Heihachi for a fighting game villain sort of fills my mind with the imagination of Katsuhiro Harada's rather imaginative concept. I mean, if you think about it, Tekken is really inspired by several video game characters and comic characters. One of them has to be Heihachi himself who I dare call as, "Dr. Wily on steroids." Later Tekken games makes him look more like Dr. Wily than any other video game villain. I even wanted to joke that he should have driven a Wily Machine type of vehicle in a bonus stage in Tekken 6!
So what does this hyped-up, toughened up version of "Dr. Wily" have to do with Tekken as a recurring antagonist? Let's think of his screwed up history and why he's really, really indeed a badass villain. I'll admit that starting from Tekken 2 up to present, he has been one of my favorite characters to use because even if he was toned down for balancing reasons, he is still a cheapo fighter at best.
The history of Tekken begins way back when Heihachi for some reason of the curse, locked up his own father Jinpachi under the Honmaru. It was most likely he felt that Kazuya would be weak no thanks to Jinpachi. Later on, he would foolishly throw off his son Kazuya off the cliff which triggered the curse. The "Devil" appeared to Kazuya restoring the boy to strength leading to the events of the first Tekken tournament.
The first Tekken tournament
Heihachi served as the final boss of the game. In the story, he was the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu where he promised a huge amount of price money to whoever can defeat him. Unfortunately for him, his son Kazuya returned with thoughts of revenge. As Kazuya progressed in the tournament, he was soon defeated by his son. Kazuya threw him off the cliff not content with beating the latter to a pulp hoping he would die.
Tekken 2
The events of the game continue after the first game where Heihachi is directly playable instead of being an unlockable boss. During this time, he survived the cliff fall which is apparently a trait of the Mishima family. He arrived in the game to take back the Mishima Zaibatsu from his son. After he defeated his son, he did something far worse... he threw his son into a volcano.
Tekken 3
The game's events are sort of the next generation of Tekken happening 19 years later. He later meets his adult grandson Jin Kazama who strikingly resembles his supposedly late son Kazuya. For a time, he has a soft spot on his grandson but it didn't last long either. The events of Tekken 3 were triggered by the arrival of the ancient evil known as Ogre. He opens up the tournament to where Ogre absorbed some of his life force. After Jin defeats Ogre, he sees Jin having the Devil gene as well and tries to shoot down his own grandson. However he does not succeed the cycle of hate continues.
Tekken 4
Once again in control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, he serves as the final boss for most characters except for Kazuya. Kazuya returns to life continuing the never-ending cycle of revenge in the Mishima family. He also seeks to create the ultimate lifeform but discovers he doesn't have the power to do so.
Tekken 5
After the events of Tekken 4, he and Kazuya are forced to fight side by side. He was betrayed once again by his son who almost made it look like he was dead. While he wanted to take control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, his late father Jinpachi returned. He wasn't able to get back the Mishima Zaibatsu as it was now under the control of his grandson, Jin Kazama.
Tekken 6
It was later figured out that he had an affair with a Swiss woman resulting in his son Lars Alexanderson. During the game, he is once again trying to get the Mishima Zaibatsu under his control but both his son Kazuya and his grandson Jin had caused another conflict. He was later demoted to being a butt monkey antagonist after that.
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