10 Most Popular Tekken Characters

First Appearance: Tekken (Kuma I), Tekken 3 (Kuma II)

Kuma was the first character to really set Tekken apart from the other fighting games around, in terms of character design, back in 1994. At the time, Street Fighter and The King of Fighters were the most mainstream realistic fighting games, emulating real world fighting tournaments. The King of Fighters featured a solely human cast at the time, and Street Fighter’s closest thing to Kuma was the feral Brazilian beast man, Blanka.

The original Kuma featured in both 1994’s Tekken and 1995’s Tekken 2. He was the pet and bodyguard to Heihachi Mishima, who is famously uncreative in naming his pets. The name Kuma literally means ‘Bear’ in Japanese. He is replaced in 1997’s Tekken 3 by Kuma II (simply named ‘Kuma’ in the game), who for the purposes of gameplay is the same character as the original Kuma, now commonly referred to as ‘Kuma I’. This trend of replacing characters had already been seen with Jack, and would be continue with both King and Armor King.

The Kuma pair has been a mainstay in the Tekken franchise since its inception. While they could be considered as joke characters, their gameplay still makes them formidable. The Kumas certainly deserves their spot at the King of Iron Fist Tournament, and fans of the franchise often have a soft spot for these loveable bears.