Well, Tekken 8 is just around the corner. While I enjoy the Bandai Namco fighting game franchise fine, I can’t say I’m the biggest fan. Still, I am looking forward to it because, man, does it look like a lot of fun! The graphics look spectacular. The gameplay looks intricate but a Tekken casual can still have fun button mashing through. It also looks like it’s filled with offline and silly stuff, like Arcade Quest, Story Mode and the return of Tekken Ball! Definitely something for me to chew on as I know I’ll get eaten up alive in Ranked online!

Tekken has been one of the biggest fighting game franchises of all time and, throughout the years, the games have seen a lot of characters who have come and gone. Some have stuck around for ages, like Kazuya, Paul and Law. Others have seemingly disappeared for one reason or another, such as Bruce and Baek. That hasn’t stopped Bandai Namco from trying to stick in some of the weirdest playable characters in Tekken, for better or worse.

Well, since Tekken 8 is just on the horizon, let’s go check out eight of the weirdest characters who have made it to the roster!

#8 Violet

Now, it may seem like Violent isn’t that strange of a fighter. He may be an eccentric billionaire genius inventor who loves martial arts, which is oddly not all that crazy in the world of Tekken. However, what makes him one of the weirdest character is he’s actually Lee Chaolan, the estranged stepson of Heihachi Mishima. He’s actually in disguise in order to join the fourth King of Iron Fist tournament to test out his new invention, Combot.

What makes Lee dressing up as Violet weird is the amount of effort he put into his disguise… because he didn’t. No, Kazuya pretty much picks up on the fact that Violet is Lee right from the get go because the only difference is he dyed his hair violet and wears shades. Since then, Lee has all but dropped that act that Violet and he are different people. But he does like to dress up as Violet because he named his new company, Violet Systems, from it and it’s still under the name “Violet” even up to now.

#7 Alex

Appearing in Tekken 2, Alex is a boxing dinosaur. Yes, you read that right. Tekken had a boxing dinosaur in its roster. The official lore states that Alex was created by Doctor Bosconovitch in between the time of the first and second Tekken games because Kazuya Mishima probably thought a boxing dinosaur would be cool. Hey, I’m with the guy! If I had control of an entire zaibatsu with virtually unlimited funds, I probably would greenlight Project Boxing Dinosaur as well.

The mere fact that Alex is a boxing dinosaur practically cemented his status as probably one of the weirdest playable characters in any fighting game. However, what makes him even more weird is his fighting style as it’s not exactly boxing! It’s actually wrestling! That’s, at least what it says in the Tekken wiki anyways! What makes this entry even weirder is Alex isn’t the only dinosaur who’s going to be on this list!

#6 Roger Jr.

I do wonder why we have it in our collective consciousness that boxing kangaroos were a thing? I guess I do remember seeing something like that in old cartoons so maybe they did have something like that in real life? Anyway, that’s why the original Roger didn’t make it on the list. Roger Jr., on the other hand, is much more weird! That’s because Roger Jr. isn’t doing much fighting as he’s the little kangaroo sitting in the pouch of his mother. It’s actually the mother that’s doing most of the punching and kicking!

So, although you think you’re playing as Roger Jr. whenever you select him, you’re actually controlling the mother. That’s not to say that Roger Jr. doesn’t do anything during the fight because there are some moves wherein the little joey can actually whack at their opponent.

#5 Panda

Yep, another one for the zoo that is Tekken’s roster. Panda is, well, a giant panda. However, unlike the previously mentioned Roger Jr and Alex, she wasn’t genetically modified or a glorified science experiment according to the official lore. Nope, Panda is just a panda.

Okay, a highly intelligent panda who loves her master, Xiaoyu, so much she was willing to be trained in advanced bear fighting by Heihachi Mishima in order to protect her better. But still, she’s essentially just a panda.

#4 Kuma II

A fighting bear is already strange in itself. Kuma II, however, is in a whole other level of strange. The son of the original Kuma, Kuma II also became a pet and bodyguard to Heihachi Mishima. Like his father before him, Heihachi taught him advanced bear fighting techniques which mirror some of the Mishima style attacks. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg with how strange Kuma II is.

Kuma II seems to have inherited his father’s hatred for Paul Phoenix, which is strange as they have never really met but now considers him to be his rival. Kuma II also has unwavering loyalty to his master, Heihachi, and, over the course of the franchise, has made it his personal mission to avenge him. However, Kuma II’s most memorable and weirdest trait is his infatuation with Panda. Why? Because he’s a freaking bear and she’s a panda! They’re not the same species! That’s like a human saying he’s in love with a monkey! Sure, they have the same general shape but they’re not the same creature!

#3 Doctor Bosconovitch

Oh, wow! Another human makes it on the list! Doctor Bosconovitch actually plays an important role in a lot of the Tekken roster’s stories as he’s the man who made the first Jack android, created Yoshimitsu’s robotic arm, developed Bryan Fury’s mechanical heart and is the man behind Alisa Bosconovitch, another android who has developed sentience. So, what makes Doctor Bosconovitch a weird character? Well, it’s because he can’t stand up for long periods of time!

He can stand up but it is a struggle to keep him upright as the lore states that, by Tekken 3, he has a “mysterious illness,” leading him to fall over frequently. So, most of the time, you’ll be either flat on your back or face first in the dirt while controlling Doctor Bosconovitch in a fight. Even with that, he’s not even the second weirdest fighter to come out of Tekken 3! That honor would go to…

#2 Gon

You know how in Tekken 7, Bandai Namco managed to snag some choice licensing deals, allowing them to get characters from other franchises like Akuma from Street Fighter, Geese Howard from Fatal Fury/The King of Fighters, Negan from The Walking Dead and Noctis from Final Fantasy XV. Well, they weren’t actually the first guest characters to enter the King of Iron Fist tournament. No, the first real crossover licensed character to appear in Tekken would be the diminutive dinosaur, Gon.

Gon actually appeared in a manga with him being the titular character. In the manga, Gon is essentially a dinosaur who travels from place to place, going on different adventures. It can be annoying to fight against Gon as he’s a very small character, meaning most high and mid attacks can’t hit him; you have to mainly use lows or attacks that strike on a downward angle. This just adds to how weird he is as you have to fight him in a special way.

#1 Mokujin

Hands down, the weirdest character to ever be playable in any Tekken game has to be Mokujin. In a game franchise that has had androids, bears, dinosaurs, ogres, demons, angels and almost crippled scientists, Mokujin is still the weirdest. That’s because Mokujin is a fight training dummy!

Mokujin’s story is actually quite interesting as he/she/it will only come to life when a great danger is going to put the whole world in peril. He awakens for the first time in Tekken 3 with the awakening of Ogre. He comes back to life once again in Tekken 5 when Jinpachi Mishima is freed from his prison. The last time Mokujin awoke was in Tekken 6 with Azazel being awakened.

While this is weird in itself, Mokujin’s fighting style adds to the craziness as he doesn’t have one of his own. Before each round, the computer will load the fighting style of one of the roster into Mokujin and it will change from round to round. This means you have to, at the very least, know the basic moveset of each and every character in the roster in order to just stay competitive when you pick Mokujin! Maybe this is why you never see anyone main him/her/it?

What other weirdos can you think of who came from Tekken? Let me know in the comments section below!