The 10 best Tekken characters, ranked and reviewed
We've ranked the 10 best Tekken characters, who have all managed to stay at the top of the fighting game's tier list for years, as well as fallen to its bottom.
Published by Noah @ PC Game Spotlight 3 years ago
Long-running fighting game series of modest sorts, Tekken has been around for ages, so there’s a lot of history to dig through when selecting who the best fighters are. With all these long-lasting stalwarts, you may be wondering why are all the best characters in Tekken 7 one of the series’ archetypes – which we’ll explain in a bit – until we get a full-blown character creator. But for now, let’s tackle this from the main list of characters from Tekken 1 to Tekken 7. So, who are the best Tekken characters?
Here are the best Tekken characters:
10. Nina Williams
Making her debut in the first Tekken game, Nina Williams has been a resounding success, being strong in various situations. She’s well-rounded, being roughly average in every area but with a slight leaning towards aggression, enabling her to stuff the opponent’s attacks in mid-stride with her pokes and mix-ups, causing a lot of pressure. Being a more traditional-style fighter is not just a trait of Nina’s gameplay; she also has a very traditional face, with Korean supermodel Jayeon Bach’s features superimposed on top – something that caused a lot of controversy and anonymity in her home country.
However, like any top Tekken character, Nina requires a lot of practice to be truly effective because otherwise, you’ll be getting juggled before you can even blink. Still, if you can get her to work, you’ll have one of the strongest character options.
9. Paul Phoenix
Paul Phoenix is one of Tekken’s most consistent characters. We gradually found out more about this doppelganger to Street Fighter’s Dan over time until he became a fully-fledged presence in Tekken 6 and 7. A series of cutscenes and actions in those games revealed that he’s the son of Marshall Steel, a member of the evil G Corporation, who learns about his father’s status as a weapon of mass destruction and ends up joining the Tekken Force to destroy them from the inside.
Paul Phoenix is one of the easier characters to learn to use, with one big move pretty much being the key to his success – the Phoenix Smasher. It’s a normal throw, but you can also cancel it and use your foe as a projectile, hitting everyone around you and potentially juggling them as well. Being able to knock your opponents down, juggle them after a launcher, and have an effective low attack that transitions into a tree-like combo makes Phoenix a dangerous bed of nuts to sleep on.
8. Nina Williams (9.5)
What a strange list – now Nina takes a spot in the top 10 again, but this time in the 9.5 section. As stated in the main list, Nina’s been consistently strong across multiple entries, but her somewhat poor showing in Tekken 7 causes her to slip a bit. Still, she’s performed brilliantly in the past and has been one of the go-to grapplers for 20 years, so she deserves a separate – high – ranking, which we’ve managed to calculate from the main list’s numbers.
7. Bryan Fury
When we first saw Bryan Fury in Tekken 3, he looked like a pretty good grappler, but that potential wasn’t fully realised until Tekken 4, where he earned a top spot on our best Tekken 4 characters list. Unfortunately, he was quite lackluster in his following Tekken 3 debut, with an underwhelming move set and being beaten by the likes of Paul Phoenix.
However, in Namco’s next few entries, Fury’s strength and move set was greatly increased. His move set includes hard jabs, feints and mix-ups, as well as the infamous Knee Taunt to Jet Upper, where you throw your enemy into the air and juggle them brutally. His juggles continue to grow in complexity and his persona is mystifying, being a collection of scars, both physical and mental, including being cruc
