Jack (Tekken)

Jack (ジャック) is a series of fictional characters in the Tekken fighting game series. Jack is a series of cyborgs. Originally under the name "Jack" in the original Tekken game, each canonical Tekken game from then on features an upgraded model under a slightly different name, except Tekken 4, in which he makes no appearance. There's also a prototype model, under the name Prototype Jack.

In video games
Various Jack models were created by the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation for different purposes:
 * Jack (introduced in Tekken) is the original model, and was created by the Heihachi's Mishima Zaibatsu in order to counter a coup from Kazuya Mishima in the King of Iron Fist Tournament.
 * Prototype Jack (or P. Jack) (introduced in Tekken) is a prototype created to combat both Jack and Jack-2. After the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, the remains of Prototype Jack unit were almost destroyed by Jack's combat abilities. His body was later remodeled by Doctor Boskonovitch and goes on to combat Jack-2. P. Jack was seemingly destroyed by Jack-2 in the second tournament. This is also the only Jack to appear in more than three games, appearing in the original Tekken, Tekken 2, Tekken Tag Tournament, and the console version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
 * Dragon Fighting Jack is a character meant to have been in the first Tekken, but never produced due to the fact that his moveset was too complex. He can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the box art for the console version of the original Tekken as a blueish man.
 * Jack-2 (introduced in Tekken 2) is the upgrade of Jack, also created by the Mishima Zaibatsu. One of these models, while on a battlefront, witnesses a young girl named Jane lose her mother, and takes it upon himself to look after her until he is destroyed by Dr. Abel.
 * Gun Jack (introduced in Tekken 3) is a more advanced prototype of the android, created by Jane in an attempt to revive her friend, Jack-2. While she is successful in implanting Jack-2's memories inside him, he is destroyed by gunfire by the Tekken Force after he and Jane attempt to break into the Mishima Zaibatsu labs.
 * Jack-4 (introduced in Tekken 5) is an upgrade of Gun Jack, created by G Corporation. Like P. Jack, this model has a separate personality. Unlike other models in the Jack series, this one was mass-produced, and serve as the foot soldiers of the G Corporation. While these never participated in any tournament, they were sent by G Corporation to kill Kazuya Mishima after they no longer needed him, and the subsequent battle in Hon-Maru almost resulted in the death of Heihachi Mishima. These specific models have a self-destruct device embedded in them, indicated when one of them peels away its face to reveal a countdown. They also appear as enemies in the Scenario Campaign mode in Tekken 6. This is the only Jack to not be playable in any games.
 * Jack-5 (introduced in Tekken 5) is an upgrade of Jack-4, created by Jane to participate in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. His fate is currently unknown.
 * Jack-6 (introduced in Tekken 6) is an upgrade of Jack-5, created by G Corporation with the mission of destroying the Mishima Zaibatsu in the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6.

The Jack series robots also appear in the uncanonical games Tekken Tag Tournament (Jack-2, Gun Jack, and Prototype Jack) and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Jack-6 and Prototype Jack).

A new version of Jack, named Jack-X, appears in the crossover game Street Fighter X Tekken as downloadable content, released on July 31, 2012, with Bryan Fury as his official tag partner.

Gameplay
The Jacks have traditionally shared a number of their moves with Kuma/Panda and Ganryu. In Tekken 5, however, Namco made a pronounced effort to differentiate all the shared moves between characters: the fighters still have a few similar moves, but their executions are completely different.

In Tekken 5, Jack-5 is considered one of the hardest characters to win with. In Tekken 6, Jack-6 is considered lacking with crush properties, but is a good character to use if the player is not good with juggles and is one of the easiest characters to learn.

In other media
Jack-2 appears in Tekken: The Motion Picture had mysteriously come across a little girl named Jane, who appears to be very ill. He is in search of a cure for her illness as he gets caught up in the Tekken tournament. He must save the little girl and survive the Tekken tournament before it's too late. Jack-2 and Jane want to get on the ship but Lee Chaolan won't allow them on, so he makes a deal. Lee will ask Bruce Irvin to fight Jack-2. If Jack-2 wins, he can proceed to the ship. So Jack-2 defeats Bruce and they proceed. When Lei Wulong was going to be killed, Jack-2 stepped in and killed his captor. Lei doesn't understand why he had to killed. Jack-2 killed him. He said that it was payment for helping him and Jane get on the ship. Soon Lei, Jane and Jack-2 head to Mishima Industries where they will meet Doctor Boskonovitch. In the middle of the lab, Jack-2 meets three Prototype Jack robots. He destroys all of them and proceeds to meet the doctor. Soon when Lee Chaolan pressed the detonation button for blowing up the entire island, Jack-2, Doctor Boskonovitch, Lei and Jane had to escape. Lei, Jane and Doctor Boskonovitch escaped from the closing door and survived, but Jack-2 however his torso was being crushed by the door thus sacrificing himself for Jane and the rest of them. Doctor Boskonovitch and Lei promise to look after the girl. Lei thanks Jack-2. Jack-2's last lines are "Farewell. I promise when I come back, I'll be more human... for you".

Jack-6's dossier is briefly seen in the CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance when Anna Williams opens a file containing dossiers on various persons of interest.

Reception
GameDaily ranked Jack as the 24th top video game robot, stating "While not the most popular character in the Tekken series, Jack punched its way to become a worthy opponent". Jack was featured on a list of the best video game robots by Now Gamer, placing at 2nd out of 10, adding "He's like the Terminator, if Drago-era Dolph Lundgren played the Terminator instead of that other guy" and ranking him at number 7. UGO Networks featured him in the article "We Love These Video Game Robots Even Though They Can't Love Back". PopCrunch ranked Jack as ninth in their list of the best AI characters in video games. GamesRadar mentioned him in the "Robots that don't make any sense" article, questioning "Another Jack? Is that a popular robot name?". Complex compared Jack and Yoshimitsu to Seth and Cycloid-Y from the Street Fighter series, predicting the former two would win in a fight. In 2012, Complex also listed Prototype Jack as the 15th coolest robot in video games. Gaming Target listed Jack as the 9th best Tekken character. PlayStation Official Magazine listed Jack as one of "The best PlayStation robots", stating "the reason we like Jack, all the Jacks, is their simplicity. They are massive and can batter people around the face with swooping mechanised doom fists".