Its hard to believe that its been 25 years since Tekken 4 was released for PlayStation 2. Tekken 4 came out back in 2001 and was the sequel to the critically acclaimed Tekken 3 title from ’97-’98. Tekken 4 is quite possibly the most overlooked installment within its own franchise mainly the series had started to decline in popularity during the early 00’s. Tekken 4 could not recapture recapture the magic of its prequel but the gameplay along with other features were significantly better. Tekken 4 was darker installment than previous entries and was more story-driven opposed to having a simple arcade mode with random battles and a boss fight in the end. The story for Tekken 4 was about the fourth Iron Fist Tournament hosted by Heichachi Mishima. The purpose of the Iron Fist Tournament 4 was for Heichachi to get Kazuya and Jin Kazama to enter in order to gain access to their Devil Gene in order to become immortal.

The story mode was one of the best features of Tekken 4 because it featured cutscenes with animated pictures and voice-over acting. Tekken 4 saw the return of many familiar faces including Marshall Law, Paul Phoenix, Hworang, King, Ling Xiaoyu. Tekken 4 also saw the introduction of new characters like Steve Fox, Christie Monteiro and Craig Marduk. Tekken 4 also had a different offline game modes like Versus, Tekken Force, Team Battle, Survival and Practice. In terms of actual gameplay Tekken 4 felt more immersive especially in relation to the venues. Tekken 4 venues had destructible 3D environments which added another layer of realism to them. The soundtrack for each stage felt mostly generic which was a step down from each character having their own unique theme song which defined their personality. Tekken 4 was considered to be a commercial success following its release in ’01 reaching more than 4.3 million copies worldwide. Despite, selling significantly less than Tekken 3 which sold more than eight million Tekken 4 felt like somewhat of a blueprint for the iconic Tekken 5 game from 2004.

While Tekken 4 was considered a big deal on the PS2 during the early 00’s the arcade scene in America was starting to die around that time. The Tekken trilogy from the 90’s became big because the arcade scene was popular. After the 90’s decade ended the Tekken series had seeming dipped in mainstream popularity. The Tekken series was not as big in the 2000’s as it was during the 90’s despite having better graphics and improved gameplay mechanics. Tekken 4 is often seen as the black sheep of its own series because it felt average compared to what came before and after it. Tekken 4 felt different from the older and more memorable installments from the 90’s but it not as advanced as T5 or T6 in terms of quality. The legacy of Tekken 4 feels a bit complex because it was a decent game for its time but it got overshadowed by almost every other entry within its series in someway.