Bandai Namco Entertainment's Tekken media franchise is known for its varied cast of characters hailing from various nationalities, all coming together to compete in the King of Iron Fist tournament. In addition to the human characters, Tekken also features non-human characters for comic relief, such as the bear Kuma, his love interest Panda, the boxing kangaroo Roger, and the dinosaur Alex. Certain characters like Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Lee Chaolan, and Jun Kazama have their own alternative versions. Each character has their own goals for participating in the tournament.

Character appearances Only four characters have been playable in all eight main Tekken games to date. Three were featured at launch: Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix and Yoshimitsu. But Paul is the only one of the three who is part of the character roster at launch. In the original Tekken 7 (vanilla arcade version), Yoshimitsu was added via an update, while Nina is completely absent and was only added in the updated version Fated Retribution. The other character was Heihachi Mishima, who became playable but outside the main roster as paid downloadable content in Tekken 8. Of the four, only Nina and Paul are playable in all the side games as well. King and Kuma (not including the original vanilla Tekken 7 version) have also been playable in all the main games (and main spin-off games for King only), but as two different characters. Four characters, Anna Williams, Kazuya Mishima, Lee Chaolan and Marshall Law, would come close, having been playable in seven main games, but Marshall Law and Kazuya are also in the original Tekken 7, while Lee was only added in the update version and Anna via paid DLC, also in Tekken 8. The JACK series have also been playable in seven main games in different iterations.

Table Comparison table

= Playable by default.

= Playable via update or unlockable.

/ = Playable, whether by default, unlockable, or via update, but as a palette swap or in-battle transformation of another character instead of a standalone character.

= Paid downloadable content (except TTT2).

= Third-party character.

= Non-playable character.

= Cameo appearance.

= To be confirmed.

= Not included.

+ = Including the update games.

Note: The characters are listed in the table as the speaker announces them on the character selection screen, starting from Tekken Tag Tournament onwards.

Character TK TK2 TK3 TCC TTT TK4 TK5 + TK6 + TTT2 TR TK7 + TM TK8 Total Akuma 5 2 Alex 4 Alisa Bosconovitch 3 5 Ancient Ogre 7 Angel 3 Angel Jin 11 1 Anna Williams 5 11 Armor King I 6 Armor King II 2 5 6 Asuka Kazama 7 Azazel 5 3 Azucena 1 Baek Doo San 5 Bob 5 6 Bruce Irvin 6 Bryan Fury 11 Christie Monteiro 7 Claudio Serafino 2 Clive Rosfield 1 Combot 5 3 Craig Marduk 5 6 Crow 4 Devil Jin 8 Devil Kazumi 1 Devil Kazuya 8 Dr. Bosconovitch 8 Eddy Gordo 5 9 Eliza 5 3 Fahkumram 5 2 Feng Wei 7 Forest Law 5 Ganryu 5 7 Geese Howard 5 1 Gigas 1 Gon 1 GUN JACK (JACK-3) 7 4Halloween Dragunov 1 Heihachi Mishima 12 Hwoarang 12 10Isaak 1 JACK 1 JACK-2 3 JACK-5 1 JACK-6 8 4 JACK-7 2 JACK-8 1Jaycee 2 Jin Kazama 11 Jinpachi Mishima 1 5 Josie Rizal 1 Julia Chang 5 8 Jun Kazama 7 Katarina Alves 2 Kazumi Mishima 1 Kazuya Mishima 12 Kid Kazuya 5 6 8 1 King I/II 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 13 Kinjin 3 Kuma I/II 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 5 10 10 12 Kunimitsu I 5 7 Kunimitsu II 5 2 Lars Alexandersson 3 5 Lee Chaolan 5 11 Lei Wulong 5 9 Leo 6 Leroy Smith 5 2 Lidia Sobieska 5 2 Lili 2 7 Ling Xiaoyu 11 Lucky Chloe 1 Marshall Law 11 Master Raven 5 1 Miary Zo 1 Michelle Chang 5 Miguel 5 5 Miharu Hirano 2 Mokujin 10 NANCY-MI847J 4 5 2 Negan 5 8 1 Nina Williams 5 13 Noctis Lucis Caelum 5 1 Panda 5 10 Paul Phoenix 13 Prototype Jack 4 Raven 5 Reina 1Revenant 1Rodeo 1 Roger 6 Roger Jr. 4Ruby 1 Sebastian 2 3 Sergei Dragunov 2 7 Shaheen 3 Slim Bob 2 Steve Fox 8Summer Asuka 1Summer Bob 1Summer Lili 1Summer Nina 1Super Combot DX 13 1Tetsujin 4 Tiger Jackson 2 5Tiger Miyagi 1 True Ogre 7 6Unknown 2 Victor Chevalier 1 Violet 5 4 Wang Jinrei 7 Yoshimitsu 11Yue 1 Yujiro Hanma 1 Zafina 5 4 Total (Playable characters)18252421392336426230543747 Total (Character roster)1725232139233236 (DR)3941 (BR)59 + 129 + 127 + 152 + 1 (FR)3744 + 1 Notes: + 1 in the >Total (Character roster)"< row means that the +1 Devil Kazuya is meant. Not including arcade history mode of Tekken 5 and gallery mode of Tekken 7 and Tekken 8. NPC in Tekken 5 and Tekken 5: DR (PSP, arcade, and online only)/Unlockable in Tekken 5:DR (PS3 and offline only) Only in Tekken 5: DR. Only in Tekken 6: BR (arcade and console). Playable in a campaign level. Only in Tekken 7: FR (arcade and console)/Round 2. Only playable in story mode for a short amount of time in the console version. Only in Devil Within mode. Not playable or available in Round 2. As King I/Kuma I. As King II/Kuma II. Only playable in story mode in The Dark Awakens. Unlockable if not selected in Adventure Mode. Only playable in Fight Lab mode for the prologue.

Introduced in Tekken Anna Williams

Armor King I/II Nationality: Unknown (both) Fighting style: Pro-Wrestling (US style, Armor King I) / Pro-Wrestling (JP style, Armor King II)

is a professional wrestler and was a rival of King when the latter was still an inexperienced wrestler. He suffered eye damage in a fight with King, but when he later found King distraught and drunk in an alleyway, Armor King convinced him to get back into fighting and enter the second King of Iron Fist tournament. After King is killed by Ogre, Armor King trains a new fighter who sports a jaguar mask similar to that of King's. Armor King is not selectable in Tekken 4, as he is beaten to death in a bar fight instigated by Australian brawler Craig Marduk, who then steals his mask and mockingly wears it in the tournament, provoking Armor King's protege King into entering the competition to seek revenge. Marduk is then attacked in Tekken 5 by what is believed to be Armor King, but his assailant is revealed in Tekken 6 as the original Armor King's younger brother. After recovering from a brutal beating where he and Marduk knocked out each other and brought to hospital by King, the younger Armor King accepts Marduk's challenge for a retirement match arranged by King in Tekken 7.

Others appearances (Armor King II):

Tekken 3D: Prime Edition

Ganryu Nationality: Japanese Fighting style: Sumo Voiced by:Banjō Ginga (Tekken)Takashi Nagasako (TK2-Tekken Tag Tournament; Tekken: The Motion Picture (Japanese))Lowell B. Bartholomee (Tekken: The Motion Picture (English))Hidenari Ugaki (TK5-present; Tekken: Bloodline (Japanese))Earl Baylon (Tekken: Bloodline (English))

is a Japanese sumo wrestler who is barred from the sport for infractions such as firebreathing and taunting his opponents. This rejection, coupled with his mounting gambling debts, steers him into a life of crime. Heihachi Mishima hires him as a henchman for the first King of Iron Fist tournament, in which Ganryu loses to Yoshimitsu, who then drains Ganryu's remaining finances and leaves him broke. Kazuya Mishima pays him handsomely for his services in his Mishima Zaibatsu corporation. Ganryu participates in the second tournament as Kazuya's bodyguard, but he also wishes to build his own sumo ring to impress his secret crush, Michelle Chang, but instead, she defeats him in battle and Ganryu returns to Japan. Two decades after the events of Tekken 2, Ganryu opens a sumo stable and trains other wrestlers. However, after seeing Michelle's daughter Julia on television fighting in the fourth tournament, he enters the fifth in hopes of wooing Julia if he is able to recover her lost "Forest Rejuvenation Data" that he eventually finds inside the Mishima Zaibatsu's laboratory, but Julia receives the information and flees before Ganryu can propose marriage. Now faced with a failing restaurant he had opened afterward in Hawaii, Ganryu enters the tournament again in Tekken 6 in attempt to advertise the restaurant and bring in revenue. Unfortunately, Ganryu accidentally donated all his restaurant earnings to Julia's reforestation campaign. In order to fix his financial problems, Ganryu decided to enter the seventh tournament.

Ganryu's occupations have varied in alternate Tekken media; in the animated film Tekken: The Motion Picture, he is Lee Chaolan's bodyguard, and in Tekken: Blood Vengeance, he is a PE teacher at the Mishima Polytechnic School.

GameSpy named Ganryu as one of their "25 Extremely Rough Brawlers" in video gaming: "Ganryu is more of a tragic character as his unrequited love for fellow fighter Julia fuels his brutality." In 2011, Computer and Video Games deemed Ganryu one of the series' "worst ever characters": "If losing some weight and not wearing a massive nappy all the time isn't the first thing you do to attract someone whose mother you've already failed to hit on, then you're doing something terribly, horribly wrong."

Others appearances: Tekken 3D: Prime Edition

Heihachi Mishima

JACK (series)/Prototype Jack Nationality: Russian, but not a citizen (JACK, JACK-2, P. Jack, and JACK-X only) / Unknown (other JACKs) Fighting style: Sheer force Voiced by:Banjō Ginga (Tekken - Tekken 5)Akio Ōtsuka (Tekken: The Motion Picture (Japanese)) (JACK-2)Mark O'Brien (Tekken: The Motion Picture (English)) (JACK-2)Jordan Byrne (Street Fighter X Tekken (English)) (JACK-X)Kenichirou Matsuda (Street Fighter X Tekken (Japanese)) (JACK-X)

The various JACK models were originally created by the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation for different purposes: JACK (introduced in Tekken) is the original model, created by Heihachi's Mishima Zaibatsu in order to counter a coup from Kazuya Mishima in the King of Iron Fist Tournament. In-game, the player is one of these machines. JACK-2 (introduced in Tekken 2) is a direct upgrade of the JACK model, also created by the Mishima Zaibatsu. Once a JACK-2 witnesses a young girl named Jane lose her mother during a battle, he takes it upon himself to look after her, until he is destroyed by Dr. Abel. JACK-2 also appears in Tekken 3 as a palette swap of GUN JACK. Prototype Jack (or P. Jack) (introduced in Tekken) is a prototype created to combat both JACK and JACK-2. After the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, the remains of Prototype Jack are almost destroyed by JACK's combat abilities. His body is later remodeled by Dr. Bosconovitch, while also gaining flight and goes on to combat JACK-2. P. Jack is seemingly destroyed by JACK-2 in the second tournament. This is the only JACK to appear in more than three games, appearing in the original Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken Tag Tournament, and the console version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Gun JACK (also known as "JACK-3") (introduced in Tekken 3) is a more advanced prototype, created by Jane in an attempt to revive her friend, JACK-2. She is successful in implanting her JACK-2's memories, including an energy shield inside him, and P. Jack’s flight abilities. However, as GUN JACK's energy shield ran out of power, it is destroyed by gunfire by the Tekken Force when he and Jane attempt to break into the Mishima Zaibatsu labs. G Corporation rescues her in time and retrieves GUN JACK's body as well. This is the only JACK that is associate to Jane and not mass-produced.