Tekken 2


is a fighting game, the second installment in the Tekken series. It was released in arcades in August 1995, and later for the PlayStation in 1996. The original arcade version of the game was released in Tekken 5s Arcade History mode for the PlayStation 2, in 2007 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable via the PlayStation Network, and in 2009 for Zeebo.
There are ten playable characters in the game's arcade version and up to twenty-five fighters, including eight new ones in the console version. The home version also introduced new, now-staple game modes to the series. Tekken 2 was a critical as well as commercial success. It was followed by Tekken 3 in March 1997.

Gameplay

The gameplay in Tekken 2 is much like its predecessor with a few additions. It continues to use 2D backgrounds in its stages, an infinite playing field, and a fighting system that utilizes four buttons: left punch, right punch, left kick, and right kick. Distinct additions included attack reversals for some characters, back throws, chain-throws, and a sidestep unique to two characters, Kazuya Mishima and Heihachi Mishima. However, Yoshimitsu has a spinning sidestep move that lowers his health. Tackles were also modified to inflict damage when running from a greater distance. Each time the game is beaten with one of the default available characters in arcade mode, the associated sub-boss character becomes selectable.
Tekken 2 also introduced various modes that would become staples to the series. These include Survival mode, Team Battle mode, and Time Attack mode. Survival mode takes the player through an endless number of matches to see how many opponent they can defeat without being defeated themselves. In addition, any health lost during a match will carry over to the next match, but the player would regain a little bit more health. Team Battle mode is a two-player mode which up to eight characters can be selected by each player. Like Survival mode, any health lost during a match will carry over to the next match, but the player will regain a small amount. Time Attack mode is similar to Arcade mode, except it is played to see how fast the player can go through it and beat records.

Characters

The game features 16 characters from the previous game: Anna Williams, Armor King I, Ganryu, Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya Mishima, King I, Kuma I, Kunimitsu, Lee Chaolan, Marshall Law, Michelle Chang, Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix, Prototype Jack, Wang Jinrei, and Yoshimitsu while removing Jack. Characters previously appearing as sub-bosses are made into playable characters and given more distinct move sets, although they still share many moves with the originals. Devil Kazuya, originally a bonus palette swap of Kazuya reserved for the home console version of the first game, is also made as a full playable character and serves as this game's final boss.

New characters

Unlockable character
Skin/palette swap
Bonus character
Bonus boss
Playable boss

Plot

Two years after the events of the King of Iron Fist Tournament, the Mishima Zaibatsu, under the leadership of Kazuya Mishima, has become more corrupt and powerful than ever before, and is involved in many illegal operations. While his father Heihachi Mishima was rather ruthless in his endeavors, Kazuya acts completely without a conscience. He hires assassins to eliminate any of his critics and rivals, attempts to extort money from several businesses and organizations, and smuggles endangered species to conduct genetic experiments on them. The reason for his evil deeds is because he has allowed the Devil Gene within him to consume him as a result of his hatred towards Heihachi.
Meanwhile, Kazuya is sentenced to being arrested by animal rights activist and operative Jun Kazama for his experiments. Heihachi on the other hand, whom Kazuya had defeated and thrown off a cliff two years ago, has climbed back up and is training himself, plotting to overthrow Kazuya. In an attempt to rid himself of Heihachi and his enemies once and for all, Kazuya announces the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2, with a large cash prize of one trillion dollars, knowing that Heihachi will appear.
When Jun eventually comes face to face with Kazuya, she tries to arrest him, but instead the both of them can not help being drawn to one another, propelled by a mystic force beyond Jun's control. She later gets pregnant with Kazuya's child, resulting in her leaving everything behind to raise their child. Meanwhile, Heihachi arrives at the tournament, winning against the opposing fighters and eventually reaching Kazuya.
In the final round, Heihachi confronts Kazuya and they battle once again. The Devil Gene takes over Kazuya's body, resulting in Kazuya becoming a Devil creature. However, despite this, Kazuya is not strong enough to overpower Heihachi because of the internal conflict within him, between his evil side - represented by Devil within him - and his good side - represented by an unknown entity called Angel, which was brought forth after his meeting with Jun. Heihachi takes Kazuya's unconscious body to a volcano, and throws him into it before escaping on a helicopter just as the volcano erupts behind him, having taken his revenge and regained the Mishima Zaibatsu. In the meantime, Jun gives birth to Kazuya's illegitimate son.

Development and release

Each of the characters in Tekken 2 is composed of roughly 800 polygons and took between three days and a week to model. Roger the Kangaroo originated as a pet project of one of the development team members, who designed and modeled the character in his free time. When shown to the development team, they pushed to include the character in the game. Much of the time developing the PlayStation conversion was devoted to rewriting the code to fit the console's memory, which is roughly half the size of the game data used in the arcade version.
Tekken 2s port to the PlayStation includes unique CGI endings for every character and numerous modes such as Survival, Time Attack, Team Battle, and Practice mode. It also contains arranged music, like the port of the first game. The arrangements were handled by a large team consisting of original composer Yoshie Arakawa, Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, Nobuyoshi Sano, Takayuki Aihara, Hiroto Sasaki, and Keiichi Okabe, while additional music was composed by Akira Nishizaki, Takashi Furukawa, and Hideaki Mitsui.
The PlayStation 2 version of Tekken 5 features the arcade version of Tekken 2 as a playable bonus. Tekken 2 standalone is available for PlayStation 3 users to download onto the PlayStation Portable. However, multiplayer options have been removed. and on Zeebo via ZeeboNet.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Tekken 2 on their September 15, 1995 issue as being the most-successful arcade game of the year.
The PlayStation conversion was a best-seller in the UK. Sony claimed sales of over one million units in Japan. It was also acclaimed by game critics, with a 93% rating at GameRankings. Critics praised the game's light sourcing, fluid character movement, detailed backgrounds, complex system of moves and combos, accessibility to inexperienced gamers, large set of playable characters, and the practice mode, which several critics predicted would become a standard feature in fighting games. Crispen Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly called it "the best 3-D fighting game you can find for any system", and GamePro, further comparing it to fighting games still in development, assured gamers that it would be at least a year before Tekken 2 would be topped. It received a number of Game of the Year awards from various publications.
Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game, and stated that "It's the style of body slamming and wrestling moves that sets this game apart from its closest cousin, Virtua Fighter 2, which makes it of interest. And the variation of moves and combinations surely place this game near the top of the heap, though the game is still not truly 3D in viewing perspective."
In 1997, named the PlayStation port of Tekken 2 one of the "Top 25 PlayStation Games of All Time" at number three, describing it as better than the arcade version in many regards due to added features, and "one of the best fighting games ever." It was also listed among the best games of all time by Next Generation in 1996, Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1997, Game Informer in 2001, GameSpot in 2006, Empire in 2009, and Guinness World Records in 2009.