Tekken director revives old tweet about creating 'Jollibee' game character

MANILA, Philippines —  Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of popular video and arcade game Tekken, on Saturday resurfaced his old tweet where he said he would consider adding the mascot of world-famous Filipino fast-food chain Jollibee as one of the game characters.

This was what Harada said more than five years ago after he was asked by a Twitter user to add Filipino characters in his fighting video games.

“Jollibeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! I'll consider,” Harada said in a tweet dated May 29, 2014.

Harada posted photos of a Jollibee plastic bag and cup in a couple of replies to the post, adding the hashtag #RevMajor2019.

Jollibeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!#Jollibee#REVMajor2019 https://t.co/mO7vPci8kS pic.twitter.com/ji6Zyxqq87

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) September 28, 2019

Jollibeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!#Jollibee#REVMajor2019

https://t.co/gvYXTqgrYb pic.twitter.com/El6KNBxEKd

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) September 28, 2019

It appears that Harada is in the country for Rev Major 2019, a Philippine online gaming event being held at The Tent Solaire Resorts & Casino in Pasay City.

Rev Major 2019 hosts the Tekken World Tour Master event. The online fighting game competition began Saturday.

Next Filipino Tekken character?

If Harada does decide to add Jollibee in the game, it would become the second Filipino character in Tekken following Josie Rizal's addition in 2015.

The kickboxing female character skilled in eskrima met controversy after its release over criticisms that it was not Filipino enough. Harada also threatened to delete the character if the Philippine government would complain about the name which was patterned after Philippine hero Jose Rizal.

Harada is best known for Tekken series. He is also the general manager of world-famous Japanese video game developer and publisher Bandai Namco.

Aside from Tekken, Harada oversees the production of Bandai Namco original game titles such as Ace Combat, Tales of Dark Soul and Soul Calibur, among others. —Rosette Adel