Nina Williams Vanity Fair CG Cover

New column!!! Credits here: click!

Nina VS Anna in Tekken Tag 2's CG opening cinematic

Little update on the FMV opening cinematic for Tag 2. What we see here is almost a reenactment of both Nina's and Anna's ending cinematics in the first Tag game, only this time it's Anna getting the better of Nina, first acting all handshaky-shaky, then twisting her arm. Like that could ever happen... Trolling much Namco? Only in a 'non-canon Tag game'!

Also, looks like Namco/Digital Frontier is recycling using Nina's and Anna's character models from the animated Tekken Blood Vengeance movie for the cinematics in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Here's to hoping they'll also be recycling a certain all-black latex/nappa outfit I saw in that movie!

Free Nina & Anna Poster with pre-orders from GameStop

If you are in the US and planning to get Tekken Tag Tournament 2 you might want to consider pre-ordering via GameStop. They currently have an offer where you will not only get the previously advertised pre-order bonuses, but also GameStop exclusive items, one of which is a poster featuring Nina and Anna. Anna taking up most of the space might be a bit of a bummer, but at least, for once, it's not the usual Mishima fest.

While supplies last!!! + Looks like the poster is only offered with pre-orders taken from July 25 until July 31.

Big Bikini Bundle - Namco still fan-catering

It's pretty obvious by now that Namco Harada's team is going all out for Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Not only are fan favorites like Jun and Kunimitsu returning to the franchise, even long absent former palette swap characters like Tiger Jackson are getting their own slots in the already colossal roster.
Now it's their latest pre-order incentive, namely the big bikini bundle, demonstrating just how fan-oriented Team Tekken is thinking. For some people the inclusion of over 150 free swimsuits alone might arguably be sufficient proof of Namco's fan-love,  for some it's in the little details. Things like Kunimitsu's infamous watermelon bikini, right out of some old character concept drawing. Even Lili's striped 2-piece from her Sports Illustrated like cover shot for Girls of Gaming magazine is back to make it's videogame debut.
With all the fanservice Namco is providing I probably shouldn't feel bad about making 2 requests for that bikini bundle thing myself:

SFxTK CG Episode 3 got Nina Williams down to a T

Nina makes a surprise appearance in Capcom's latest (last?) animated short promoting the PlayStationVita release of Street Fighter x Tekken. In addition to Nina's very much in-character entrance you'll get girls prancing around barefoot in the Antarctica, man VS mammoth action and all kinds of flashy mindless fun. + Nina is looking absolutely beautiful here! Capcom really got her down perfectly in this; looks and behaviour all spot on! Bravo! Just don't try looking for any story, it came from a fighting game ;-)

The Making of Tekken - Yutaka Kounoe in a Retro Gamer feature

Sorrel Tilley sat down with developer Yutaka Kounoe for Retro Gamer's latest issue to look back at The Making of Tekken and its "wiki-style" development process.

"The creation of the Tekken series was completely different to the common development process" 

"The result was [...] an inter-developer battle [...], a method whereby anyone can freely implement an idea they think is good, and if it's unpopular, other staff members can just overwrite the data with something else! This led to a lot of clashing of egos [...]."

"With Tekken, designers were becoming obsessed with their own ideas, and continued implementing them at random. Trying to differentiate these ideas after they'd been added was a process you could hardly call normal. I felt like I was solving a giant puzzle at the same time as making a game. [...] The members were all workaholics; we lived at the office, We used to line up chairs to sleep on because the floor was cold. We were constantly suffering from sleep deprivation [...]."

"Almost everything that was added was also decided by individuals working alone. Nina's throw combo was added by someone working on motion."

"At that point, motion capture was just a developing industry, so we used a magnetic system to capture a portion of the movements we required. This was a method where everything had to be recorded with cables attached, and it wasn't suited to intense action, so we could only use it for reference."
"Essentially, we hardly used motion capture at all for Tekken 1 and 2"

"[...] the first two games were created as an experiment; even the developers couldn't predict how it would turn out. [...] The third game which I was in charge of, was a more calculated production."

"[...] problems carried over into Tekken 3 - I wanted to incorporate more strategic play into air combos by introducing safe-falling techniques [...] stances, damage animations, pinning techniques - all these elements got canned because people vetoed them based on their personal preferences."

(Screenshots of an early Tekken 3 arcade build from a Tekken 3 Special Feature in Electronic Gaming Monthly's February 1997 issue. It featured a different version of the character select screen (below) and character specific taunts (above/note Nina's very Anna-like taunt animation), activated by pressing the start button. The blue jeans type pants Nina is sporting would later be replaced with black leather pants.)

"The Tekken that emerged after I left has fallen below my expectations."

For their latest issue Retro Gamer magazine sat down with developer Yutaka Kounoe to look back at the making of Tekken. What we got is a really interesting 4 page spread with plenty of firsthand behind-the-scenes information; Kounoe gives an honest insight into the making of this juggernaut franchise. My own little blend of (Nina-centric) production artwork and pictures is just to accompany the insightful read.

If the quotations here got you interested go grab a copy of Retro Gamer's current issue #104.

 

Retro Gamer is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. In addition to all good newsagents Retro Gamer is also available in digital format on the iPhone newsstand app and can be downloaded from both iTunes and Zinio (for Windows, Android and iOS devices). You can order a physical copy of the current issue and/or back issues via https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/

After finishing work on Namco's first light-gun game Point Blank/Gun Bullet (1994) Yutaka Kounoe worked on the original arcade versions of Tekken (1994), Tekken 2 (1995) and Tekken 3 (1997), which he was in charge of. Other titles include popular '80s arcade game Dig Dug (1982), drive 'n shoot arcade title Lucky & Wild (1993), the multi-directional shooter Tank Force (1991) and the Xbox-exclusive first-person action game Breakdown (2004). He's the founder of indie game developer O-Games. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here

Sorrel Tilley is a writer, freelance journalist and Japanese translator. He regularly writes for Retro Gamer magazine (Imagine Publishing) and various websites. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here

Images were scanned from the Japanese Tekken - Gamest Mook Vol. 8 (Shinseisha), the Japanese Tekken 2 for PlayStation Player Guide (Sony Magazines), the Japanese Making of Game Graphics 1998-2001 by CG & Digital Video World (Works Corporation), the Japanese Tekken Chronicle artbook (Softbank Publishing), the Art of Tekken artbook (BradyGames Publishing) and Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine issue #91 February 1997 (Ziff-Davis Publishing).

Dissecting the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 trailer reveals Nina CG opening cinematic footage

So, I'm back from this remote quiet place that gave me the excuse to basically morph into a cave man with no telephone or wlan or other contemporary tech to be found anywhere near me vacation, and first thing I see is the new trailer for the console release of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Fight lab, new stages, opening and character ending movie snippets, online team allegiance and the overall awesomeness of Tag 2 aside ...

- Where the eff is Nina, Namco? -

I couldn't help but feel a bit underwhelmed by her absence at first. A second glance changed that. With a shit load of content and speed-of-light cuts it's easy to miss the little treats the trailer has in store for the more observant viewer. Here's what clever eagle-eyed Tekken fans should have found by dissecting the trailer frame by frame:

Nina and Anna teaming up against team Ninja (pun intended) /Raven&Kunimitsu

Nina right before killing Kunimitsu :-)

(fanboy mode ON) Look who's up there at the top; right where she belongs

That's the only number Nina can be associated with - *1*! The trailer got THAT right. (fanboy mode OFF)

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