Usually when I log fighting games as "retired", I'd like to at least do half of the roster, or more if I'm really enjoying it, that way I can get the most out if it before packing it up. Not this time, I gave up on Michelle Stage 7 because I couldn't stand just how awful the controls were.

Listen I know with early 3D games that you gotta give them some passes, but even with various factors involved - playing on an emulator (though Mednafen is accurate enough to not feature some level of lag, but I digress) and the fact that the Xbone's dpad is kinda not good for fighters - I was fuming with how often Tekken 1 felt like it was eating up my inputs. Combos that I swear should work again just don't, some of them are too specific for me to even really bother trying, and overall there's just this general clunk to it that really shouldn't be there, regardless of the focus on limb-based commands and more depth in the arena space.

One could say I can just go to the options and configure things like the difficulty to make it easier, but at that point I would literally just play any other 3D fighter, especially one of the more revered Tekken titles that comes later.

The only reason this isn't getting a lower score is, obviously, historical value, and the fact that the OST is legit a great bop. Other than that I feel like this is lesser than even Grand Battle 1, at least in that game I at least felt like I knew what I was doing.

EDIT: Alright I'm done being nice time to give it the score I felt at first, but I will say the bits I played of Tekken 2 feels like such a marked improvement I'm surprised it only came out a year after

Either you cheese the game or the game cheeses you.
I think I’ve lost count on how many times the AI got a perfect win against me from a ridiculous combo. I’m also legit appreciating Tekken 2 more after this, that game came out barely a year later and I’ll agree it really does make 1 feel like a beta. I also hope this’ll be the last time I deal with moon gravity and knockdowns that take a decade to recover from.

Can’t really say much about the presentation this time around even with how much I had a soft spot for 2’s, I guess it was really impressive back then for this being one of the first fighters with fully textured models, things just look a bit jagged in this first installment. Also it’s a nice touch that the UI tells you the location name in the bottom corner, not many other games that and it kinda helps embrace the around-the-world aspect of the tournament. Speaking of which, stages oddly aren’t dedicated to certain characters this time. You’d expect Monument Valley to always be Michelle’s since she’s from Arizona or Paul’s stage to be Chicago but you can fight anyone anywhere, it’s random.

The music is pretty alright, though having played 2 beforehand I noticed all tracks here got recycled to give themes to the hidden boss characters minus the Player Select theme and Venezia (despite the latter being on Tekken 2’s soundtrack release). On the subject of music, instant kudos for even the first game having a toggle between the original arcade OST and the new remixes. The fact rereleases of games TODAY still might not do that baffles me.

All franchises have humble beginnings and this is no exception, so Tekken 1 still has some novelty to playing it today, there’s just little to be invested in compared to its sequels, which is again expected. Pick it up if you want to the embrace the jank.

Kazuya’s smile makes everything worth it kinda :)

Beat the Kazuya Arcade Mode path, was not enjoyable. I found myself getting more pissed than excited when I was fighting. Compared to other fighting games I've played (Which may be an unfair comparison, but I haven't played any other FGs from the 90s enough to compare) the controls are horrible, there's no way to pause mid-CPU-match to see a movelist, but given that I've played Tekken 7's arcade and multiplayer modes, I know the series gets REALLY good in the future. I'd say give it a try if you've got a night to kill and want to see a wack-ass fighting game.

The start of a solid fighting franchise already had a pretty solid combat system to build upon (They have never fully changed it, in contrast to something like Mortal Kombat).

The problem is that it's one of the earliest 3D games, and the graphis have aged like shit, it looks terrible. I also have problems with the characters. I love King but in this game they reveal his face taking away the mystery. The native American girl is white, yikes.

I adore fighting games with video endings for each character so I give it points for that.

Kinda wish I was in 1994. That way, I could see how good this game was. Nowadays, it's just pretty dated graphics-wise.

Still fun to play in the arcades though. And I gotta appreciate it cause it's the one that started a cool fighting game series.

Also Kazuya is the true main character of this series. Fuck Jin.

Bom mesmo só por ter começado com a franquia

O jogo só tem dois modos (arcade e multiplayer local) e 8 personagens. Proposta extremamente simples, mas que pra ser positivamente memorável, precisa ser muito boa, o que não acontece aqui no primeiro Tekken.

O melhor do jogo são as músicas, que são bem boas. A jogabilidade é travada e isso é crítico para um jogo de luta. Os botões para realização de combos não são intuitivos, o jogo simplesmente não te mostra, em nenhum lugar, como executar um combo. Entendo que na época os jogos vinham com manual, existiam revistas e tudo mais, mas pra mim um pecado o jogo não ser mais intuitivo nesse aspecto.

Além disso, existem personagens MT mais fortes que outros, como exemplo o Jack, que te tira metade da sua vida com um combo de 3 hits.

Por último da questão jogabilidade, o jogo tem três opções de câmeras e isso até que é uma ideia interessante, mas eu não recomendo usar pq deixa a jogabilidade ainda pior. A câmera padrão é a melhor do jogo e a do alto.... tenebrosa.

Por fim, o melhor de tudo: o menu de opções do jogo se chama “TEST MODE” Tipo, whaaaaat?? Isso não faz o menor sentido!

Assim, foi o começo de uma franquia que até hoje está em alta, mas olha...

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.

Pros: King of the 3D fighting genre in my opinion (Compared to Killer Instinct, Virtua Fighter & Mortal Kombat). Great movement, tight controls and amazing soundtrack.

Cons: Not enough official releases of the Arcade port. However, the PlayStation release is arguably better than the Arcade port in many respects.

It could be argued that the game suffers from a steep difficulty curve which could be intimidating for new players. It's quite ugly and clunky but I actually think that adds to the charm.