I'll make this one pretty simple. I was a fan of Tekken for a good long while. I really came into the series when Tekken 3 arrived in North American arcades in 1997. I immediately latched onto characters like Jin Kazama, Eddy Gordo (I had never seen the capoeira style portrayed in a fighting game before up until then so he was especially unique) and Ling Xiaoyu (who will get her own entry in this blog series). Besides the amazing fighting. Then when we got a PS1 in 1999, I was fighting game heaven when we had a copy of Tekken 3 to play all for ourselves. I practiced for hours as Jin on the hardest mode of the game. Soon even the highest level of difficulty in the game had problems standing up to me. I really felt like I was the King of the Iron Fist tournament.

Then came along this video:

 

This was the first time I'd get to lay eyes on the beauty that would soon be known as Tekken Tag Tournament. And I really didn't know what to expect. My only experience with tag based fighting games up to that point was the Marvel vs Capcom games and I didn't really take a liking to those. But soon enough, Tekken Tag Tournament arrived in the arcades and I got to play using new characters that I had only seen before in earlier Tekken games and read about in fan fiction. Needless to say it was a blast, and it was only helped by the amazing musical score that Namco was becoming famous for, at least in my eyes, after the amazing soundtrack they put out for Tekken 3.

And one theme stood out to me in particular. I think you know where I'm going with this. :-) 

 When I think of Tekken, I really think of this theme I think of the blazing fast action, the powerful punches and kicks, the well designed characters, and the story that Namco put into each one of the characters across this series.

Click here to see this theme in action during a play through of Tekken Tag.

This theme in particular works so well not just as background music to set the stage for a fight, but you can really listen to it on its own and it can evoke so many feelings. Personally, the feeling I get from it, besides imagining myself playing the game, is how I'd feel if I ever got to travel to Japan someday and visit its many cultural sites and tourism spots. I've always wanted to visit Japan, not just Tokyo but other cities and small towns through out the island country, and this theme makes me long for that in a lot of ways.

It also helps me to concentrate whenever I'm writing a particularly action packed scene in one of my many screenplays.

Funny enough, I don't even use the character Lei Wulong that much whenever I get to play a Tekken game. I could never latch onto his fighting style and adapt to it to suit my needs. But at least I'll always have the music!

I'll send you off this amazing remix that was done for Lei's Tekken Tag theme for the PS2 release of the game. I often like to listen to both songs back to back because they're so well made and evoke those traveling sensibilities in me every time I hear it. Take care!