Paul Phoenix (Tekken)

In video games

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. In the first Tekken, Paul is eliminated late in the competition by Kazuya Mishima after an hours-long fight. 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. Paul goes undefeated throughout the tournament in Tekken 3, but after defeating Heihachi Mishima and Ogre, he abruptly leaves the competition under the impression that he has won, when he had one last opponent in Ogre's alter ego, True Ogre. 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. He again enters the tournament in an attempt to get his life back together.

During the first two competitions, Paul had fought and defeated Kuma, a large brown bear trained in combat by Heihachi. After the animal dies of old age, Heihachi trains a replacement, also named Kuma, who beats Paul in the third and fourth tournaments. 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. 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. 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.

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. He is an unlockable character in the 2005 beat-'em-up multiplayer game Urban Reign.

Design and gameplay

Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada revealed that Paul was inspired by Japanese manga, specifically a character from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. Paul is canonically twenty-five years old at the time of his 1994 Tekken debut. His default costume throughout the series is a sleeveless red judogi and black padded gloves, while in Tekken 6, he sports a scorpion tattoo on his right arm. Paul is given a new look for Tekken 7 with his red gi replaced by casual costumes featuring red, white and blue themes. A downloadable costume for Paul in Street Fighter X Tekken saw him dressed as Street Fighter character Rufus.

Paul's fighting style is officially classified as "Judo". GameSpy considered Paul "one of the most devastating characters" in Tekken 6, with "one of the best low attacks" and a "powerful wall game". 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

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. He additionally had minor roles in several Tekken comic book series published between 1997 and 2001. Paul's name is mentioned in the film Tekken, when Marshall Law knocked him out in 28 seconds. His dossier is also briefly seen in the CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance when Anna Williams opens a file containing dossiers on various persons of interest. MMA Scott Sheeley briefly portrays Paul in the short fan film Tekken: Reload. Paul appeared in One Minute Melee, a spin-off series of ScrewAttack's Death Battle, voiced by Bryce Buckely. He is shown heading for the Tournament and encounters Ken Masters from Street Fighter. They fought a hypothetical battle, and at the end Paul tries to execute the Burning Fist, but Ken attacked him with Shinryuken and defeated him. After the fight, Paul says that they will finish the fight after the Tournament.

In 1998, Epoch Co. released an action figure of Paul in a black leather outfit as part of their Tekken 3 collection, which was packaged with a display stand and an extra set of interchangeable hands.

Reception

Paul has received mixed critical reception for his gameplay, characterization, and his distinctive hairstyle, with the latter drawing comparisons to Street Fighter character Guile. Matt Swider of Gaming Target ranked him the tenth-best Tekken character in 2006: "He’s a fan favorite for his All-American flavor, USA landmark-rich battle arenas, and high-rise hairdos ... Oh, and he also beat up a bear once. It’s hard to top that." In his 2012 preview of Street Fighter X Tekken, Nate Ming of Crunchyroll described Paul and Marshall Law as "get-rich-quick schemers". Kevin Wong of Complex ranked Paul third among his twenty best Tekken characters in 2013: "Paul's greatest strength is...well, his strength." Wesley Yin-Poole of Eurogamer wrote that Paul was his preferred character to play in the original PlayStation port of Tekken 3: "the American with the ridiculous stick-up blonde hair and a punch that hit harder than a meteor crashing into the earth." In 2015, Dan Paradis of WatchMojo ranked Paul as the fifth-best Tekken character: "He’s a rugged American fighter trying to become 'The Toughest Guy in the Universe,' and it’s hard to imagine someone questioning his claim on the title." Den of Geek said in 2016, "If there is a Tekken 8, maybe they can get around to centering it around Paul Phoenix. That badass doofus is worth a story or two." In an official fan poll held by Namco in 2012, Paul was the third-most requested Tekken character for inclusion in Tekken X Street Fighter, receiving 15.83% (13,975) of 88,280 votes.

Paul's Tekken 5 ending was ranked second by Rich Knight of Complex in his 2012 list of the series' fifteen "craziest" moments: "The outlandish endings in Tekken have always been a staple, but none has ever been stranger than Paul’s in Tekken 5 where he makes a challenge to all aliens in the known galaxy ... [and] we actually see the aliens coming down to accept said challenge. Well, that’s just ridiculous." Gavin Jasper of 4thletter.net ranked it 127th in his 2013 selection of the top 200 fighting game endings: "Paul’s characterization changed as of Tekken 5. No longer was he the Ken Masters of Tekken. Instead, he was the Dan Hibiki." While Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist actor Joey Ansah called Paul his favorite Tekken character in a 2014 interview, he added: "In Tekken 1 and 2, his story was badass and he was a serious character and by Tekken 5 and 6, he's a fucking joke."

In 2010, Michael Grimm of GamesRadar expressed his desire for a matchup between Paul and Guile for the then-unreleased Street Fighter X Tekken: "These two clearly have a passion greater than their dedication to their countries: maintaining and styling their awful hair. While Guile’s iconic 'do is unique, Paul’s is a little less so, leaving him looking like the last Kid 'n Play fan on earth." Tom Goulter of GamesRadar described Paul's hairstyle as "Street Fighter's Ken [having] stuck his finger in an electrical socket." Alex Langley of Arcade Sushi rated it among the "10 Greatest Video Game Character Hairdos" in 2013. Liana Kerzner of 411Mania.com rated it fourth in her selection of the "Top 8 Video Game Hairstyles" that same year: "Ridiculous hair seems to be a requirement for male Tekken characters, but Paul takes the title of King of the Stupid Hair, even if he can never quite win a fighting tournament." ShortList included Paul in a feature titled "The Rules of Video Game Hairstyles": "How he manages to maintain such a cliff-like structure is beyond our grooming knowledge. Oceans of hair spray?" The site additionally commented, "We'd love to see [Guile] take on Paul Phoenix in a battle of the tower cuts." Peter Austin from WhatCulture named Paul the "Greatest Tekken Character of All Time".