Monday, August 9, 2010

Know Your Tekken, Part 2: Nina


Story

Nina Williams is a contract assassin of Irish descent. Her father was an assassin for the IRA, and her mother was a champion Aikido fighter in Britain. She was born and raised to be a talented fighter and a ruthless killer. Her sister Anna is her greatest rival, and not in a friendly Ryu-vs-Ken way. Their rivalry is bloodthirsty, much like Kazuya and Heihachi's, as the Tekken universe is full of murderously dysfunctional families.

Nina was sent to the first tournament to assassinate Heihachi Mishima. Kazuya basically took care of that for her. For the second tournament, her target was Kazuya, whom she failed to take down due to Anna's interference. Between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3, she and her sister Anna were put into cryogenic sleep for nearly 20 years. During this time, Nina was impregnated through in-vitro fertilization and gave birth to Steve Fox. Nina's and Anna's bodies did not age, while Steve and the rest of the fighters did.

Nina was awakened by Ogre's power during Tekken 3. She had lost all of her memories, but had a new target, Jin Kazama. During Tekken 4, she was hired to kill Steve Fox, though she fails to do so upon discovering that he was her own son. Nina entered the fifth Tekken tournament in hope of restoring her memories by encountering her sister Anna. Nina was successful in recovering her memories and defeating Anna; however she spared her sister's life. In Tekken 6, she is recruited by Jin Kazama to be his personal bodyguard.

Fighting Style

Nina focuses on quick strikes with her jabs and a variety of high and low striking kicks. She pokes at her opponent and uses her quick recovery to bait counter attacks. While pressuring, she can surprise her opponent by ticking into a throw. She has an entire array of multi-part throws that snap her opponents' limbs and neck. Multi-part throws start as a normal command throw, but can be extended with additional inputs during the different parts of the throw. While they are damaging, the throws can be countered while initiating any of their parts, making them rare in high-level play. Unless I'm forgetting some oddity, there have never been multi-part throws in Street Fighter, though they'd definitely make an interesting addition.

Some of Nina's signature moves:

  • Ivory Cutter, a quick 2-hit flip-kick
  • Blonde Bomb, a 2-handed palm strike often used as a combo ender
  • Hellbringer, a forward stepping launcher performed with QCF+1
  • Twisted Mind, which has Nina grind her heel into a downed opponent

Attacks like Twisted Mind raise the question of whether or not you can attack a downed opponent in SFxT. Attacks on downed opponents, as well as the various methods of rising from the ground, play a prominent role in Tekken. It will be interesting to see how or if any of this is incorporated in a Street Fighter-style game.


(Story via Tekkenpedia, moves via Tekken Zaibatsu and YouTube)

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