GameIn
YEAR 1994
GENRE Fighting
PLATFORM PlayStation, arcade video game machine, Namco System 11
ABOUT THE 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 the game'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. 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. On June 25, 2026, the arcade version of the game got ported for modern consoles as part of the Arcade Archives 2 series.

Source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 — Tekken (video game) · retrieved October 19, 2026

PROVENANCE

Fields on this page come from the catalog record and recorded sources. No popularity or rating claims are added.

RECORD FACTS
Developer
Namco
Publisher
Namco
First release
September 21, 1994
Series
Tekken
Cover
Official thumbnail
Record ID
Q1142893

TIME SHELF

Across decades

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