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Recently I ordered a birthday present for a close relative online, but it wasn’t enough to get free shipping.  So I ordered Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for Wii U to go along with it.  I’m not a big fan of Tekken games, but I’ve been known to buy a couple of them if they have a few modes and features I like, and if the price is low enough.  For instance, I got Tekken 4 when it was cheap, simply because hidden in the game was an old Namco arcade 3-D space shooter called StarBlade.  The Wii U edition of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 had some Nintendo-centric modes and features I was curious about trying, but not curious enough to pay full price for.  But I found it cheap enough now online, and I’ve been playing it off and on.  So in honor of that, here is a blog about my top ten favorite Tekken fighters!

Wii U Edition

But first I’m going to talk a little bit about the Nintendo-centric modes and features in the Wii U Edition of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.  Each character in the game has alternate costumes, and on the Wii U, they also have an outfit that dresses them up like Nintendo characters!  The costumes include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Bowser, Link, Zelda, Sheik, Ganondorf, Zero Suit Samus, Fox McCloud, and Captain Falcon.  Now, you can’t dress them up as ANY of those characters.  Each fighter has one specific outfit they can dress in, and that’s it.  Some of them look pretty silly!  I wonder if other versions of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 on other consoles have other video game character costumes.  Does anyone know?

The other new mode in the Wii U version is called Mushroom Mode.  You fight like you do in a regular Tekken game, but this time, Mario themed power-ups hop around and if you touch one, you’ll feel its effects.  Sometimes they’re hard to get since even though Tekken is in 3-D, you travel on a 2-D plane most of the time.  Some of these power-ups include Super Mushrooms, Mega Mushrooms, Golden Mushrooms (they make you fast), Poison Mushrooms, and Invincibility Stars.  The power-ups act just as they would in a Mario game.  It’s pretty silly seeing a giant fighter battling a tiny one!  Oh, and they also play the Mario theme song in the background.

The last reason why I got Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is something that’s found in all versions of the game, not just the Wii U.  And that is my favorite video game music composer, Go Shiina, did some of the music for this game!  I only wish they’d tell you which songs he did in the game, but his style is easy to spot.  If any of you have read my blogs in the past, you might’ve heard me talk about him before.  Go Shiina does music for various Namco games, including Mr. Driller, Tales of Legendia, Ace Combat and Tekken series, and Gods Eater Burst.  A lot of his music sounds the same, so he’s kind of a one-trick pony.  Kind of like Akira Toriyama’s artwork.  They’re both the same, but unique at the same time. 

Honorable Mentions

OK, before I get to my top ten Tekken characters, I have to give credit to some other fighters, too.  There are some characters in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 that I didn’t even know existed in other Tekken games.  One is a robot called Combot, and there’s even an angel character!  King is also cool, but I only liked him in Namco X Capcom because he was funny and paired with Felicia from DarkStalkers.  Characters like Jun, Zelfina, and Christie are also cool, but I don’t have a good reason why.  One character I didn’t know about is named Miharu, and she wears a swimsuit and a purple cap and heart sunglasses.  She looks like a tacky tourist and acts silly.  And last, one character that shows up in both the Tekken and Soul Calibur series is named Yoshimitsu, and he’s pretty cool here.  I think Yoshimitsu is my brother Jeff’s favorite character in both series.   OK that’s enough of that; here are my top ten favorite Tekken characters!

10. Bob

Most Tekken characters are really strong and tough looking, and then we have Bob.  He’s fat and looks like a trucker.  And he’s kind of silly.  That’s how he got on my list.

9. Alisa

She’s got pink hair and she’s a robot.  That’s how she got on the list.  She would’ve been higher up on the list, but in Tekken 6 there is an adventure mode that plays like a 3-D beat ‘em up game.  It’s not very good, but I made it to the end anyway.  One of the final bosses however, is Alisa, and she was so hard that I couldn’t defeat her.  She had one move where she would take off her head and then give it to you, and your character would be stunned for a moment holding her head in your hand.  And then her head would explode, causing massive damage to you.  It was ten times harder than anything that came before it so I was mad at her for that.  One funny thing about that adventure mode is that you could collect and dress up your characters in various outfits.  I made my characters look like tacky tourists.

8. Alex

One character in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 that I didn’t know about is a dinosaur named Alex.  That’s a silly name for a dinosaur.  But where did he come from?  I don’t remember a dinosaur in a Tekken game before.  He’s a little T-Rex with boxing gloves on.  How could you not like that?

7. Kuma/Panda

Yeah I know that’s two characters, but I know a pallet swap when I see it.  Kuma the bear is supposed to be Heiachi’s pet, and the Panda is one of the girl fighter’s friends.  I guess they had to give the bears some sort of background story instead of just, “Hey Kuma, wanna join the Iron Fist Tournament?”  “Sure!  Er, I mean, GRRR, RARRR!”  And speaking of Heiachi, does anyone else think he looks like Dr. Wily after eating a can of spinach?

6. Kangaroo

Actually I think his name is Roger Jr. and he’s just the joey in his momma’s pouch, who does all the fighting.  But how can you not like a kangaroo in boxing gloves?  That’s one thing I do like about Tekken is that they don’t take things TOO seriously sometimes.

5. Mokujin

This wooden man was originally just used for the training modes, but they’ve made him a playable character now.  Did you know that Mokujin has showed up in other Namco games, too?  One was one of the Point Blank light gun games on the PSOne.  In his game, you had to shoot the right Mokujin who was performing the same fighting pose as the one pictured in the middle. 

4. Asuka Kazama

I think the only reason why I like her is because she looks like the Ridge Racer lady after eating a can of spinach.  Plus, in one of the first games she was in, the final boss in arcade mode was really cheap, and the only character I could beat it with was Asuka.  Yeah, I know, I’m awful at fighters.

3. Julia Chang

She’s cool and tough and I think she’s Native American or something.  Only problem is I’m confused about her character.  There’s also a Michelle Chang and I get them mixed up sometimes.  And in some of the later Tekken games, I think one or the other wears a mask and turns into a wrestler or superhero or something.  Confusing or not, that’s still pretty cool, though.

2. Nina Williams

Only reason why I like this character is that she looks cool, tough, and strong.  She even got her own game on the PS2 called Death By Degrees.  It had some neat ideas but the play control was awful.  I like her Nintendo outfit in the Wii U game.  In the Wii U edition of Tag Tournament 2, they made Nina look really buff, so when you dress her like Princess Zelda, it looks like Zelda’s been working out.  Yeah you’d better watch out, Ganon!  Next time you try to kidnap her; Zelda’s going to throw you across the room!  OK now I’m just being silly!

1. Pac-Man

“Hey, wait a minute, Pac-Man’s not a Tekken character,” is what you might be thinking.  But he was kind of a Tekken character once.  In Street Fighter X Tekken for the PS3, Pac-Man was a playable character!  He piloted a drivable Mokujin mech!  Pac-Man being in the game is the only reason why I got Street Fighter X Tekken (it’s basically just Street Fighter IV with Tekken characters in it).  Pac-Man was the silly character representing the Namco side, but on the Capcom side, the silly character was Bad Box Art Mega Man!  That would’ve been really funny, but I think the timing was off for that to work.  You see, that was around the time the creator of Mega Man left Capcom, and Capcom cancelled a couple of highly anticipated Mega Man games (Mega Man Universe and Mega Man Legends 3).  So having that version of Mega Man in the game just didn’t ‘smell right,’ know what I mean?  At least a ‘good’ version of Pac-Man and Mega Man will be in the new Super Smash Bros. game, so I’m excited about that.

Conclusions

And those are my favorite Tekken characters!  In the comments section, let me know what you think of my list and tell me any other Tekken characters you think I would like.  And let me know your favorites, too!  Later!  --Cary