The Forgotten War of 3D Fighters
Tekken has dominated 3D fighting games for nearly 30 years—but how did a so-called Virtua Fighter clone end up dethroning its own inspiration? In this deep dive, we explore Tekken’s origins, its rise to fame, the role of Namco and Sony, and how Katsuhiro Harada shaped the series into the king of 3D fighters. We’ll also look at its rivals—Virtua Fighter, Soulcalibur, and Dead or Alive—and why only Tekken survived as the genre leader.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:03 Where Tekken Started: Seiichi Ishii
3:47 Where Tekken Started: Tekken 1
7:25 Rise to Fame: Tekken 2
9:32 Rise to Fame: Katsuhiro Harada
11:14 Rise to Fame: Tekken 3
14:23 Who Were Its Competitors?
15:42 Competition: Soulcalibur
21:13 Competition: Dead or Alive
29:37 Competition: Virtua Fighter
35:38 Sega's Comeback
36:50 Virtua Fighter Comeback
41:42 Outro
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I’m Blue Horizon, your cozy nostalgia spirit! Thank you for visiting my virtual gaming cafe. Grab a drink, have a snack, and take a seat. Let's make some memories 💙🌟
Regulars/fans of my channel are known as "Ceruleans" 🐦
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Everything else: https://beacons.ai/bluehorizonvt
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I won't link every source here because I absorbed a TON of content to make this and I'm not a journalist, but I'll list some of the harder to find articles here:
Seiichi Ishii 4Gamer Interview, 2024:
https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999...
Katsuhiro Harada Edge Interview, 2013:
https://web.archive.org/web/201309260...
Katsuhiro Harada's Soulcalibur Twitter Breakdown:
https://x.com/Harada_TEKKEN/status/18...
Riichiro Yamada Virtua Fighter 6 Dextero Interview:
https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/virtua...
Katsuhiro Harada Wants a Reignited Rivalry with Virtua Fighter:
• "Come, Virtua! I've waited 11 years!" | 67...
Thank you as well to all the people who's footage I've utilized for the presentation of this video! I've done my best to attribute credit everywhere I could, especially the gameplays and interviews. If you do for whatever reason take issue with my use, please let me know via email! I'm sure we'd be able to work something out 💙
Also credit to @MetaKnuxXbeats for the image @ 18:29 because I couldn't credit at the time of editing 😄
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BGM (in order):
Intro/CTA/Outro: Funk Fiction, composed for this channel, unreleased (for now)
Tekken 4 - Draw the Waveform
Tekken 1 - Marine Stadium, Japan
Tekken 1 - Kyoto, Japan
Tekken 1 - Sichuan, China
Tekken 2 - Silent Assassin (Cool Headed Mix)
Tekken 2 - Jun Kazama (Super Ecology Mix)
Tekken 3 - Jin Kazama
Tekken 3 - King
Tekken 7 - Solitude
Soulcalibur III - The New Legend
Soulcalibur - Leaving the World Behind
Soulcalibur III - Frailty, Thy Name Is...
Dead or Alive 3 - Prismatic Butterfly
Dead or Alive Venus Vacation PRISM - uki uki TIME
Dead or Alive 6 - Intersection
Dead or Alive 3 - A Wind
Dead or Alive 4 - Underwater Room
Virtua Fighter 4 Evo - Ending 2
Virtua Fighter 3 - Extra Stage [Brandish Fist]
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. - Lei-Fei (VF3 Arrange Version)
Virtua Fighter 3 - Beginning
Virtua Fighter 4 - Pai
Funk Fiction - Elysia (Epitasis OST)
#Tekken #VirtuaFighter #FightingGames #Namco #Harada #Soulcalibur #DOA