Tekken Tag Tournament (US, TEG3/VER.C1)

Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Tekken Tag Tournament (c) 1999 Namco.

Tekken Tag Tournament is a one-on-one fighting game for one or two players, in which teams of two combatants compete in the legendary Iron Fist Tournament.

At any point during a match, players can hit a tag button to their two fighters fighter, allowing the resting fighter to recover some lost health. The tag can be implemented in many ways, such as in between combos or utilizing special throws. At times when a resting fighter's lifebar is flashing, that character can be tagged in to be given a temporary boost in strength.

The game features over 35 characters that previously appeared in "Tekken 2" and "Tekken 3". In addition, there is a new boss character called 'Unknown' who is similar to Mokujin from "Tekken 3", in that she can randomly imitate any character's fighting style, although one difference from Mokujin is that she is able to change her style any time during the fight.

To win the entire tournament, players must defeat six other teams before fighting their character-specific sub-bosses in the seventh round. The eighth and final round is the battle for the title against the mysterious "Unknown". The first tag team to have one of its pairing defeated results in that team being knocked out of the tournament.

- TECHNICAL -

Namco System 12 hardware
Game ID : TEG

Main CPU : PSX (@ 16.9344 Mhz), H8/3002 (@ 14.7456 Mhz)
Sound Chips : C352 (@ 14.7456 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 5

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1999.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Iron Fist Tag Tournament'.

This game has a tag play system (i.e. : one player can play select a team of two players) and then during a match he can tag their characters at any time, provided they aren't in the air being juggled ;). Unlike the other Tekken games, this episode has no specific storyline and the main idea behind the game was to create a game which has all the characters from Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 plus a few new characters, Tetsujin and Unknown. Tetsujin is a metallic form of Mokujin and is selected with button 1. Tetsujin will become gold if you get 10 wins in a row. Unknown is the end character, complete with a wolf, and cannot be selected on the arcade version. Tekken Tag Tournament has a total of 38 characters. When the machine is turned on for the first time, by default only 20 characters are playable. The rest of the characters are released one by one after specific time. The characters can be tagged by pressing button 5.

In the Sound FX there is the announcer voice for Doctor Boskonovitch, Doctor Abel, Devil Kazuya and Marshall Law meaning these characters could have been in the game but weren't added to the final version. Since Devil Kazuya and Marshall Law are identical to Kazuya and Forest Law respectively there was no reason to add the same characters twice. Dr. Abel was an evil scientist who re-animated Bryan for Tekken 3 and was never in any game at all. For Boskonovitch, who would want to play as him on a coin operated game anyway!

When Tetsujin/Mokujin was updated for Tekken Tag, they forgot to add moves for Roger. This was fixed in "Tekken 5".

Anna plays the same as on Tekken 3 (Sony PlayStation) and not the arcade where she was a gfx swap of Nina.

Bandai Music Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Tekken Tag Tournament Original Soundtrack - APCG-4046) on 21/09/1999.

Tekken Tag Tournament can clearly be heard in the 2003 movie PTU. Characters heard fighting are Hwoarang and Wang.

- UPDATES -

Just like "Soul Calibur", the build date wasn't updated although the game was.

TEG1/VER.A3 (Japan)
* Build date : 22:20:05, JUN 18 1999

TEG1/VER.B (Japan)
TEG3/VER.B (US)
* Build date : 22:20:05, JUN 18 1999

TEG3/VER.C1 (US)
* Build date : 22:20:05, JUN 18 1999

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Tekken Tag Tournament has every character from "Tekken 2" and "Tekken 3" (not "Tekken"). If a character was in both Tekken 2 and 3, the Tekken 3 version of the character is in TTT. Each character has from two up to five different costumes. Each costume is set with a different button. Player 1 outfit is LP, P2 outfit is LK, P3 outfit (if any) is RP, P4 outfit (if any) is RK, P5 outfit (if any) is Tag or Start button. Usually P1 and P3 outfits are similar, as are P2 and P4 outfits.

Characters with 2 outfits : Kazuya, Baek, Bruce, Roger (P2 Alex), Jack-2, P.Jack, Wang, Unknown (not selectable)

Characters with 3 outfits : Devil (P3 Angel), Ganryu, Kunimitsu, Jun, Armor King, Michelle, Lee, Anna

Characters with 4 outfits : Yoshimitsu, Nina, Hwoarang, Paul, King, Lei, Julia, Bryan, Gun Jack, Kuma (P2-4 Panda), Heihachi, Tetsujin (P2-3-4 Mokujin), Ogre, True Ogre,

Characters with 5 outfits :Xiaoyu, Jin, Law, Eddy (P5 Tiger)

* Select Jin and Heihachi as a team, now with Jin do Back+LP+RP, when you see the Kazama fury animation do RP(x2), LK... Jin will change into Devil Jin, You can see the changing as Jin gets lightening all around him and his stance changes to that of Heihachi. The animation is kool but if you move forward or backward or get hit the animation will end.

* Tag Throw : Press RP+Tag together. Throw differs depending on character who tags in.

* Start with Tag partner : Hold Tag before the stage loads or the next round starts.

- SERIES -

1. Tekken (1994, ARC)
2. Tekken 2 (1995, ARC)
3. Tekken 3 (1997, ARC)
4. Tekken Tag Tournament (1999, ARC)
5. Tekken Tag Tournament Turbo (1999, ARC)
6. Tekken 4 (2001, ARC)
7. Tekken Advance [Model AGB-ATKJ-JPN] (2001, GBA)
8. Tekken 5 (2004, ARC)
9. Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection (2005, ARC)
10. Tekken 6 (2007, ARC)
11. Tekken 6 - Bloodline Rebellion (2008, ARC)
12. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (2011, ARC)
13. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited (2012, ARC)
14. Tekken 3D - Prime Edition [Model CTR-ATKJ-JPN] (2012, 3DS)
15. Tekken 7 (2015, ARC)
16. Tekken 7 Fated Retribution (2016, ARC)
17. Tekken 7 Fated Retribution - Round 2 (2019, ARC)

- STAFF -

Cabinet Graphic Design: Don Marshall

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: