Tekken 4

PlayStation console exclusive

Tekken 4 marks the return of Namco's premier fighting franchise, Tekken. This version features enhanced graphics, gameplay mechanics, and fearsome fighters. Newcomers engage old favorites in interactive, multileveled arenas. The addition of walls, terrain effects, position changes, and enhanced sidestepping will force you to adjust your fighting strategy. Expanded game modes such as Training, Team Battle and the new Tekken Force provide the player with a deeper gameplay experience.

Released: 28 March 2002
Platforms: Arcade PlayStation 2
Genres: 3D fighting Arcade Fighting
Developers: Namco
Publishers: Namco
Series: Tekken
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action
Country: Japan
Age ratings: PEGI 12 ESRB T
Languages: English, Japanese
Entry: #4 in Tekken
Time to beat: 15hmain story28hwith extras34hcompletionist

About

Tekken 4 (鉄拳4) is a 2001 fighting game developed and published by Namco for arcades. Initially released for Namco's System 246 hardware, it was then ported to the PlayStation 2 home console in 2002. As the fourth main installment in the Tekken series following Tekken 3 (1997), and the fifth overall following the non-canon title Tekken Tag Tournament (1999), the game harbored many gameplay revisions, such as the series-unique ability for the player to move about before the round begins and the introduction of walled stages.

There are up to twenty-two playable characters, five of which are newcomers and one alter-ego palette swap. Placing distinction on the plot in the console version, the tone of Tekken 4 was noticeably darker than other installments in the series. The game notably features the canonical return of Kazuya Mishima, whose story reveals that he was revived following his death 20 years prior and has entered the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 to take back the Mishima Zaibatsu from his father Heihachi Mishima and seek out his son Jin Kazama.

›Story

Two years ago, Heihachi failed to capture Ogre.

Not willing to give up, Heihachi ordered his researchers to collect blood samples, skin tissue, and hoof fragments left behind by Ogre (or known as True Ogre in its true manifestation) in order to conduct genetic experiments. Heihachi’s goal was to create a new life form by splicing Ogre’s genome with his own. However, the research was unsuccessful.

After extensive experimentation, Heihachi’s bioengineers came to the conclusion that an additional gene - the Devil Gene - was necessary in order to successfully splice Ogre’s genetic code into another living organism. Heihachi learned that his own genome lacked the Devil Gene, but he knew someone who did... Jin Kazama.

Jin, who vanquished Ogre in The King of Iron Fist Tournament 3, was shot and mortally wounded by Heihachi. As his life slipped away, Jin transformed into a Devil. Upon his transformation, he struck down Heihachi and took flight. Jin’s whereabouts were unknown after the Tournament.

Heihachi searched for Jin to no avail. However, Heihachi discovered a photograph during his investigation that stirred his curiosity. The 20-year-old photograph was an image of a burnt corpse covered with laceration wounds. Heihachi paid particular attention to the corpse’s back, which had what looked like deformed, protruding wing-like limbs.

Convinced that the picture was of Kazuya, his own son whom he threw into a volcano 20 years ago, Heihachi diverted all his resources into a search for the body. This search eventually led Heihachi to G Corporation, a leading-edge biotech firm making unprecedented advances in the field of biogenetics research.

Heihachi discovered that G Corporation found the corpse and extracted and analyzed its genetic data. In fact, Heihachi learned that the company was in the midst of creating a new life form by using the data. Heihachi also determined that Kazuya’s remains and research data were secured at G Corporation’s Nebraska and Nepal research laboratories, respectively.

Friday, 25 December. The Tekken Force raided G Corporation’s maximum security research laboratory in Nepal. The bottom floors of the building were obliterated, and the remaining data storage facility containing file servers was airlifted by a group of heavy-duty helicopters.

At the same time, a separate unit led by Heihachi infiltrated the underground research facility in Nebraska, where Kazuya’s remains were preserved. As Heihachi observed from his helicopter, he soon realized that unlike the Nepal facility, the operations in Nebraska were not going according to plan. The tactical status monitor screens showed the first wave of the Tekken Force troops being blown out from the storage room where Kazuya’s remains were supposedly kept.

A silhouette of a large figure slowly emerged from the room... When Heihachi could see clearly enough, he instantly recognized the large figure as Kazuya.

Kazuya was resurrected in G Corporation’s research facility. After his resurrection, Kazuya offered his body as research material to determine the true nature of the Devil that resided within him. Kazuya’s goal was to unify his two selves into one. Kazuya theorized that if he unified his body with the Devil, he would be able to truly harness its powers. He could then finally take revenge against Heihachi and the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Enraged that Heihachi thwarted his plans, Kazuya obliterated the heavily armed Tekken Force and vanished into the flames of the lab’s wreckage. Heihachi was infuriated by Kazuya’s escape and took out his anger on his hapless subordinates who reported the escape.

Abel, Heihachi’s lead scientific advisor, urged the enraged Heihachi to quickly find a way to capture Kazuya. Once his anger subsided, Heihachi focused his mind and decided on a plan. An evil smile crept upon his lips.

Two years had passed since The King of Iron Fist Tournament 3. The Mishima Zaibatsu announced The King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 and placed the massive financial empire as the top prize. The champion who manages to defeat Heihachi at the end of the Tournament would inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Well aware that the tournament is just a trap designed to lure him out, Kazuya nevertheless enters - it is his chance to defeat Heihachi.

In the round 7, Jin and Kazuya was scheduled to fight. However, on the way to fight Kazuya who waits in the stage Jin was ambushed and captured by Tekken Force before he was taken and chained in the Honmaru. Kazuya was announced as a default winner and he was sent to the final stage where he met Heihachi and asked him where Jin was. Heihachi promised he would answer after the fight; he was planning to take Kazuya to Honmaru after winning the fight and finish him off along with Jin by chaining him.

He intentionally did this because he was more interested in torturing Kazuya. In the final stage 2 were clashed into battle resulting in Kazuya as a winner. After losing in the fight, Heihachi was being forced to take Kazuya to Honmaru and he was knocked out by Kazuya's devil power. Kazuya tried to suck out Jin's devil power but he failed.

Eventually Jin woke up after being taunted by Kazuya and broke out of chain with rage. Kazuya fought against confronting Jin, but he was not able to defeat him and was left unconsciousness. Then Heihachi woke up and tried to kill exhausted Jin but he was defeated again and he was about to be killed if not for Jin's reminiscence of his mother, Jun Kazama, which caused him to spare Heihachi in honor of his mother. Stretching his Devil wings, Jin took a flight, leaving the unconscious Kazuya and Heihachi in Hon-Maru..

Keywords

helicopter
martial arts
hand-to-hand combat
karate
multiple endings
kung fu
tournament
countdown timer
game critics awards
alternate costumes
professional wrestler
60 fps on consoles

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Tekken 4 introduces significant gameplay changes from the previous games in the series, finally going for realism and a leap into full 3D immersion. It adds significantly more gameplay features and modes than its predecessor, Tekken Tag Tournament. For the first time, it allows players to maneuver around an arena interacting with walls and other obstacles for extra damage. These "environmental hazards" in turn allow players to juggle opponents for consecutive combos and allow the designers to implement a "switch maneuver", which lets players escape from cornering and turn the tide in their favor.

The game engine has been tweaked to be more focused on the environment, causing the characters to move more slowly and fluidly than in Tekken Tag Tournament. The balance is also better than in Tekken Tag Tournament. Finally, the game introduces a brand new graphics system, which features increased lighting, dynamic physics, and smoother surfaces. The game also introduces the new universal concept of just frame inputs that require an input on exactly one frame, and may be unblockable or have special properties, as symbolized by blue sparks.

Story

Two years after the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3, Heihachi Mishima and his scientists have captured samples of Ogre's blood and tissue to splice with Heihachi's genome, to make him immortal. The experiment fails since Heihachi lacks the necessary Devil gene. His grandson, Jin Kazama, possesses the Devil gene but has been missing since the previous tournament. Meanwhile, Heihachi learns that the body of his son, Kazuya Mishima, who also had the Devil gene and whom Heihachi killed by throwing into a volcano 21 years ago, is in storage in the labs of the G Corporation, a cutting-edge biotech firm and the Mishima Zaibatsu's sole corporate rival.

Heihachi sends his Tekken Forces to raid the G Corporation facility to retrieve Kazuya's body. Still, the mission fails when the forces are wiped out by Kazuya himself, who was secretly restored to life a few days after his death and kept hidden from the world since. Unknown to Heihachi, Jin has been in a self-imposed training exile in Brisbane, to unlearn the Mishima karate style and master traditional karate, loathing anything to do with his bloodline since Heihachi's betrayal.

Development

At E3 2001, Namco showed a teaser for Tekken 4. In a June 2001 investor meeting in Tokyo, Namco mentioned Tekken 4 as being one of the games central to its PlayStation 2 strategy. A playable arcade demo was shown at a Tokyo event the same month, with eight of the ten announced characters playable. On August 21, 2001, Namco shared its first American locations for the arcade version. The Korean PlayStation 2 version, which predated the American and European versions by two months, introduced Korean voice lines for Hwoarang that were also used in those versions.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Tekken 4 on their September 1, 2001 issue as the most successful arcade game of the month and was the top-selling fighting game that year. It also received positive reviews overall and attracted the game to many newcomers, but only received mixed feedback from veteran players in the international gaming community at the time of its initial release. Although the game was still successful at the Evolution Championships 2004 and at the Arcadia Tournament, the top fighting game tournament in Japan in the 2000s. Tekken 4 was also the first game in the series featured in a major international tournament hosted by Namco in March 2003 in London, England, with prize money worth over €5,000, higher than the Arcadia tournament and was won by Christie Monteiro player Noam Gat of Israel.

In tournaments, the top echelon of professional players were unaffected and still played in Tekken 4 tournaments, and at the 2004 EVO tournament, the same players who dominated the top 8 of Tekken Tag Tournament also placed in the top 8 of Tekken 4. For example, players such as Ryan Hart, who won in Tekken Tag Tournament, competed and was in the top five in Tekken 4, while Anthony "Jackie" Tran and Thomas "Tomhilfiger" Kymn, who were the finalists in Tekken 4, also enjoyed top 8 finishes in Tekken Tag Tournament in the EVO tournaments. The game even sold more in Japan than Tekken 5 and Tekken 6, though it sold less copies worldwide. However, the lower sales had less to do with the game and its serious tone, but actually in retrospective reviews had more to do with the decline in fighting game popularity in general, which coincided with the decline in arcade popularity in the early to mid 2000s when it developed into a niche market outside Japan, where it remained very mainstream until the COVID-19 pandemic.