Tekken (video game)

Tekken (鉄拳) is a 1994 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It was originally released on arcades, then ported to the PlayStation home console in 1995. One of the earliest 3D polygon-based games of the genre, Tekken was Namco's answer to Virtua Fighter and was designed by Seiichi Ishii, who himself was also Virtua Fighter's designer when he worked at Sega previously. The game was developed on the purpose-built low-cost System 11 board, based on PlayStation hardware.

Tekken was innovative in that it featured multiple game modes for a fighting game, which was not limited to the fighting game genre but also displayed Galaga on the loading screen. Plotwise, the game revolves around a tournament set up by Heihachi Mishima, who attempts to prove his power to his revenge-seeking son and protagonist, Kazuya. Tekken initially divided opinion regarding its presentation, character designs and unusual control system, which consisted of one button per limb. However, following its home console port originally released in March 1995 — only the third 3D console fighter following Virtua Fighter and Battle Arena Toshinden — it quickly rose in popularity and eventually became a PlayStation best seller based on copies sold, even quickly surpassing its two fighting game rivals. It started the Tekken series, with a sequel, Tekken 2, coming later in 1995.