King (Tekken)
Encyclopedia
is the name of two characters in the Tekken
fighting game
series. The characters were inspired by the pro wrestler
Satoru Sayama
, as well as Mexican wrestler Fray Tormenta
, a Catholic priest
who became a masked wrestler in order to support an orphanage. One of the Kings have been in all the Tekken games to date, King I being in Tekken and Tekken 2
and King II being in the rest of the Tekken games from then on.
priest and renounced his old fighting ways. He then became a man with a mission; he dreamed of building an orphanage for street children, hoping to save them from becoming the kind of person he used to be.
Lacking the necessary funds to achieve his dream, King entered the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, in order to obtain them. He managed to get third place, winning enough prize money for the orphanage. He also met his rival, Armor King. After a child died in his care, King became depressed and, giving up his jaguar mask, returned to the street and became a raging alcoholic. He would have perished had he not been convinced by his old friend and rival, Armor King, to again wear the jaguar mask and join The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2.
King trained intensely and recovered from his alcoholism. He battled Armor King at the tournament and lost. After the tournament, King participated in both pro-wrestling and martial arts tournaments to win money for his orphanage. He also taught his fighting skills to the children under his care as a means of self-defense.
Sometime later on, Ogre, the God of Fighting, was awakened from an ancient ruin in Mexico by Heihachi Mishima
's Tekken Force. Ogre attacked several martial artists around the world, including King, who was killed afterwards.
The second King was a street urchin was brought up in the first King's orphanage. Until the age of 24, this wrestler worked hard with King until one day, news broke of the first King's death at the hands of Ogre. Seeing that the orphanage would crumble into ruin (the money gained from King's wrestling matches was the only funding received), this man donned the mask of King and imitated his style. Unfortunately, he had only seen King's wrestling moves as a child, and he lost every competition he entered. One day, however, another man with a mask visited the new King, introducing himself as an old friend. This man revealed himself to be Armor King, who was interested in finding out if the rumors of a new King were true.
For four years, the two of them trained, and the new King learned quickly, maturing into a forceful wrestler with extreme power, known as King the Second. By this time, the now 28-year-old wrestler was a worthy heir to the throne, however, he longed to punish the one responsible for the original King's death.
With rumors of the "God of Fighting" circulating, Armor King revealed to his student that the elusive entity was the one most likely responsible. Armor King watched as the new King, fueled with rage, set his sights on avenging his foster father's death and proving himself worthy of wearing the mask.
After the third King of Iron Fist Tournament, King (now 30) discovered that his master, Armor King, had been killed in a bar fight. The perpetrator, Craig Marduk, had been arrested in Arizona and was sent to prison. Upon Marduk's release (thanks to bribes paid by King himself), King sent a letter challenging Marduk to the tournament in Tekken 4
. He defeated Marduk in the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament, sending him to the hospital, where King followed him to deliver a deadly blow. However, he stopped after seeing a portrait of Marduk and his elderly parents. King let him live, realizing how foolish he had become.
King was later enraged to find out that Marduk was defeating opponents in a black jaguar mask (identical to Armor King's), and that he had issued a televised challenge to King. Seeing Marduk disgrace his master, King entered the fifth King of to settle the score once and for all. King meets Marduk in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, and their subsequent battle resulted in another victory against Marduk and the start of their friendship. However, after the tournament, Marduk was brutally attacked, and he told King that the assailant was apparently the man he was convicted of killing, Armor King. Determined to learn the true identity of the man in Armor King's mask, King and Marduk entered the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6.
King is also seen in the non-canon Tekken games, Tekken Tag Tournament
and Tekken Tag Tournament 2
and is set to appear in Street Fighter X Tekken
.
As of Tekken 5
, King seems to have drawn more wrestler-inspired moves into his repertoire, especially from superstars employed by the world-famous World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). For example, he has a stunner used by Stone Cold Steve Austin and a version of the The Rock's People's Elbow and Rock Bottom. Additionally, King has been able to perform the Tombstone Piledriver used by The Undertaker and Kane since Tekken 2. One of his victory poses has him side-stepping in a manner characteristic of the original Tiger Mask. King is also seen in the opening FMV of Tekken 5 performing a tiger feint after being thrown across the wrestling ring by Craig Marduk, in order to prevent a collision to the outside of the ring. The maneuver is currently a trademark move of Rey Mysterio, although the original Tiger Mask pioneered its use during matches with the Dynamite Kid in the early 1980s. Other moves he uses include the Frankensteiner and Steiner Screwdriver made famous by Scott Steiner and Kenta Kobashi's Burning Hammer. Finally, King's Muscle Buster pays homage to Suguru Kinniku's "Kinniku Buster", which is also a finishing move of wrestler Samoa Joe.
placed King at #6 on their list of "Top 11 Tekken Fighters", complimenting his jaguar mask and noting that he's funny at times. King placed in IGN
's "Ten Best Fake Wrestlers In Videogame History" at #5 and comments that his mask gets more realistic as time goes on. IGN also states that "no one can deny the intimidation his animal head puts out". King was featured in the "Our 10 Favorite Video Game Character Rip-Offs" article by Complex, noting his similarities to the Japanese professional wrestler Satoru Sayama and commented "The thing that always creeped us out about King (both the original and the orphan who assumed his identity upon his death) is that his mask made it look like he had an actual jaguar head.". Complex also compared King to El Fuerte from the Street Fighter
series, predicting that he would win out of the two. GameDaily
placed King at #4 on their list of "Top 25 Wrestling Characters of All Time" and comments "King knows how to kick butt in the Tekken series".
In Gamers Hell
's review of Tekken 5, they mention that King fans will get a kick out using his growl and grunts to speak. GameSpy
calls King's chain throws "ridiculously intricate". 1UP.com
criticizes King's "Stagger Kicks" attack by calling it "lazy".
Tekken
is an arcade fighting game franchise created and developed by Namco. Beginning with the original Tekken arcade game released in 1994, the series has received several sequels, as well as various home conversions and spin-off titles released for consoles...
fighting game
Fighting game
Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...
series. The characters were inspired by the pro wrestler
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
Satoru Sayama
Satoru Sayama
is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known as the original Tiger Mask. He's wrestled under his real name as well as the names Sammy Lee, and masked Super Tiger, Tiger King, Tiger Mask and The Mask of Tiger...
, as well as Mexican wrestler Fray Tormenta
Fray Tormenta
Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez is a Mexican priest who supported an orphanage for 23 years as a lucha libre wrestler. While performing, he wore a red and yellow mask and used the ring name Fray Tormenta. He made only sporadic in-ring appearances in the 2000s before retiring completely from wrestling in...
, a Catholic priest
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
who became a masked wrestler in order to support an orphanage. One of the Kings have been in all the Tekken games to date, King I being in Tekken and Tekken 2
Tekken 2
Tekken 2 is the second installment in the popular Tekken fighting game series. It was first released in arcades in 1995, and later released for the PlayStation in 1996...
and King II being in the rest of the Tekken games from then on.
Appearances
The first King used to be a ruthless street brawling orphan with no care in the world except fighting. In one of his fights, King was grievously wounded and collapsed in front of a monastery. The Marquez priests saved him from death. After recovering, King realized the error of his ways and resolved to start a new life. He became a CatholicCatholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest and renounced his old fighting ways. He then became a man with a mission; he dreamed of building an orphanage for street children, hoping to save them from becoming the kind of person he used to be.
Lacking the necessary funds to achieve his dream, King entered the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, in order to obtain them. He managed to get third place, winning enough prize money for the orphanage. He also met his rival, Armor King. After a child died in his care, King became depressed and, giving up his jaguar mask, returned to the street and became a raging alcoholic. He would have perished had he not been convinced by his old friend and rival, Armor King, to again wear the jaguar mask and join The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2.
King trained intensely and recovered from his alcoholism. He battled Armor King at the tournament and lost. After the tournament, King participated in both pro-wrestling and martial arts tournaments to win money for his orphanage. He also taught his fighting skills to the children under his care as a means of self-defense.
Sometime later on, Ogre, the God of Fighting, was awakened from an ancient ruin in Mexico by Heihachi Mishima
Heihachi Mishima
is one of the main characters in the Tekken fighting game series. He is one of only four characters to have appeared in every game in the series and he makes two appearances within the series as the final boss...
's Tekken Force. Ogre attacked several martial artists around the world, including King, who was killed afterwards.
The second King was a street urchin was brought up in the first King's orphanage. Until the age of 24, this wrestler worked hard with King until one day, news broke of the first King's death at the hands of Ogre. Seeing that the orphanage would crumble into ruin (the money gained from King's wrestling matches was the only funding received), this man donned the mask of King and imitated his style. Unfortunately, he had only seen King's wrestling moves as a child, and he lost every competition he entered. One day, however, another man with a mask visited the new King, introducing himself as an old friend. This man revealed himself to be Armor King, who was interested in finding out if the rumors of a new King were true.
For four years, the two of them trained, and the new King learned quickly, maturing into a forceful wrestler with extreme power, known as King the Second. By this time, the now 28-year-old wrestler was a worthy heir to the throne, however, he longed to punish the one responsible for the original King's death.
With rumors of the "God of Fighting" circulating, Armor King revealed to his student that the elusive entity was the one most likely responsible. Armor King watched as the new King, fueled with rage, set his sights on avenging his foster father's death and proving himself worthy of wearing the mask.
After the third King of Iron Fist Tournament, King (now 30) discovered that his master, Armor King, had been killed in a bar fight. The perpetrator, Craig Marduk, had been arrested in Arizona and was sent to prison. Upon Marduk's release (thanks to bribes paid by King himself), King sent a letter challenging Marduk to the tournament in Tekken 4
Tekken 4
Tekken 4 is the fifth installment in the Tekken series. It was developed and published by Namco. It was released as an arcade game in 2001 and on the PlayStation 2 in 2002. It is succeeded by Tekken 5.- Gameplay :...
. He defeated Marduk in the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament, sending him to the hospital, where King followed him to deliver a deadly blow. However, he stopped after seeing a portrait of Marduk and his elderly parents. King let him live, realizing how foolish he had become.
King was later enraged to find out that Marduk was defeating opponents in a black jaguar mask (identical to Armor King's), and that he had issued a televised challenge to King. Seeing Marduk disgrace his master, King entered the fifth King of to settle the score once and for all. King meets Marduk in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5, and their subsequent battle resulted in another victory against Marduk and the start of their friendship. However, after the tournament, Marduk was brutally attacked, and he told King that the assailant was apparently the man he was convicted of killing, Armor King. Determined to learn the true identity of the man in Armor King's mask, King and Marduk entered the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6.
King is also seen in the non-canon Tekken games, Tekken Tag Tournament
Tekken Tag Tournament
is the fourth installment in the popular Tekken fighting game series. It, however, is not canonical to the Tekken storyline. The game was originally available as an update kit for Tekken 3. Tekken Tag Tournament was originally released as an arcade game before it was ported to the PlayStation 2...
and Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
is a fighting game in the Tekken series and the successor to 1999's Tekken Tag Tournament. The game was released in Japanese arcades on September 14, 2011 and will be released on the PlayStation 3 sometime in 2012...
and is set to appear in Street Fighter X Tekken
Street Fighter X Tekken
is an upcoming crossover fighting game being developed by Capcom. The game was announced at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International by Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono. The game is set to release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation Vita sometime in March 2012. The game...
.
Gameplay
Being a professional wrestler with lucha libre influences, King has many powerful throws at his disposal. King is notable for his chains throws, which he's had since Tekken 3, when he was one of the very few characters to have them.As of Tekken 5
Tekken 5
is the sixth installment in the popular Tekken series. It also marks the tenth anniversary of the series. It was updated for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 as Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and succeeded by Tekken 6.- Story :...
, King seems to have drawn more wrestler-inspired moves into his repertoire, especially from superstars employed by the world-famous World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). For example, he has a stunner used by Stone Cold Steve Austin and a version of the The Rock's People's Elbow and Rock Bottom. Additionally, King has been able to perform the Tombstone Piledriver used by The Undertaker and Kane since Tekken 2. One of his victory poses has him side-stepping in a manner characteristic of the original Tiger Mask. King is also seen in the opening FMV of Tekken 5 performing a tiger feint after being thrown across the wrestling ring by Craig Marduk, in order to prevent a collision to the outside of the ring. The maneuver is currently a trademark move of Rey Mysterio, although the original Tiger Mask pioneered its use during matches with the Dynamite Kid in the early 1980s. Other moves he uses include the Frankensteiner and Steiner Screwdriver made famous by Scott Steiner and Kenta Kobashi's Burning Hammer. Finally, King's Muscle Buster pays homage to Suguru Kinniku's "Kinniku Buster", which is also a finishing move of wrestler Samoa Joe.
Reception
Gaming TargetGaming Target
Gaming Target is a website covering video games and gaming culture that was founded on February 17, 1999 by Matt Swider.-History:When it launched in 1999, Gaming Target focused solely on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color...
placed King at #6 on their list of "Top 11 Tekken Fighters", complimenting his jaguar mask and noting that he's funny at times. King placed in IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's "Ten Best Fake Wrestlers In Videogame History" at #5 and comments that his mask gets more realistic as time goes on. IGN also states that "no one can deny the intimidation his animal head puts out". King was featured in the "Our 10 Favorite Video Game Character Rip-Offs" article by Complex, noting his similarities to the Japanese professional wrestler Satoru Sayama and commented "The thing that always creeped us out about King (both the original and the orphan who assumed his identity upon his death) is that his mask made it look like he had an actual jaguar head.". Complex also compared King to El Fuerte from the Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
series, predicting that he would win out of the two. GameDaily
GameDaily
GameDaily was a video game journalism website based in the United States. Launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Mark Friedler under the name Gigex and focused on free game demo downloads, The site changed its business model from a flat fee per download CDN distributed service network to an...
placed King at #4 on their list of "Top 25 Wrestling Characters of All Time" and comments "King knows how to kick butt in the Tekken series".
In Gamers Hell
Gamers Hell
Gamers Hell is an online magazine dedicated to cataloging and reviewing video games of the past and present. A large number of freeware games can be downloaded from Gamers Hell and reviews of most popular games can be found there as well as official trailers and a "Gamers Hell.com TV" program...
's review of Tekken 5, they mention that King fans will get a kick out using his growl and grunts to speak. GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
calls King's chain throws "ridiculously intricate". 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
criticizes King's "Stagger Kicks" attack by calling it "lazy".