Today I turn 24, so allow me to take you all on a little journey down memory lane to an event that seriously defined who I am today. It's kind of a long one, so feel free to scroll down and skip to the meat of the story.
One of my earliest memories, I must've been about 5 or 6, was getting a PlayStation 2 as a gift from my dad. The first 3 games I got included Fifa 2002 and Formula One 2001, both of which I enjoyed at the time but aren't really the kind of thing I'd play now, save for a little nostalgia trip from the music and visuals that really hit different in the early 2000s. The third game, though, is what eventually led to me getting engrossed in video games, anime and fetishes I didn't know I had at the time: Tekken Tag Tournament. Every time I hear the first piano note of the comfy ass intro FMV music I have a nostalgiagasm comparable to a former emo chick when Welcome to the Black Parade comes on.
Faced with the character select screen for the first time, I chose who I think any boy my age would have: the skeleton ninja with a laser sword and the huge, muscular robot who can fly. I still main Yoshimitsu and Jack to this day, so it should come as no surprise that Yoshi's arcade mode ending was the first I unlocked. In it, he faces off against and defeats another ninja wearing a fox mask. When I eventually unlocked her and learned her name was Kunimitsu I had a strange dislike for her at first. Then again, in those days I never used to play as female characters but felt kinda giddy inside when I got beaten up by one. Hell, with those graphics, I wasn't even sure if she was a man or woman. I don't know, maybe I just thought her design was kinda boring, or because I was a huge Yoshimitsu fan I hated her since she's Yoshimitsu's rival in the story. It would be many years and Yoshimitsu redesigns until she made another appearance in a Tekken game, but I couldn't believe my eyes when I did. Seriously, she went from looking like this:
To this:
Talk about a fucking glow up! Tekken Tag Tournament 2 brought back a lot of characters that hadn't been seen for a while, but Kuni's new design made me get over any grudge I had against her as a child. More importantly, she was really fun to play as, and along with Soul Calibur's Taki I was quickly starting to develop a thing for kunoichi.
TTT2 was released 8 years ago and we haven't seen Kunimitsu since. And that wasn't even canon; her last appearance in a mainline game wasTekken 2 in 1995. But with the latest trailer for Season 4 of Tekken 7, she's finally making a comeback of sorts.
In true fighting game tradition, the original Kunimitsu isn't returning but instead we get another character with a similar design and moveset, much like how King from Tekken 3 onwards is a different guy from the King in the first 2 games and Jin Kazama was meant to play like an amalgamation of his parents Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama. In this case it's the original's daughter, who inherited her mother's beef with Yoshimitsu and desire to steal his sword. Voiced by Saori Hayami (Fubuki in One Punch Man), Kunimitsu II looks like a new and improved version of Kunimitsu I.
Kunimitsu will be included in Tekken 7's Season 4 pass this fall along with new stages and a TBC character slated for next year, plus new moves and other improvements available for free.
Are you guys looking forward to playing as Kunimitsu Junior? What were the first video games you remember playing? Let us know below!
