Virtua Fighter may have conceived the 3D fighter, but Tekken 2 brought depth to the action.

Mishima Zaibatsu Enterprises' Wild Kingdom

From the beginning, the Tekken series had a penchant for distinctive, animalistic characters, from the jaguar-masked wrestler King to Heihachi's pet bear, Kuma. This trend picked up even more steam with Tekken 2, which introduced the unlikely pair of Roger the kangaroo and Alex the deinonychus (a small dinosaur for the laymen) as unlockable characters. The two had identical controls, with much of their move sets borrowed from King and Armor King, though they also had a few unique moves of their own, which made good use of their powerful hind legs. Such characters may seem sort of out of place in a game that carries an otherwise grimly serious tone, but in reality, Alex and Roger injected some much-needed levity to the proceedings.

Not since Street Fighter had there been a fighting game with such an involved, dramatic storyline.

By 1995, 3D fighting games had gone from a technical novelty to a respectable alternative to sprite-based fighters. Games like Virtua Fighter and Battle Arena Toshinden helped the subgenre earn such legitimacy, but what was lacking, as many 2D fighting game enthusiasts might have told you, was some soul. At the time of its release, the original Tekken felt a bit like a Virtua Fighter also-ran, but when Tekken 2 hit arcades in 1995, it was fairly clear why Tekken would go on to be one of the most loved fighting franchises.

From a good 10 yards away, there was little appreciable difference between Tekken 2 and the other 3D fighters of the time--two players fought one-on-one until one of the fighter's health was completely depleted. But the devil, as they say, is in the details. Tekken 2 featured a four-button fighting system that was easy for fighting game novices to pick up and play, but under the surface lay a complex and strategically satisfying fighting system. If you just wanted to mash buttons with your friends, a good time could be had. But if you were serious about your fighting games, each character had a unique, extensive move list, complete with a stunning 10-hit combo, which would completely decimate an opponent that was caught unawares. Much of the success of the Tekken series can be linked back to Tekken 2's nearly perfect balance of accessibility and depth.

Tekken 2 was also the point in the series where the characters began to gain some real personality, thanks to the fleshing out of the backstory and the awe-inspiring 3D graphics. Though a mere 10 characters were selectable at first, all told there were 25 different characters in Tekken 2, and every single one of them had a unique computer-generated cinematic that played when you finished the single-player game with them. Looking back, these CG cinematics seem pretty outdated, but at the time they were nothing short of state of the art. The same could be said for the in-game graphics in Tekken 2, which were modeled with great detail and animated even better. By comparison, the fighters in Virtua Fighter were sterile and archetypal, and you were left feeling that these were just avatars. Tekken 2 managed to lend its fighters unique personalities, and you could relate to them as actual characters.

Roughly a year after Tekken 2 hit arcades, Namco brought it to the PlayStation. Namco had managed to create a home port that was just as good, if not better, than its arcade counterpart, which, at the time, was an unprecedented move. Up to then, fighting game aficionados had submitted to the assertion that the home versions of their favorite fighting games would always be saddled with some sort of hefty compromise, but with Tekken 2, that was all over. It was a great victory for the PlayStation, and it is a significant point in the ongoing collapse of the arcade market at large.

The original Tekken got the ball rolling the year before, and two years later Tekken 3 refined the formula even further, but it was Tekken 2 that found the right formula. Few fighting games have been as influential, and more importantly, fun, and these are just a few of the reasons we find it easy to call Tekken 2 one of the greatest games of all time.

I had dabbled in a little Virtua Fighter, messed around a bit with Battle Arena Toshinden, and even spent some time with the original Tekken, but the potential of the 3D fighting experience didn't really click for me until I got my hands on Tekken 2. The gameplay found a balance of accessibility and depth that was just about perfect for my admittedly measly fighting game skill set, and while the others looked rather boxy and sterile, there was a grit to Tekken 2's visual style that just made it feel more real. It was the first game I bought for my PlayStation, it remains my favorite fighting game series to this day, and it all started for me with Tekken 2.