Tekken 6 goes pop-culture; Cardboard Tube Samurai costume confirmed
Fans of über-popular, and sometimes even gaming related, web-comic Penny Arcade will be familiar with their character The Cardboard Tube Samurai.
The invention of artist Mike Krahulik after literally plucking a discarded tube from a dumpster and then proceeding to smack people over the head with it in the Penny Arcade office, the character is a tongue-in-cheek homage to legendary samurai (both fact and fictional) such as Musashi Miyamoto and Ogami IttÅ.
Confirmed on his Twitter account that the below image is real, Mike appears stoked that the iconic yellow costume, complete with Pac-man motif, will be a costume in Namco’s upcoming Tekken 6.
It’s important to note that this is not a full playable character, so don’t expect to see a back-story full of cherry-blossoms and verbosity. Though unconfirmed at this point, we’re assuming this is just one of Yoshimitsu’s many costume changes.
It’s not the first time a fighting franchise has crossed over and inserted characters from a different and popular universe into their own game. One has to only recall the debacle of Soul Calibur IV and the appearance of Yoda and Vader in a setting that made absolutely no sense to know that companies will do almost anything to entice people to buy their product.
We’re on the fence regarding one IP referencing another. If done correctly, it can be a nice hat-tip or bonus for the player. If done shoddily however, it can undermine the main property and even tarnish the reputation of the referenced content. We’re thinking Namco’s decision to add a costume from a popular sub-culture publication is likely more the former than the latter. We’ll just have to see.
