Tekken 8 (2024)
Played on PlayStation 5
With Street Fighter 6’s stagnation and Mortal Kombat 1’s countless issues, there was a lot of high expectations for Tekken’s next release. I was never huge into Tekken like SF or MK, but I was very excited to see what the next generation could bring. I loved 5, hated 6, and was very lukewarm about Tag 2. Everything before those games I haven’t really played since I was a kid, and I wound up skipping the majority of 7. I did watch it quite a bit in its heyday, but I didn’t own the game myself until like 2 years ago. But with 7’s success for the franchise, and the FGC as a whole, I really wanted to come back around for 8.
The game is gorgeous, returning to the status quo that it had of having cutting edge visuals. These characters look the best they ever had. The presentation is top notch, and for how much you are able to customize your Tekken experience is great too. Allowing players to even select their favorite songs from across all the games, even Tekken Revolution lmao.
The story mode is a love letter to the whole series, and there’s plenty of fan service and awesome moments. Sure, it’s not the most thought provoking story ever, but it’s dumb fun and just a blast all the way through. I’d compare it a lot to Mortal Kombat (2011), because it’s a story mode where it knows it’s dumb, and it has a good time with it. Tekken 7’s tried too hard to take it serious (up until the end). Tekken Ball is back and it’s still fun. Arcade Quest serves as a mini tutorial for new players that’s does what it needs to.
Heat is the brand new mechanic that incentivizes “aggressive” play. If you seen people talk about much of a “mashfest” 8 can be, it’s more so because of this new gameplay feature. I didn’t play a lot of 7, but one of the main issues of 7 and many other fighters of the generation was the focus/overtuning on defense. Like SF6’s Drive system, Heat was created to keep matches going and to get people to interact. But I ain’t gonna lie to y’all, as much as I do like this game, Heat needs to be addressed. Some characters become boss fights in a blink of an eye. The overall design in this aggressiveness is just over-tuned and it prevents casual players learning the game and just relying on constant pressure and nothing else. This may sound like a scrubquote but people more or less have the same issue with SF6 right now. It is something that can be fixed/redesigned in an update, so I’m not really mad at it.
Tekken 8 is stupid fun, and I haven’t fell in love with a fighting game like this in a good long while. I definitely want to stick with it and see where it goes. Sure the Heat system is kind of a pain in the ass sometimes, customization isn’t as good as it used to be, ranked isn’t necessarily perfect, and the Tekken pass isn’t really worth it right now…but…it’s a damn good fighting game.
Played on PlayStation 5
With Street Fighter 6’s stagnation and Mortal Kombat 1’s countless issues, there was a lot of high expectations for Tekken’s next release. I was never huge into Tekken like SF or MK, but I was very excited to see what the next generation could bring. I loved 5, hated 6, and was very lukewarm about Tag 2. Everything before those games I haven’t really played since I was a kid, and I wound up skipping the majority of 7. I did watch it quite a bit in its heyday, but I didn’t own the game myself until like 2 years ago. But with 7’s success for the franchise, and the FGC as a whole, I really wanted to come back around for 8.
The game is gorgeous, returning to the status quo that it had of having cutting edge visuals. These characters look the best they ever had. The presentation is top notch, and for how much you are able to customize your Tekken experience is great too. Allowing players to even select their favorite songs from across all the games, even Tekken Revolution lmao.
The story mode is a love letter to the whole series, and there’s plenty of fan service and awesome moments. Sure, it’s not the most thought provoking story ever, but it’s dumb fun and just a blast all the way through. I’d compare it a lot to Mortal Kombat (2011), because it’s a story mode where it knows it’s dumb, and it has a good time with it. Tekken 7’s tried too hard to take it serious (up until the end). Tekken Ball is back and it’s still fun. Arcade Quest serves as a mini tutorial for new players that’s does what it needs to.
Heat is the brand new mechanic that incentivizes “aggressive” play. If you seen people talk about much of a “mashfest” 8 can be, it’s more so because of this new gameplay feature. I didn’t play a lot of 7, but one of the main issues of 7 and many other fighters of the generation was the focus/overtuning on defense. Like SF6’s Drive system, Heat was created to keep matches going and to get people to interact. But I ain’t gonna lie to y’all, as much as I do like this game, Heat needs to be addressed. Some characters become boss fights in a blink of an eye. The overall design in this aggressiveness is just over-tuned and it prevents casual players learning the game and just relying on constant pressure and nothing else. This may sound like a scrubquote but people more or less have the same issue with SF6 right now. It is something that can be fixed/redesigned in an update, so I’m not really mad at it.
Tekken 8 is stupid fun, and I haven’t fell in love with a fighting game like this in a good long while. I definitely want to stick with it and see where it goes. Sure the Heat system is kind of a pain in the ass sometimes, customization isn’t as good as it used to be, ranked isn’t necessarily perfect, and the Tekken pass isn’t really worth it right now…but…it’s a damn good fighting game.