Continuing its tradition of cross-cultural sensitivity, Tekken is getting its first Saudi Arabian character for the new instalment due out this year. His name is “Shaheen” and he looks exactly like one would expect a Middle Eastern man to in Tekken 7.
Tekken 7 director Katsuhiro Harada showed the guy off on Twitter recently:
NEW CHARACTER for TEKKEN 7. “Shaheen” from Saudi Arabia. 鉄拳7新キャラ(のひとり）「シャヒーン（サウジアラビア）」公開。 We’ve more new characters. http://t.co/cPggBVY6hy
— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) January 1, 2015
Rumours about Shaheen first surfaced back in August when Harada mentioned polling Tekken’s Middle Eastern fanbase about their interest in a new character, since the game is very popular in the region’s countries.
So far, Shaheen hasn’t caused much of a kerfuffle compared to Lucky Chloe, the last Tekken 7 character who was revealed.
Comments
8 responses to “Tekken 7 Is Getting Series’ First Saudi Arabian Character, ‘Shaheen’ ”
I would make a comment about the towel on the head being rather stereotypical but the fact is, pretty much every tekken character is a blatant stereotype and pretty much celebrates it pretty damn well to great effect.
Same thought process here.
It’s not really a stereotype it is a very common item worn by men in Saudi (Source: having lived there for a number of years)
It is a stereotype in the sense that the first image they go to is the man with the towel on the head but it’s most definitely true it’s a very common piece of traditional clothing, yet one can argue ‘why did they immediately go for that’ til the cows come home. There’s no right or wrong answer and it is a valid question to ask. But at the same time, it is not a negatively presented stereotype thankfully and the character looks fantastic. Tekken, as I stated earlier, presents all its characters in a stereotypical fashion to some degree, as do most fighting games, but Tekkens characters do so in a great style thats never been derogatory and nearly all the characters are as memorable as the best Streetfighter 2 characters.
You basically had a conversation with yourself here… lol
Welcome to the internet, are you new?
He looks pretty cool. Wonder what his fighting style would be, krav maga perhaps.
Shaheen challenges my heterosexuality :S