The Tekken series has had its fair list of fighters. From the timid but powerful Josie to the infamous Eddy Gordo, but putting them all in a fight together, who would really be the last standing? Which one of these wacky characters rank among the most powerful?
Well today, we’re going to go over just that! The world of Tekken is filled with ultra-powerful warriors and, with the Tekken 8 right around the corner, this is a perfect time to showcase some of them. The only requirement is that they must have at some point, been playable in a canon game.
Heihachi Misima of the Tekken series. Image taken from a cutscene in Tekken 7
Talking about powerful characters and not including Heihachi Mishima would make us look like fools. So welcome Heihachi, a man so powerful that he can not only take on an army of robots and soldiers, but can literally smack away missiles with his bare hands. A man so wild that he has a pet bear who he taught martial arts just because. In a Soul Calibur crossover, he was the only one to use his hands when going up against people with swords and axes because he does not care.
So needless to say, the man is pretty powerful. What makes him different from his ultra-powerful relatives though is that he does not have any demonic or unknown power. He got this strong from the old One Punch Man training and is proud to flaunt it whenever he can.
9 Kazuya Mishima
Kazuya of the Tekken series. Image taken from a cutscene in Tekken 7
The first and only son of Heihachi, Kazuya is the second menace to the Tekken cast. Wielding the powers of the devil, Kazuya has pretty immense power. And after being chucked off of a cliff by his father, he tends to have a lot of hatred for him. Of course, this usually results in the two fighting and usually destroying some bit of property in the battle.
The Mishimas tend to be fairly close in terms of power but with his devil form, he gets the extra abilities of flight and shooting lasers out from his head and wings. The… two areas people wouldn’t expect a laser to come out of.
8 Jin Kazama
Jin of the Tekken series. Image taken from his Arena opening in Tekken 6
Don’t let the last name fool you. Jin Kazama is the son of Kazuya and the closest thing to a good guy to come from the Mishima family. Jin is another powerful character, inheriting the dreaded “devil gene” from his father. This means just like good old Kazuya, he too can turn into a spooky demon man and shoot lasers! He hasn’t learned how to shoot them out of his wings though yet. Give him time.
In the story, Jin vows to defeat both Kazuya and Heihachi upon seeing all the evil they’ve caused and put an end to his own demonic bloodline. One of the few people who can consistently keep up with the Mishimas, Jin definitely deserves a spot as one of the most powerful.
7 Ogre
Ogre of the Tekken series. Image from his appearance in Street Fighter X Tekken
Feast your eyes upon a being so ancient that even his native tongue is lost to time. The dreaded Ogre has canonically killed or hospitalized several Tekken characters and isn’t intending to stop anytime soon.
With telekinetic powers and inhuman strength, the Ogre becomes a force to be reckoned with. But that isn’t even his final form! His true form, if anyone pushes him enough, is a horrifying abomination with snake hands and giant wings where his telekinetic powers are swapped with a fire breath.
6 Lars
Lars from Tekken. Image from his appearance in the opening of Tekken 6’s campaign
Technically another Mishima, Lars first appears in Tekken 6 and quickly showed that he is beyond superhuman. Taking on an entire army alone, Lars spends the entire story of Tekken 6 facing the every character in the series until finally defeating Jin and the Mishimas.
With all that was said previously about the Mishimas, that is no easy feat! And because he is part Mishima, he also inherited their lightning moves.
5 Bryan Fury
Bryan Fury from Tekken. Image taken from his ending in Tekken 7
Bryan is by far one of the most brutal characters in the series. A sadistic sociopath turned indestructible cyborg, Bryan lives by the phrase, “if it lives, kill it.” Even his victory pose is him beating on his already downed opponent until the camera guy leaves.
But what lets him be on this list? Well, Bryan single-handedly defeated an entire army and ripped off a tank’s gun to throw it at the soldiers in Tekken 3. He successfully fights off the ancient ninja, Yoshimistu in Tekken 5 and Tekken Tag 2. He is able to take shots from bullets and tanks with no scratches on his body. The man carries a minigun which he wields with no problem. Those things are heavy! Fights off an army again in Tekken 6. Basically, Bryan is a villain. Funnily enough, Bryan is an American fighter. Most won’t even notice though because the only thing the opponent will ever hear is his maniacal laugh.
4 Feng Wei
Feng Wei from Tekken. Image taken from his Arena opening in Tekken 6
Feng is… he punched a meteor. Feng has one of the more flashy and jaw-dropping endings in terms of skill and power, and he’s not even in many of the games. Much more stoic than the other kung fu characters, Feng clearly spent all of his free time as a child training. He has such feats as dodging attacks while balancing cups on all of his limbs,
In Tekken 5, he punches a mountain to bits with a single strike. And in Tekken 6, he punches a meteor. And it explodes. Yeah, that’s… that’s pretty powerful.
3 Paul Phoenix
Paul from Tekken. Image taken in Tekken 7
While Tekken’s American powerhouse, Paul, has become somewhat of a joke character in recent games, he is no slouch in a fight. While he may lack a decent haircut, he more than makes up for in raw power! His big goal was to simply be the toughest in the world. To be number one. And there is no better way to do that than to get strong enough to take out opponents in a single punch!
Despite being an otherwise normal human, Paul has single-handedly defeated some of the game’s more fearsome foes, including the dreaded Ogre, fought Kazuya to a draw, and is rivaled with a literal bear. We repeat. His rival… is a bear. Two bears, actually. The first one died from unrelated reasons and the bear’s son stepped up to finish what his four-legged father could not. Paul is ridiculously strong.
2 Hwoarang
Hwoarang of the Tekken series. Image taken from his Tekken 7 ending.
Here is where we scale down from anime-levels of ridiculousness and start seeing more… normal levels of superhuman strength. Hwoarang has been Tekken’s resident Tea-Kwon-Do character since Beak, his master and former playable character was put into a coma by the Ogre.
He might not look like he would be considered powerful but the very fact that his rival is Jin Kazama must imply that he is more skilled than one would think. He even defeated Jin once! But was promptly sucker-punched by a transformed demon version of the same guy. What can we say? Being able to give Jin a hard time or any of the Mishimas is really impressive.
1 Bob
Bob from the Tekken series. Image taken from his ending with Julia in Street Fighter x Tekken
Another American fighter, Bob looks like he would be one of the easy people to take in a fight. But surprisingly, he is almost comically nimble! Bob is actually a Power Rangers-style superhero in his spare time, and as a hero, he is seriously fast! And no, that was not a joke. Bob is a superhero named *Speed and Weight* in his free time.
Bob is quite proud of his body, seeing getting skinny as a horrible nightmare. Sure, he didn’t beat up a Mishima to get on this list but considering the opening of Tekken 6 involves him dodging bullets and taking out an entire room of armed burglars, it would be a shame to not put him here.
