“I’m a fiend for mojitos”
-Det. James “Sonny” Crockett, Miami Vice

The 2000s aesthetic is in full swing here. Tekken 4 is widely considered the first videogame ever to be set in a city¹, but what isn’t commonly known is that it’s also the first game to feature techno music².

Tekken 4’s punch-outs take place in far more grounded settings than its predecessors or successors, such as shopping malls and parking garages. Each one is a stage from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3³ and you can almost feel the hot breeze of a warm summer night, especially if your PlayStation 2 is overheating.

Despite its impeccable vibes, a competitive scene never arose for Tekken 4 due to it being mostly about positive energy and enjoyment⁴. Professional fighting game players rarely discuss anything other than the presence of a senile, diaper clad Heihachi Mishima as the final boss.

Tekken Force Mode returns from Tekken 3.⁵

Playing this in tandem with its 2002 sister fighting game Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, it’s plain to see which is the better fighting game experience.⁶ The gameplay itself isn’t as balanced as prior or future entries, apparently, but everything else about this game is sleek and fluid. As an aesthetic exercise at the very least, Tekken 4 is wholly unique in its franchise if not its genre.

Tekken 8 would do well to swap out some of its particle-effect-heavy, apocalyptic stages⁷ for a pristine turn-of-the-century airport or a balmy metropolitan rooftop. Kazuya should rock some shades. Man, this game is like Tekken Summer Vacation. Let’s party.

__________
[1] I made this up
[2] Completely fabricated
[3] Pranked!
[4] Conner Wilson, On Tryhards, Penguin, 2024, p. 68
[5] Tekken 4, Namco, 2002
[6] Conman, Tekken 4, Backloggd, 2023, p. 1
[7] This just has to be the case right

What I find most interesting about Tekken 4 is its general vibes: it feels like a transition period between the PS1 games' early 3D design and the extravagant confidence of Tekken 5 and onwards. The graphics are obviously much more detailed than Tekken 3's, but it doesn't have the extra flair and pizzaz that Tekken 5 exudes, making it feel like almost surreal at times, in a way that only uncanny 3D CGI can conjure. Other than the character faces, its evident in the stage environments: the Airport stage (which is my favorite one here) has a overly clean and shiny look, and the distant early morning sunlight in the skybox gives it a dreamy quality to the entire frame. You can just feel it without being distracted from the actual fight. The game definitely tries to look pleasing to the eyes, not with overloading your senses, but rather through painting a strong vibe with loose brushstrokes.

You can also see it seep in the character designs. Compared to today's Tekken, T4 seems much simpler in comparison, and I appreciate it a lot. The characters don't have as many visual elements tied to themselves, but you can quickly tell the personalities that they embody. For instance, Lei's wildly loose open jacket is all you need to see to understand him. It's not to say that I don't like how extra Tekken goes with its design nowadays, I think most of the reveals of Tekken 8 has been quite pleasing, but it's nice to be reminded of this old era of less wacky Tekken.

It's also interesting to see how T4 experiments with the Tekken formula, although I don't think that it quite lands. I'm pretty sure I accidentally cheesed out my AI opponents a couple of times by just repeatedly smashing them to the wall, it's definitely nowhere as airtight as it should be, haha. Some of the stages also have slopes and different elevations, which is kinda novel but also a bit annoying in gameplay. I'm not quite sure about this but I think I missed a couple of my high attacks because I'm at a higher point than my opponents, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Also, I don't usually notice or complain about hitboxes but I've had a couple of funky missed attack moments that confused me. Other than that, the fighting is still fun and mindtaxing.

Highlights from the character roster and story mode:
- Wei is probably my favorite of the character here, his drunken master style is cool as heck and I like his lighthearted klutz vibes. Hwoarang is a close second, but his story ending is definitely my favorite one, it's cheesy and kinda wholesome.
- This iteration of Nina might be my favorite design of hers, her professional killer vibes feels like the strongest here, and I like her subtle eyeshadow. Also liked her story ending cutscene a lot. Still don't quite like how she plays though, haha.
- The new characters are just... meh, for me. I don't quite like Christie as much as Eddy. Don't really care for Combot and Marduk. Steve is cool though.
- This is most evident in Hwoarang and Julia's ending for me: the English VO here reminds me a ton of The House of the Dead 2's infamous VO. Take that as you will.

Tekken 4 might be not good enough to take too seriously, but it's still fun as heck, and its art direction scratches a specific itch that the other Tekken games just doesn't do to the same extent.

Hard to think that this "flopped" and made harada quit for a year cause this is easily my favourite one. Childhood biases helps and all but holy crap we've got stages now and character models actually look like real people. The urban feel and the cool colours and atmospheric music maintain this as the most memorable in the franchise. Even if it was most divisive in the fanbase and the least competitive. I adore this one so much and it's dark tone and redesigns for it's characters still stay in my mind to this day. Also this has the best Tekken force and Jin design hands down. I fuck with you Tekken 4

I'm starting by playing Tekken Force, because I loved that mode so much in Tekken 3. Tekken 6 was my introduction to the franchise back when it came out, so the Scenario Campaign of that game is very near and dear to my heart, so it's been super cool checking out its spiritual origin in Tekken 3 and 4.

4's Tekken Force mode is like an awkward middle child between 3's version and what would eventually become Scenario Campaign in 6. However, the movement is a lot worse here. Instead of just locking onto whichever enemy is closest to you, you have to manually switch targets, and your movement revolves around them. This wasn't bad in Tekken 3, but it's REALLY bad here. I like that in Scenario Campaign, you were able to run around with the stick and then you had traditional Tekken movement on the D-pad, it was a good compromise. I shouldn't knock one game just because a sequel did something better, but man I can't help but compare because Scenario Campaign is just that much better.

I like the way the stages are laid out, and how there are special enemies that reward bonus points if you beat them fast enough, some special enemies unlock alternate pathways if you beat one enemy before a different enemy. But combined with the awful wall mechanics introduced in this game, it makes playing this mode a nightmare. I already know from watching videos about the game before that this wall shit is an issue in the balance of the actual PVP, so I really hate that this central and important game mechanic is ruining one of my favorite parts of Tekken 3 here. I just get slammed into a wall and jabbed at by like 5 guys at once, even on Easy.

If I can give this game anything positive so far it's that the opening cutscene is really cool and I'm glad Kazuya's back. I love Jin more, but Kazuya's an OG character, you can't not have him. Having Kazuya on your roster isn't necessarily a positive though, because every game except 3 has Kaz on it. That's like praising a peanut-butter sandwich for having jelly on it because you got served PB&Fluff at the cafeteria too many times before.

IDK, this game's weird. I'll give more thoughts as I play more of it, but man, this is easily the worst Tekken game despite it feeling more fluid and responsive than the first 2 games, and having a nice breadth of content. The central mechanics at play just don't feel right and that massively influences the quality of my time playing.

Edit: Playing through more of the Story Modes now. This game has a really engaging plotline, despite me not liking some characters on the roster like Christie. King II pays bail for the murderer of Armor King to be released from prison and sends him a plane ticket and a newspaper clipping to tell him to square up at the tournament. That's the rawest shit ever. I get nobody plays fighting games for the plot, but I see it as a really cool bonus that interests me in trying more characters to learn more about their movesets and personality.

Tekken 4 is a masterclass in atmosphere and aesthetic. The game's y2k aesthetic becomes apparent as soon as you boot up the game and the intro starts playing with it having one of the iconic moments for the whole series (Kazuya's return to the series after his apparent death in the second game) enhanced by the techno music which accompanies it.

Tekken 4's techno soundtrack helps immerse the player into its more digital aesthetic and 'Fetus' playing in the prologue for each character's story mode paired with the sketchy art and the cold and monotonous speech of the narrator telling the story of the characters does its job to hype the player up for the forthcoming battles.

Speaking of battles the one thing I want to gush about the most are the stages in which the battles take place. Never ever have I seen stages which cater to my taste so much as this game. The stages are much more modern in comparison to what I had come to expect with the battles taking place in airports, malls, top of a skyscraper and other such places. Each stage is distinct and unique and has at least something interesting going on be it mechanically or aesthetically or even both in some cases. Stages like the forest have uneven terrain making it difficult for some moves, parking and skyscraper got objects like poles or statues (respectively) in it which you can use to hide behind or can even destroy by hitting your opponent against it which makes the experience much more realistic. Even stages which don't have a lot going on in gameplay category make up for it in visuals with my favorites being the underground lab surrounded by white fumes at the bottom giving it a more mysterious look and the Underground one in which the crowd surrounds you and they cheer for the fighters when there's a hard hitting move done by either one. Talking about the theme's of these stages would be redundant since I've already praised the ost a lot but skyscraper's theme, 'Authentic Sky' and Airports theme, 'Touch And Go' are my favorites.

I would also like to mention the story mode of each of its character is impeccable and the darker and grittier tone it has makes it much more memorable and its unfortunate to see how much the non Mishima characters are side lined narratively in the successive entries of the series when taking it into account how good this game was because of everyone being given their due.

All in all, Tekken 4 while not as fun to play as 5 for me is still my favorite of the franchise yet (along with 5 ofc) because of its bold and distinct visual identity and various design choices perfectly syncing up with each other to make one of the most atmospheric and immersive fighting games I've played and everyone who's a fan of y2k aesthetic and fighting games should give this one a chance

a really interesting proposal for what a fighting game can be. a practice in atmosphere and display of experimentation that feels lovely to be in and see where it takes you. making divergences from the set formula of the arcade mode, characters changing fighting styles for plot motivated reasons and a lack of care for competitive viability. something i wish more fighting game studios did at least once, not something i think needs to entirely replace fighting games that aim their sights at competitive audiences but a breath of fresh air that can co-exist with competitive games, fighting games that just Are.

Hated by the competitive scene and some other dumb people, Tekken 4 is everything i loved in Tekken 1-3 but on a new generation of consoles. The gameplay is what you would expect of Tekken but with some slopes and breakables on stages that in my experience only made me have more fun with the game. The replayability is also off the charts with a amazing story that i will talk about soon and some new modes including Tekken Force, that is now in full 3D. If you just want some singleplayer or casual Vs. with friends, Tekken 4 is one of the best games on the series.

This game's where the story mode peaked too, Tekken 4 not only follow the steps of old Tekken but goes even further with the best writing on the series, intro's with cool as hell artworks and a way more grounded story before the damage Tekken 6 would tragically do on Tekken lore (I miss the old Jin, man). Unlike what Tekken became in the future, Tekken 4 respects the old characters legacy and what they mean for the fans while still not letting them completely take the spotlight of the new characters like Christie, Steve and Marduk. There's something i don't enjoy much though, i like human/humanoid bosses but the Heihachi fight is kinda mid. At least it's not Azazel tho, i would rather fight Heihachi diaper mode a hundred times instead of having to fight Azazel.

The art direction in this game is also the best of all Tekken, it just gives me a 00's nostalgia i can't ignore along with badass designs for the characters. I admit it's kinda edgy sometimes but it looks so cool, Paul's design is peak. Those stages, the soundtrack, all of this game is pure style. You cannot go wrong with playing some Tekken 4 nowadays, it's guaranteed fun if you enjoyed the previous entries.

Tekken 4 foi tão merda que o Harada saiu da Namco por 1 ano pra pensar no que ele fez.
Jabs rápidos? Nerfar movimentação? Que piada. Estágios bonitos, porém ia de injogável pra meio que jogável.
A atmosfera é cool não dá pra negar mas eu não jogo videogame pelo Spotify nem pelo YouTube.
Cast de fighters até ok mas o balanceamento foi para o caralho.
Sumo resumo, jogo merda jogue Tekken 5 ou sua versão definitiva encontrada no PS3 T5 Dark Ressurection um jogo superior em todos os aspectos, talvez não em alguns que eu não ligue.

As a child, I missed out on this and tekken 6 as the only games of tekken that I didn’t play. And after years I open up to this game, faced the game at very hard and beat it first try with every character in the game. Tears flowed down my eyes when I realised I wasn’t the same old child buttmashing to reach my way to victory. It almost felt like getting good at it was a way I lost the child in me but at the same time that’s what really spoke to me as to how much games of this era meant to me.

Just an outstanding game overall, complimented with some of my most favourite tekken osts.

Thank you, Hirada.

VEO EL 4 PERO NO LA MEJORA

Tekken fue uno de esos juegos que demostró que las 3D habían venido para quedarse, y Tekken 3 hizo que la tridimensionalidad en los juegos de lucha fuese posible.

Con el salto a la 6ª Gen de consolas, Namco nos dio de primeras el interesante Tekken Tag Tournament como una forma de juntar todo lo visto en los 3 juegos previos más la capacidad de los combates dobles, no obstante, no dejaba de sentirse ese refilón a ser un Tekken 3 con gráficos algo mejores y más personajes. Tekken 4 representaba el verdadero siguiente paso de la saga, pero no supo darlo.

De primeras, el juego mejora de forma narrativa al haber incluido los prólogos donde se muestran las motivaciones de los personajes de apuntarse al torneo de lucha (además de que ya todos tienen voces) y la calidad gráfica in game es bastante decente para un juego de 2001.

Por el resto, el juego no se siente como un paso adelante, el rooster de personajes es muy limitado, inferior incluso a Tekken 2 y 3 con muy pocas nuevas caras y otras faltantes como Anna Williams o Jack (aunque fue de agradecer el retorno de Lee Chaolan) La jugabilidad le falta mucha velocidad y agilidad en comparación a Tekken 3, por algún motivo los personajes se sienten más lentos de controlar y el juego menos intuitivo y emocionante por una IA bastante deficiente. Los escenarios son mucho más sosos y con menos carisma ya que buscaron hacerlos demasiado realistas, se lucha en centros comerciales, playas, selvas, aparcamientos, aeropuertos...¿Dónde están los rascacielos, los dojos, los bosques, las ciudades asiáticas o los templos?

Además de que, pese a que in game los gráficos son bastante potentes, en las cinemáticas los personajes se ven incluso peor que en las de Tekken 3 en ocasiones (exceptuando en la intro)

No es un mal juego, pero después de lo bueno que fue el 3 se siente bastante decepcionante.