without messing up. Kuma, for example, has a Fartillery attack that can immediately knock out ANY other character. Too bad he takes forever to perform it, and its range is tiny.
Awesome Yet Practical: You can equip characters with various items, including firearms that act differently, from being quick to deploy for chip damage to knocking your opponent down for huge damage. The input for them isn't the hardest (up, LP, RK) and the move can be assigned to a button to make it easier to pull off. With the right knockback moves and timing they can make matches somewhat one-sided.
Ax Crazy: Bryan, complete with awesomely evil laugh. In fact, he gains health when Nina kicks him in the crotch. Or stomps on his crotch with her stiletto heels.
Badass and Child Duo: Jack carries around a little girl whose parents he killed and who he subsequently adopted. That girl, Jane, later goes on to develop several other Jack models because of her affection for the Jack-2 model that served as her protector.
Badass Family: The Mishima clan, natch. And, in what could be seen as a subversion of Gameplay and Story Segregation, this even applies in-game. The Mishima family characters have consistently appeared in the top tiers of every Tekken game up until they were finally bumped down to upper-mid and mid-tier characters in Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.
Heihachi is old but not that old comparatively (in his 70s) and seems to be unusually strong anyway (in his 50s he survived being tossed off a cliff by Kazuya and only seemed to become progressively stronger since). Jinpachi is over 100 years old but is backed by the strange spirit that is inhabiting his body, enabling him to fight at superhuman levels. However Wang is 105 and has nothing at all but technique and training keeping him in the ring. He first appeared in the series at age 82.
Zig-zagged with Heihachi in Tag 2 (albeit a non-canonical game), as he somehow regains his youth and reverts to more or less the age he had by Tekken 1. He will probably stay that way for the next canon game, due to the fact that his previous voice actor has passed away. His Ending reveals that his scientist had developed a youth serum.
Dr. Bosconovitch's Tag 2 ending, if not taken with a grain of salt, reveals that any Mishima member who's not a Devil Gene carrier (i.e. Heihachi, Jinpachi, Lars) becomes progressively stronger with age.
Balls of Steel: Tekken Tag Tournament featured a number of special intros/outros from combining certain pairs of fighters on your team. Several outros involving Nina Williams features her delivering her signature Groin Attack to her partner, causing him to crumble to the ground. If you pair her with Bryan Fury, however, she'll deliver the groin attack — but he laughs at it and does one of his taunts in response.
Big Bad: Heihachi in the first, third (with Ogre), and fourth games (w/ Kazuya), Kazuya in the second and fourth, Jinpachi in the fifth, Jin and Azazel in the sixth. Basically, anyone who takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu becomes the Big Bad.
Big Bad Ensemble: Heihachi and the Ogre in the third, and Kazuya, Jin, and Azazel in the sixth.
Big Screwed-Up Family: The Mishimas. Oh God, the Mishimas. There is at least one murderous link between every one of the five, blood-linked family members who have appeared so far, spanning four generations.
To put this into perspective, there have only been two times where the Mishimas have been shown to be on good terms with one another. One of these was during Kazuya's childhood when he played/trained with his grandfather Jinpachi; the other is a dream sequence of Lars' in Tag 2 where the collective (playable) Mishima/Kazama family (barring Jinpachi and Lee) get together to enjoy dinner.
The Williams' are also pretty rough, though this is one truly bad case of Sibling Rivalry gone horribly wrong.
The Kazamas are starting to get there, and it's not just because Jin is both a Mishima and a Kazama. Asuka also has him in her crosshairs. And Jun can't seem to get along with her branch family, if her interaction with Asuka is anything to go by.
Bilingual Dialogue: Characters understand each other even though one speaks English, one speaks Japanese. They even understand what animals are talking about, when all they hear are growls.
This is taken further in Tag Tournament 2, where almost every character now speaks their respective native language (Leo speaks German, Lili and Sebastian French, Boskonovitch Russian, and both Eddy and Christie Portuguese) as opposed to English in previous games.
Blocking Stops All Damage: Tekken had no block damage, most noticeable when the smaller characters blocked attacks from a bear. Some heavy shots would even stagger a defender, suggesting they would hurt a little but the life gauge would not go down.
In certain games, this feature could be turned off. The universal Supercharger move and similar moves unique to certain characters can also cause chip damage.
Boss Rush: Tag Tournament 2 provides one; arguably the biggest (and only) one of the series thus far. Players must face a team of Heihachi and Jinpachi, followed by True Ogre. The final boss is Jun Kazama herself, and when she is defeated, she transforms into Unknown. The player must defeat her to complete Arcade Mode.
Especially if you face the likes of Wang/Bruce, Baek/Lee, Anna/Ganryu, Kuma/Kunimitsu (sub-bosses), and Kazuya/Jin, Ogre/Angel (bosses) beforehand.
Brick Joke: Paul's ending in 5 suggests he had flipped, challenging aliens. In 6 and Tag 2 they had in fact brought it on, or at least make an appearance.
Button Mashing: Noobs love to do this using Eddy or Christie, and Hwoarang to a lesser extent. Lili's been added. The CPU used to do this with Law in Tekken 2.
Calling the Old Man Out: Kazuya to Heihachi, later Jin to BOTH of them, and even later on Lars to Heihachi.
The Cameo: Snoop Dogg will appear in a special stage featuring background music from a single he performed just for Tag 2. Evidently he's a bigTekkenfan.
Catch Phrase: "Get ready for the next battle" by the announcer during the VS screen, starting from 5 and has stayed ever since. Snoop Dogg also opens his "Knock Em Down" rap in his Tag 2 stage with this phrase.
Chainsaw Good: Alisa Boskonovitch is built and fights with this.
Character Customization: The past several games have allow this to some extent with hair, clothes, items and emblems. You could conceivably make up pilots from the Ace Combat games for example; thanks to a ton of logos from the game, with a little work Michelle and Alisa can look like reasonable expies of Kim Possible and Cameron from The Sarah Connor Chronicles, or take Nina, play around with the hair and she resembles Jill Valentine.
Character Roster Global Warming: Each game tends to feature two heavy characters, Jack and the bears. Now contrast this with the character roster of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, which is gigantic.
Chef of Iron: Marshall Law, called "the fighting chef."
Color-Coded Elements: Particularly involving the Mishima family's trademark lightning aura. At first, all members were portrayed with blue-colored lightning bolts. In TTT, Kazuya retained the original color, whereas Jin and Heihachi's bolts were respectively recolored red and yellow. This would stick for 4, although 5 reverted Heihachi back to blue while Jin (and Devil Jin) kept red. Jinpachi's bolts are dark violet and black and Lars gets electric purple.
Combination Attack: Tag Throws. While mostly generic in the original Tag, with only a limited number of exclusive tag moves available to certain pairings note namely, Jun/Jin (alternatively, Jin with Kazuya or Heihachi), Baek/Hwoarang, Nina/Anna, King/Armor King, Michelle/Julia, and Jack-2/Gun Jack; Xiaoyu could also initiate tag throws with Jin, Heihachi, and Panda/Kuma, the sequel ups the number ofcharacter-specific tag throws considerably and even differentiates the basic throws depending on who is initiating the grab.
Also there's a handful of great combos.
Comeback Mechanic: Tekken 6 has "Rage Mode", which activates when a character is low on life and does more damage the lower their life gets.
In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, it returns but tweaked so that the losing character's partner is the one who gets "Raged" and the only way to get the buff is to tag them in. Also, it goes away after a certain amount of time and there are moves the opponent can do to end Rage Mode instantly.
There's a version of this when playing solo in Tag 2. The solo character has a chance to get two Rage modes.
Cool Mask: King and Armor King. Jaycee. And Michelle in her Tag 2 ending.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kazuya during his reign as Zaibatsu CEO. Heihachi subverts this in that he uses the Zaibatsu behind the scene for his own machinations but does a lot of good with the organization on the surface (legitimate good, not just Villain with Good Publicity stuff).
Creator Cameo: Harada himself appears in the still for Stage 5 of Tekken Tag Tournament 2's Fight Lab, apparently conducting a business transaction with Violet.
Crossover: Yoshimitsu's ancestor shows up in the Soul series.
It is also likely, but not confirmed, that Mitsurugi is related to the Mishimas and Taki is related to Kunimitsu.
Damage Sponge Boss: In Jack 6's level (Container Terminal 3) of the Scenario Campaign in 6, there's a Boss in Mook Clothing much like this. It rarely blocks because it doesn't need to; burning through its health on Hard mode will usually drain the timer before it can actually be brought down even with S-Class clothing (in most cases the endlessly swarming Jack bots are the real offensive threat). Most players opts to just knock it into the nearby water.
Dance Battler: Eddy and Christie, especially in her victory pose. There's even a mode that allows Eddy to dance, disco style. Disco ball included.
Not to mention Tiger, who is based on the original idea for Eddie, where he was an African American disco dancer rather than a Brazilian capoeira artist.
While not taking it to the extreme of Eddy, Christie and Tiger, a few of Alisa's moves are clearly inspired by ballet.
Difficult, But Awesome: Despite being the main characters of the franchise (which usually assures accessibility), the Mishima characters are probably among the most challenging to use (with very demanding move execution and movement technique for a good player). However (Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion not withstanding), a player who does understand their subtleties will have learned the best characters in the game.
Also Ten hit combos deal loads of damage but requires precise timing.
Dirty Old Man: Put Wang against any female (with the exception of Xiaoyu), and see for yourself.
This becomes major Squick when he does it against Roger Jr.. (Though in this case, it may be interpreted a desire to actually eat the kangaroos rather than any kind of attraction.)
Ditto Fighter: Mokujin, Tetsujin, Combot and Unknown, though they have a few differences :
Mokujin and Tetsujin change fighting styles once per round, or every time they are switched out in Tag Tournament.
Combot changes fighting styles once per fight in 4. In Tag 2, his whole fighting style can be customized a la Emerl from Sonic Battle.
Unknown is the same as Mokujin, except she can also switch mid-battle by pressing R3, and she can't mimic fighters that Mokujin and Tetsujin can, like the Jack robots or Ganryu. This isn't true anymore in Tag 2, however.
Doing in the Wizard : Tekken 4, in general. Most soft sci-fi and blatantly supernatural elements are eliminated or downplayed entirely. For example, the Mishima Clan's Devil powers seem to be attributed to a genetic mutation. The Ridiculously Human Robot, Jack, was replaced by the less-advanced-looking Combot. Neither Angel nor Devil or Devil Jin are playable characters. The final boss, like the first game, is simply Heihachi. Whatever the reasons for this change, it didn't stick. In subsequent games, it's pretty clear that the genetic fluke in question does have a supernatural origin, Jack not only returns but is joined by Alisa Bosconovich, and the final boss of both games is definitely supernatural.
Heihachi lost about 40 years and Jinpachi isn't dead anymore. Pretty sure you've got a Dream Match Game on your hands.
On the other hand, this is hardly out of the realm of possibility. Heihachi's change is likely to stick for Tekken 7, given Daisuke Gouri's passing.
Easily Forgiven: King forgave Marduk for not only killing Armor King, but spitting on Armor King's name; basically they're now best buds. Armor King II, however...
Easter Egg: Every game since at least the third installment has featured hidden moves, win poses, or character-specific actions not listed in the manual or the in-game movelists. Some are hardly noticeable (i.e. moves with extra particle effects or Asuka berating Jin while hitting him), while others are ridiculous over the top, and/or hilarious (the Jacks malfunctioning and using their Windmill Punch when hit by Devil's Inferno, most male characters performing the Headbutt Carnival with Heihachi...).
Tag featured this oddity when tagging out after Xiaoyu's False Salute taunt.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has fun with this using the tag mechanics; King and Armor King, for example, can do a special KO throw where the point character will execute a powerbomb grab, then hold the opponent down for a pin whilst the other character runs in as a ref and taps the 3-count.
Embedded Precursor: Tekken 5 had the arcade versions of the first three games. It also included Starblade, a Namco space shooter from the early 1990s.
The Faceless: The Kings and the Mitsus, although King I's face is very briefly seen in the intro to the first game. Kunimitsu wears a full-face fox mask in the older games, but has an extra costume in Tekken Tag Tournament which has her wearing a demon mask only covering the top half of her face. TTT2 still has her wearing a fox mask, but, like the demon mask, it only covers her eyes and nose.
Fallen Hero: Kazuya, quite literally when Heihachi threw him on a cliff.
Heihachi inverts this as a fallen villain when Kazuya pays him back. His reply? "You should have found a steeper cliff."
Like his father, Jin has gone from primary good guy to even worse than those who came before him.
Fanservice: Check out some of the character portraits and win poses. They are some of the most sexualized this side of Dead Or Alive.
Fanservice Pack/Hotter and Sexier: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is this in spades. Not for nothing it gets a Teen rating for partial nudity and sexual themes. The outfits are more revealing, the breasts are larger and bouncier than ever, and special mention should be given towards all the sexy clothing pieces found in Customization with bikinis, sexy santa dresses, and maid uniforms galore.
Special mention should also be given to the panel options, namely Panel 4. The Panel 4 images make what is found in Dead or Alive look tame by comparison.
This isn't to say that the male characters are left out. Most male characters who don't already have a shirtless costume can be customized to have one.
In the interest of fairness it needs to be pointed out that this doesn't apply to each female character in equal measure. Xiaoyu and Jun still have moderately-sized breasts and a number of the default female costumes are actually quite conservative — the only way to get them to show the levels of flesh mentioned above is to customize them. There is also Leo (officially female) who has no jiggle physics, no Fanservice type clothes (except a bikini) and no flirty animations.
Free Floor Fighting: First surfaced in 6. Tag 2 expanded upon the concept with the ability to knock opponents off of balconies onto the floor below in addition to breaking the ground underneath you.
Generation Xerox: This series lives on this trope. If a Legacy Character doesn't make an appearance in the latest installment, expect a new character to show up with most of, if not all of their moves.
This is especially interesting when the Legacy Character and the new character appear in the same game: Hwoarang/Baek, Eddy/Christie, Michelle/Julia, Asuka/Jun/Unknown in Tag 2, and in Tekken Tag Tournament, the record is Jack-2/P. Jack/Gun Jack in the same game.
This occasionally leads to Divergent Character Evolution: in the original Tekken, all of the bosses were basically the original 8 again with a few moves borrowed from other fighters. Lee Chaolan was originally Marshall Law with Paul Phoenix's jumpkicks, Armor King was King with the Mishima uppercuts... however by Tekken 6, the characters are very different.
Goldfish Poop Gang: As of 6, it's Marshall Law, Steve Fox, and Paul Phoenix.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kazuya Mishima's left eye glows red as of Tekken 4, either because of the Mishima bloodline's Devil Gene, or his resurrection by G Corporation. Mokujin, as well, though his aren't really evil as much as an indicator of evil. The wooden dummy comes to life whenever an evil force arises.
Hollywood Old: Guys like Baek, Kazuya, Law or Paul were allowed to look older in later installments. Women? Not a chance. Nina and Anna, who were there from the beginning, still appear in their late 20's/early 30's. Michelle was simply written out and even Xiaoyu hasn't grown a bit since she first came in. Only Julia evolved from teenager to 20-something.
Nina and Anna are a subversion as they were cryogenically frozen and Xiaoyu doesn't really count either considering she was 16 in T3 and 19 in T6. Plenty of girls her age don't change that much in such a short space of time.
Can you believe Jun is Jin's mother?
Michelle slides a little as Julia is her adopted daughter but she's gotta be at least forty. Doesn't show it.
Which is strange as an aged (albeit gracefully so) Michelle appears in Julia's T3 ending. It's only in the non-canon Tag titles where Michelle seems to have been de-aged back to that of her T2-era self, to the point that she and Julia resemble sisters despite the games (Tag 2 especially) still clearly acknowledging that they're mother and daughter.
Lee is a rare male example — he is pushing 50, but still looks like he's in his late 20s/early 30s.
Marshall later plays it straight in 6, when he shaves his facial hair.
Hot Mom: Jun and Nina. Michelle counts by means of adoption.
Iconic Outfit: The hoodie Jin sports in 4 (popular enough that it returned for 5 and was used as his attire in Namco x Capcom), Kazuya's purple tuxedo from 2 onward.
Immediate Sequel: The time between Jin's ending in 4 (unambiguously the last event to occur in the Tekken 4 story) and the opening cinematic of 5 is only about 5 minutes at most.
In Name Only: The naming of Tekken 3D: Prime Edition is somewhat redundant, as there's no other edition of the game at all. It's probably to prevent potential confusion if it were simply called Tekken 3D, though.
Invulnerable Attack: The Special Arts in Tekken Revolution have several frames of invincibility at the beginning, signified by their blur effect. They can be hit/thrown out of with good timing and a clash between two players using Special Arts will usually go to the one who used their attack second.
Joke Character: Dr. Bosconovitch and Gon in the PS1 port of Tekken 3. Kuma, Panda, Roger, and Alex qualify, as well, being animals.
Lethal Joke Character: Bosconovitch and Gon were incredibly game breaking, due to the fact most attacks missed them (Bosconovitch would crumple to the ground and lie on the floor, while Gon was a tiny dinosaur. Both could only be hit with sweeping leg kicks, and Bosconovitch was extremely fast, for an old man).
Jun is also supposed to be dead (given that the Tag games are non-canon), but let's seeabout that.
Word Of God gives her status as "missing", actually.
Tekken 5's roster seemingly defies this trope, bringing back a whole slew of Tekken 2 sub-bosses who were thought to have perished against Ogre (due to Ogre possessing some of their moves). Some of their stories claim they never even crossed paths with him.
Kissing Cousins: Not really, but in Asuka's Tekken 5 ending Jin ends up in her cleavage. In quite a slapstick manner.
Not quite true with Yoshimitsu, since he has been the same individual from Tekken 1 all along, but was made completely cybernetic by the events of 3. However, an ancestor of his (also bearing the name and using largely the same moves) appears in the Soul series (and as of Soulcalibur V, that Yoshi has gained a successor of his).
After Dark Resurrection, Armor King seems to be following the trend set by King as well.
The Jacks could count too, since every game (except for 4, which featured no Jacks) it's a different model, but some of them are pretty much carbon copies to others (Jack-2 to the original Jack — in fact, the latter was the only Jack model not to appear in the first Tag Tournament because of this — and Jack-6 to Jack-5).
Mega Corp: The Mishima Zaibatsu and the G Corporation. In Tekken 6, Jin is using the former to try and Take Over the World (supposedly) and the latter (run by his father, Kazuya) is his only opponent.
Missing Trailer Scene: A weird video game example (albeit, minor). One trailer for Tekken 6 showed NANCY-MI847J's stage as being playable in a standard fight. This is not an option, even via random select.
Ms. Fanservice: Christie. And Anna, if you can get the death cam to shoot at the right angle...
Many of the playable female characters, actually. Some with more revealing costume options than others. Christie has the most Stripperiffic ones in Tekken 6, not to mention her normal fighting stance really shows off the Jiggle Physics.
Feng's second outfit in 5 has him wearing a fedora.
Wang also wears one.
Ninja: Raven and Kunimitsu. Yoshimitsu will tell you he is but he's a bit over the top.
Nobody Poops: Averted in Law's Tekken 6 ending. Paul, Law and Steve had agreed to share the prize money, but Law uses laxatives to incapacitate them and give him enough time to steal all the money for himself (what a Jerkass). Paul's ending also implies that Law used these laxatives throughout the tournament to cheat their way to victory.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Law family, Lei Wulong, and Raven look like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Wesley Snipes, respectively. Also, Marduk has a strong resemblance to Australian wrestler Nathan Jones who had a brief WWE stint. Not surprising since Marduk's look was actually based on him. (In fact, Jones plays Marduk in the Live-Action Adaptation.)
Thanks to Tekken 6, add Julia Chang to the list as her ending and custom options are HEAVILY inspired by Lara Croft. Not to mention she looks quite similar to pro wrestler Sarah Stock, otherwise known as TNA's Sarita, although this was likely unintentional.
Namco may have picked up on this, as in Tag 2 she's a pro wrestler, filling in for a friend. Or it may be a Shout Out to La Mariposa/Lisa in Dead Or Alive.
No Flow in CGI: In terms of in-game models, the games before the PS2 (with just a few exceptions). Notably, as Tekken 4 was the first full-fledged installment tailored for the PS2*
Tekken Tag Tournament was just an enhanced port from the arcade
, the designers pretty much went out of their way to make sure this would be averted by giving every single character independently animated parts, which led to King with long hair beneath his mask and Paul's 2P costume with his hair down, among many other things.
No One Could Survive That: Just look at Bryan's Tekken 3 and 6 endings... and Heihachi too, in Tekken 5.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Several (though not all) English-speaking characters from non-American countries all have American accents instead of the ones you'd expect them to have. For example: Nina and Anna (Irish), Steve (British), Leo (German), Eddy and Christie (Brazilian), Marduk (Australian), Lili (Monégasque — well, French for extension), Bosconovitch (Russian), and so on. Lei was initially a subversion, until his Chinese accent suddenly became American in Tekken 6 (it is, however, a Hong Kong English accent, so this might be a Double Subversion).
Also the main characters in 6's Story Mode. Lars is Swedish and Alisa is a robot made by a Russian. They for some reason decide that the optimal language to speak would be perfect Japanese.
Alisa is arguable, considering she is a robot and can be programmed to speak Japanese (theoretically, she could have any language loaded into her memory banks). Lars has no excuse.
Except for the fact Lars is half-Japanese and has been working for a Japanese company, it would make sense that he would be bilingual. Why he prefers Japanese is anyone's guess.
It's actually not too strange since Lars himself is well aware how big a deal his father is and that he probably have to deal with issues revolving around his father's family sooner or later. In the end, the final decision to make him speak Japanese is probably its easier that way while still remaining feasible.
Similarly, Xiaoyu gets a pass for not speaking Chinese seeing as she primarily lives in Japan.
Most of the characters in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 speak their native languages like Hwoarang speaking Korean (which has been done ever since Tekken 4), Steve with a British accent and Leo with German. The Japanese characters (with Lars included) speak Japanese as always. The Williams sisters don't speak Irish English, though someone suggested in a forum somewhere that it was probably due to their time in cryosleep experiments.
The Williams sisters and Zafina's cases are understandable in that they're international assassins; revealing their origins by speaking in their native accents would serve to give away their backgrounds.
Not Just A Tournament: In Tekken 2, Kazuya announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2 to get rid of Heihachi and his other enemies. In Tekken 3, Heihachi announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 3 to lure Ogre out in order to capture him using the contestants as bait. In Tekken 4, Heihachi needs to get the devil gene to become immortal so he announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 4 to lure Kazuya and Jin out to obtain the devil gene.
The Old Convict: Eddie Gordo's backstory from Tekken 3 is that he was framed by the Mishimas, and while in prison, was trained in Capoeira by the oldest convict interned there. Distaff Counterpart Christie Monteiro is the old man's granddaughter.
One Steve Limit: Subverted in the fandom. Hwoarang's nickname "Bob" is complicated, now that there's an actual Bob in the character roster. Possibly it's because Tekken was making fun of serious tournament players who started using "Bob" because they couldn't pronounce Hwoarang's name properly.
One-Winged Angel: Several characters in the series have their own one-winged angel forms:
Kazuya has Devil (the final boss of Tekken 2), who can fly, shoot lasers, and has purple skin. Since Devil's last appearance in Tag Tournament, Kazuya has fully accepted his demonic powers and it shows. (For reference, he uses Devil's lasers in the Street Fighter/Tekken crossover and can transform into Devil in Tag Tournament 2. He also canonically assumes Devil's form to escape Hon-Maru at the beginning of 5.)
His son, Jin, has been "cursed" to inherit his father's devil gene. Since the fifth game, a second Jin aka Devil Jin has been playable. This version of Jin is not only batshitinsane, but embraces his Devil powers and uses them in combat, in conjunction with a new fighting style (a mix of the Mishima-style Karate that normal Jin unlearned and the more traditional Karate that post-Tekken 4 Jin uses).
Even the supposedly innocent Jun Kazama is not safe from this trope. The latest gameplay footage from Tag Tournament 2 shows (and confirmed many a fan theory) her one-winged angel form is Unknown, the final boss of the Tag Tournament games. Junknown uses other characters' fighting styles (a la Mokujin) but can willingly change her style mid-battle (not like Mokujin).
In Tag 2, Junknown loses her mimic ability and resorts to Jun's moveset with boss-style moves.
Tekken 3 has Ogre (the Final Boss, mind you) and True Ogre. The upgrade from Ogre to True Ogre comes with a somewhat Nightmare Fuel-esque change in appearance as well as a power upgrade. Oh, and he can fly.
Devil Within, a Tekken Force Mode-themed mini-game in 5, gives Ogre a second OWA: Monstrous Ogre.
Another Final Boss example is Tekken 6's Azazel. Fulfill the right conditions, and a powerful golden Azazel (confirmed in 6's Scenario Campaign to be Azazel's ultimate form) can be fought in the place of the normal variant.
Yet another example in the form of Jinpachi Mishima. His true demonic form is fought as Tekken 5's final boss (worth noting that a fiery variant is fought as the final boss of 5: Dark Resurrection). This is actually more of an inversion, as Jinpachi's (supposedly) regular form can be used as a playable character in Tag Tournament 2 (where he is downgraded to a sub-boss; being a sub-boss battle with Heihachi).
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: This seems to be what's behind Hwoarang having a +1 Netsu trigger towards Jin in Tag Tournament 2 (+1 is usually reserved for when the character has a genuinely good view of the other character); likewise Paul's +1 towards Kazuya.
Perfect Play AI: As you gain ranks this will become self-evident, with the game starting to break out the ten hit or infinite combos, reading controller inputs, using the classic Mortal Kombat slide along the ground, and begin preventing you from tagging out, specifically targeting your partner when low on health.
Perpetually Shiny Bodies: While not prevalent overall, TTT2 actually goes out of its way to avert this trope by showing dirt, water, mud, and whatever that gunk filling up Fallen Garden is on the fighter's clothes (or even a specific spot) as they get knocked to the ground.
Pet the Dog: In Kazuya's ending, he is shown to respect Jinpachi and even remembers the good old days training with him before making the Deal with the Devil... and then kills him.
Play Every Day: Tekken Revolution is set up with this in mind and even advises it; players get daily bonuses each day they sign in.
Point Build System: Revolution has three parameters players can, using their in-game fight money, increase with skill points earned whenever they level up: Power (damage of attacks), Endurance (size of health gauge), and Vigor (chance of scoring a critical hit or entering Rage, determined by the difference in Vigor between opposing fighters).
Power Tattoo: Jin's devil tattoo. Unknown has a reverse version of this.
Practical Taunt: Lee Chaolan has one where he leans back and wags his finger at his opponent, beckoning them to come at him. While this may look like a taunt, it also has the more prominent utility of being an alternate stance that gives him access to moves that are great at countering a reckless charge, which is the likely reaction for someone who falls for the taunt.
Pre-Order Bonus: Pre-ordering Tag Tournament 2 will give players access to a Snoop Dogg stage, with the Doggfather himself appearing in the background. Snoop even provides the BGM for his stage; a single recorded just for the game.
Product Placement: Several of the 2P outfits in Tag 2 were devised by OilShock Designs. Bruce instead features threads designed by Snoop Dogg (who also worked with the Tekken crew to create a Snoop Dogg-themed stage in the game).
Recovery Attack: Starting with the third game in the series.
The strangeness of it all is that many teams with good synergy are actually counter-intuitive to what you'd expect given what canon (and the Netsu Power chart) dictates. One of the only exceptions to this is Kazuya; notorious in that almost all of his specific relationships are negative ones, the one positive relationship he has (with Jinpachi) results in what is widely regarded as a very dangerous team to face in the right hands.
It's been done before: The Netsu system was present in the original Tag as well, albeit some combinations in that game completely prevented the Rage system from activating altogether - Ogre is Understandably disliked by most of the cast.
The Rival: Hwoarang to Jin, Lili to Asuka, Kuma to Paul, Lee to Kazuya, King and Marduk, the members of the Mishima family to each other, Nina to Anna.
Ret Canon: Although Tag 2 is non-canon, it does incorporate several elements from Blood Vengeance (which features more than a few Continuity Snarls to its name), such as Xiaoyu and Alisa's friendship and Kazuya and Jin's "true" Devil forms.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Almost everybody has this, usually coming back to the tournaments for revenge.
Rubber Band A.I.: After winning a fair few matches the CPU gets mad and goes into overdrive, becoming a shameless Perfect Play AI that even uses the signature MK Walker moves such as being a pixel out of range of an attack and countering, and sliding across the floor. Survive even this and it when then blatantly cheat by not allowing you to block, dodge or even tag out as it takes out all your health in one long combo. It will start to calm down after maybe ten straight losses, but the game gets harder and stays harder the more you play it.
Rule Of Cool: Realistically, certain characters like Kuma, Panda, Roger Jr., Yoshimitsu, and Alisa should not have been allowed into fighting tournaments alongside humans, for the simple reason that they'd kill all of their opponents within seconds. Then again, who cares about being realistic when you can pit a panda bear against a kangaroo?
Scenery Gorn: Happens to the final stage, Heavenly Garden, of TTT2. Very pretty lotus pond, with dragonflies, a flamingo, floating islands in the background, a twin rainbow, etc. Then you fell Jun, and Unknown takes the opportunity to take her over. Cue the water slowing turning necrotic violet, then the scene suddenly becomes the Fallen Garden, where the sky is full of dark smoke, the islets are on fire, the (remaining lotuses) are now ghostly, the animals are nowhere to be seen, and the rainbows have been replaced by greyscale versions of themselves.
Scenery Porn: All over the place such as Moonlit Wilderness in 5.
Self-Made Orphan: Baek Doo San, according to his backstory. The Mishima wish they were...
Shock and Awe: Though it doesn't actually electrocute anyone, the Mishima characters (Lars included) all emit some kind of electricity when they make a hard hit. As of Tekken 6 there are hints that this actually factors into their heritage (based on Kazuya's comments to Lars during the final stage of Scenario Campaign), though the actual electricity may only be a visualization.
Shout Out: Especially in regards of King and Professional Wrestling. Some of the customization items as well. CLAMP designed a special costume for Jin in celebration of the upcoming console release of Tekken 6. It's Lelouch vi Britannia's emperor outfit from R2, minus the Nice Hat. And that's not all: other notable names in anime made costumes for some characters. Masashi Kishimoto has made a costume for Lars Alexandersson. He looks kinda like Deidara, but without the Akatsuki robe. Said outfit will making an appearance in Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. Yoshimitsu gets a bonus costume in the pre-order version of 6 — the Cardboard Tube Samurai. In the same game, Julia has thigh holsters, grenades, short shorts and boots. Now think about that as you watch her ending and ask if that reminds you of anyone.
To go along with the above Julia example, Marshall Law gains some customizations that pretty clearly give him the appearance of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. As both men derive inspiration from Bruce Lee, this is a justified nod.
Tekken 6 also lets the player buy a series of tracksuits for Marhsall Law with the yellow tracksuit costing around three times as much as the rest.
The shootout scene in the Tekken Tag Tournament intro's PS2 version is said to have been a nod to Terminator 2.
Going further with King, one of his grabs is called Muscle Buster. Furthermore, see the Tag Move he performs with Marduk in his ending in 5. Muscle Docking anyone?
Lars' ending in Tekken Tag 2 has fanfare suspiciously similar to that of the Battlefield series theme.
True Ogre's Tekken Tag 2 ending is a direct homage to Godzilla.
Now with the emblem pack there is a truly ludicrous amount of Shout Outs to Namco games and other sources. As well as original works there's many emblems from Ace Combat as well as 8-bit art of their other games, logos and chibi versions of the Tekken fighters, even designs for Tekken websites.
One of the musics in Tag 2 is named "IT'S NOT A TUNA!", in reference to the quote "It's not a tumor!" from Kindergarten Cop.
There are some less noticeable ones at times. For example, Lili and Kunimitsu's bikinis◊ in Tag 2 are respectively based off of Lili's appearance on the cover of Play magazine's "Girls of Gaming 7" issue and promotional art for Tag. The same applies for Michelle.◊
SNK Boss: All of the bosses have some cheap trick up their sleeve. True Ogre, Devil, Jinpachi, and Azazel spam ranged attacks (most of which can't be blocked) and have insane combos — the latter two have insanely cheap stun movies that will stop any combo in its tracks. Unknown has an insane health bar and regenerates health to make up for her lack of cheap moves.
Jun herself qualifies when she's the final boss. She might not resort to dirty tricks like other SNK bosses but the AI is on crack cocaine. She's very fast; blocks counters and juggles like crazy and by this stage would have your tactics down cold.
Solo Character Run: Possible to do in TTT2. As a trade-off, the solo character has 240 health (as opposed to the normal 180 value), recovers red health automatically (instead of needing to be opn standby), and receives a modified version of Rage from 6 (whereas duos get Netsu Power).
Soundtrack Dissonance: Almost a given with the presence of Tekken Tunes in Tag Tournament 2. Matt and Pat were two of the most notable offenders, deciding to use the soundtrack from Ocarina of Time.
Spank the Cutie: When Anna defeats Lee in her Tekken 5 story mode, she sits on his back and spanks him.
In Combot's ending for Tekken 4, Lee shows up to yell at him when he's busy celebrating in front of everyone else. He promptly gets spanked and thrown aside.
Also happens in Tekken Tag Tournament when you choose Lee and Heihachi.
Prototype Jack gained this as a side throw in Tag.
Heihachi's item move in Tekken 6 lets him spank anyone, adopted son or otherwise.
Sphere of Destruction: Occasionally accompanies Kazuya and/or Jin's transformations into their Devil Forms, although this is only present in select cutscenes. On one of those occasions for Jin (his Tag 2 ending), it's a very poignant Angst Nuke.
Spinning out of Here: Yoshimitsu possesses a special in his Indian mediation stance allowing him to spin so fast (while sitting down) that he instantly warps on the other side of his opponent.
Status Quo Is God: Averted in some aspects, played straight in others. As of the sixth game, the storyline spans 23 years and it shows: technology evolves, characters age and some are outright Killed Off for Real. However, some older character plots seem to be stuck in perpetual limbo, perhaps because they've been around for a long while and nobody has any idea what to do with them (Paul wants to win the tournament, Law's short on money, Hwoarang has a rivalry with Jin, Xiaoyu has a crush on Jin, Nina & Anna haveissues...)
Strapped To A Bomb: In Tekken 5, Heihachi's ending has Jin, Kazuya and Jinpachi strapped to a rocket as it launches.
Lee's ending in 5 has Heihachi with a bomb collar around his neck. His ending in 6, has Heihachi, Kazuya and Jin strapped to rockets, while he plays exploding golf.
Superpowered Evil Side: Devil Jin and, uh, Devil himself, being Kayuza's actual evil conscience. Unknown, too, as of Tag 2.
Surprisingly Good English: The very first fully voiced cutscene back in 3 had it (for its time), and every English speaker since has carried it on. The French, Portuguese, Russian, German, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese voice acting is also well done.
Take That: Bob is a Take That at tournament players who called Hwoarang "Bob" because they couldn't pronounce his name.
The final Combot missions are again Ryu, Ken and Akuma, who bloat up beyond Bob's dimensions and become worthless as you deal damage until they explode into chickens. Take That indeed. Violet also carelessly dismisses them.
Tag Team: One of the two main selling points of the aptly-named Tag Tournament titles. Certain characters even gain access to unique tag throws and hidden moves/stances from pairing up with specific fighters, and Tag 2 ups the ante by having specific teams benefit from additional tag-out openings normally not available to the player (signified by blue sparks appearing during certain moves), allowing for more combo possibilities and even hidden TagCombos.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Namco Bandai's habit of making the end bosses ridiculously overpowered. Jinpachi from Tekken 5 and Azazel from Tekken 6 come to mind.
It kicks in when the game thinks you're doing too well and break out the 10 hit juggles, Perfect Play AI and Artificial Brilliance. Bye bye controls, bye bye controller, bye bye any chance of winning. It settles down after knocking you down a peg or six, or if you can trick it out with different moves.
Time Skip: Nineteen years between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. 4 then jumps ahead another two years.
Translation Convention: Tekken 6 has the character speaking in different languages (Bear!) and perfectly understanding each other. Thank Namco there's subtitles.
Briefly subverted in Tekken 4, where Jin speaks heavily-accented, broken English to Hwoarang in an ending cutscene.
Taken Up to Eleven in Tekken Tag 2, now almost every single character is speaking their native language, not just a variant of English, Japanese and Chinese from the previous games.
Unknown Rival: Paul considers himself Kazuya's biggest rival, though he's largely ignored. Applies for Jin and Hwoarang later on in the series.
After Tekken 2, Paul's pretty much stopped caring about Kazuya and moved onto Kuma, who genuinely dislikes him.
Lili and Asuka is another example. In the 6th game, Lili is determined to defeat Asuka, but the latter couldn't really care less... Until, Lili pisses her out using a Zany Scheme.
Jin's actually aware that Hwoarang wants a piece of him (in fact, he even remembers why) but he simply can't be bogged down with matters like this. It's an unusual case of It's Not You, It's My Enemies that applies to a rival rather than a loved one.
Use Your Head: Hoo, boy. The Mishimas are not above headbutting you during a fight. Heck, all the Mishimas and the animals will headbutt you when given the chance.
Alisa takes this to the extreme. A good chunk of her combat moves involve detaching her head and using it as an instrument of blunt force or a bomb.
Variable Mix: Present only in 4; for most stages, the BGM would play normally until a KO is scored, which would then cause the song to jump ahead to a bridge which would then lead into a later section of the composition.
Kazuya becomes this in 6, hailed as a "savior" by the people by the now-tyrannical Zaibatsu under Jin.
The Voiceless: King and Armor King. Because all their "dialogue" is just unintelligible growls. Dragunov, who just doesn't talk at all — although Word Of God and the Scenario Campaign of Tekken 6 confirm that he is capable of speech, he just doesn't like to do it very often. Jack is never heard to speak, but the aforementioned Scenario Campaign reveals that he can speak, albeit in Third-Person PersonHulk Speak. Kuma, Panda, Roger and Alex also can't talk properly, but they are animals...
Well Done Son Guy: Lee is desperate for his adoptive father Heihachi's respect; he's never come anywhere near getting it. By the time of 4, though, he's decided to settle for humiliating him.
The same with Jin and Kazuya towards Heihachi. Heihachi himself towards Jinpachi? He never asked a "Well Done" treatment from him. He preferred a more... direct... way of getting glory. By displacing and imprisoning Jinpachi. Essentially, Heihachi has no intention of doing anything that looks like relinquishing power to anyone, even a son or grandson. Well Done Son Guy is not going to work on someone who doesn't believe in reciprocal respect in the first place, only power.
That is, until Tag Tournament 2, where Angel, Kunimitsu and Alex reappear (the former two as DLC characters), and Combot, both as an opponent in the Fight Lab and an unlockable fighter. Plus, Eddy can be customized to look like Tiger in Tekken 5 and 6, and Tiger himself also appears as a separate character in TTT2.
Wham Line: "Alisa, disable safe mode. And then reboot." We all knew it was coming, but still pretty cool.
Why Won't You Die?: Heihachi and Kazuya supposedly "died" several times during the games' events, often with one killing the other. In the case of Kazuya, he was found by some science team members and resurrected.
World War III: According to Tekken 6, Jin has begun using the Mishima Zaibatsu for world conquest and declared war on several nations until the whole world itself is at war. Although it's not conquest he's after, but trying to plunge the world into enough strife and horror that Azazel will gain material form — and thus be killable.
Wrestler in All of Us: The game features two fighters, King and Armor King, who are wrestlers. But that doesn't explain Heihachi Mishima (a karate master) busting out powerbombs, or kickboxer Bryan Fury's DDT, or even (Kenpo and Xing Yi practitioners) Michelle and Julia Chang's range of suplexes... the reason? Wrestling moves are cool!
In Julia's Twisted Sister throw, especially cool. Even Jun has a couple of wrestling moves, though to be fair they are common, and lest we forget Goldber—sorry, Craig Marduk.
Christie and Eddie can do a float-over DDT while Michelle and Julia can do tiger suplexes.
She's filling in for a friend, which at least implies that she has connections in the ring (aside from King).
And in Michelle's ending she finds Jaycee's mask and fools around in it. Julia sees her and Michelle is embarrassed, but Julia thinks she looks great in it and suggests they form a tag team. Must run in the family.
Xanatos Gambit: Jin let Alisa be captured by the rebels, as she had cameras set up inside her to record their every move. Being able to activate her "Kill them all" programming at any moment was another plus, too.
It has also spawned 3 separate movies; one traditionally animated, one live-action and a CG movie. Ports were exclusively to the PlayStation consoles until the 6th installment, which received an Xbox 360 port. The series has often been derided by the father of the Dead or Alive series, Tomonobu Itagaki; however, other fighting game developers (such as Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon) enjoy the series.Lately, the series has been going from strength to strength; Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was confirmed in late 2010 to much fanfare and approval, and looks to be one of the most expansive and exciting entries of the series so far. Nintendo fans are finally seeing some Tekken love for the first time since Tekken Advance also, with Tekken 3D: Prime Edition for the Nintendo 3DS. Lastly, but certainly not least, the series is finally going head-to-head with its old rival, in the form of Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter, 2 separate Crossover games developed by Capcom and Namco respectively. An updated version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited, was released as a patch to arcade units in March 2012, and a home console version of Tag 2 with the changes introduced by it was released in September for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U. This will notably be the first time a Tekken title has ever been available on a Nintendo home console. In June 2013, Namco released Tekken Revolution, a free-to-play installment based on the Tag 2 engine exclusively for the PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Store featuring gameplay mechanics such as customizable character stats, Critical Arts, and Special Arts.Furthermore, a 3D CG movie based on the series (and developed by Namco itself) premiered in July 2011, called Tekken Blood Vengeance, a canonical movie expanding on the series lore of the Devil Gene. The movie saw a limited theatrical release, but saw most of its distribution via DVD and Blu-ray releases in 2011, as well as being bundled with Tekken Hybrid (a Blu-ray which also includes Tekken Tag Tournament HD and a demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2) and Tekken 3D: Prime Edition.The series' many, many characters can all be found here.
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