Paul makes a cameo appearance in Tekken: The Motion Picture as one of the tournament competitors, and is seen carrying an unconscious Michelle Chang out of the exploding Mishima resort near the conclusion, while he has no dialogue. Neidel Crisan of 1UP.com wrote of Paul in Street Fighter X Tekken that he had "a fairly straight forward character with solid combos that may not be flashy, but do a ton of damage," but Tristan Damen of VentureBeat claimed that "Paul Phoenix, a powerhouse in his native series, is neutered by his inability to fling fireballs." In other media and merchandise GameSpy considered Paul "one of the most devastating characters" in Tekken 6, with "one of the best low attacks" and a "powerful wall game". Paul's fighting style is officially classified as " judo". A downloadable costume for Paul in Street Fighter X Tekken resembles Street Fighter character Rufus. Paul is given a new look for Tekken 7, with his red gi replaced with casual costumes featuring red, white, and blue themes.
#Paul phoenix tekken 4 series#
His default costume throughout the series is a red sleeveless judogi and black padded gloves, sporting a scorpion tattoo on his right arm. Paul is canonically 25 years old at the time of his 1994 Tekken debut.
Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada revealed that Paul was inspired by Japanese manga, specifically Jean Pierre Polnareff from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. Paul appears as a Spirit in the Nintendo crossover video game Super Smash Bros. He also appears in SNK's mobile phone game The King of Fighters All Star.
He is an unlockable character in the 2005 beat-'em-up multiplayer game Urban Reign. Paul is selectable in noncanonical spinoff Tekken games such as Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken Card Challenge, Tekken Advance, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Tekken Revolution, in addition to the crossover fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken. This time, he believes assembling a team would increase his chances of victory, and so he joins forces with old friend Marshall Law and boxer Steve Fox. Again departing the tournament penniless and already burdened by his increasing debt, he wastes no time in entering the sixth tournament in Tekken 6 in hopes of finally easing his financial troubles. Paul adopts a new training regimen and gets his revenge against Kuma in Tekken 5, but the match leaves Paul too exhausted to continue in the competition and he is forced to drop out. After the animal dies of old age, Heihachi trains a replacement, also named Kuma, who beats Paul in the fourth tournament. He again enters the tournament in an attempt to get his life back together.ĭuring the first two competitions, Paul had fought and defeated Kuma, a large brown bear trained in combat by Heihachi. As a result, by Tekken 4, Paul's dojo has gone out of business due to lack of students and he ends up a homeless alcoholic. Unbeknownst to him, Ogre morphs into a monstrous form, True Ogre, and is then defeated a second time by Jin Kazama, cheating Paul out of his victory. Paul goes undefeated throughout the tournament in Tekken 3, leaving victorious after defeating both Heihachi Mishima and the god of fighting, Ogre. He battles his way to the final round in Tekken 2, only to end up having to forfeit after getting stuck in traffic and therefore unable to make the match on time. In the first Tekken, Paul battled Kazuya Mishima after an hours-long fight it ended after Kazuya narrowly defeated him. Paul Phoenix is a hotheaded American biker and martial artist who regularly enters the King of Iron Fist fighting tournaments to prove he is "the toughest fighter in the universe" while hoping to use the prize money to pay off his debts, yet he falls short of victory each time due to various circumstances.
He has received mixed critical responses for his personality and his signature hi-top fade hairstyle and has been considered a joke character following his later Tekken series appearances.Īppearances In video games Paul is a short-tempered biker and judo practitioner who repeatedly enters the series' King of Iron Fist tournaments in hopes of winning the prize money and to prove he is the world's best fighter, all while developing a rivalry with the anthropomorphized fighting bear Kuma. Making his debut in the original Tekken in 1994, he is one of four characters (the others being Yoshimitsu, Heihachi Mishima, and Nina Williams) to appear in every installment of the main series. Paul Phoenix ( Japanese: ポール・フェニックス, Hepburn: Pōru Fenikkusu) is a player character from the Tekken fighting game franchise by Bandai Namco Entertainment.