This is Tekken in its ultimate form.

It's everything I've ever wanted from the series since its unfortunate downhill slope began after Tekken 5.

- A great roster with infinitely better designs across the board than T7. As for Lidia's inexplicable absence, I'll give you another half-star when she arrives as DLC Harada.

- A story mode that is abysmally written and so anime it hurts, but still entertaining and has enough hype moments to pacify most fans of the series.

- A ridiculous amount of additional content. Jukebox (I love you), arcade quest which I've still barely touched, character episodes, customisation, which is a bit limited this time but hopefully they'll add more later and not go crazy on the monetization. And Tekken Ball! Which I'll probably never touch but holy shit! They straight out-NRS'd NRS. They could've charged for the jukebox feature so easily, and I am forever thankful they didn't.

- Fantastic online. This is the first fighting game in history to let me connect to my friends in Australia and NZ, and it's TOTALLY PLAYABLE. A second to half-second of lag, otherwise it's basically flawless (I'm in the UK). I'm still in shock about this as I write it - for years and years, nothing else has been able to get past the character selection screen. Connections apparently in various other countries are also often near-flawless.

- The most exciting and refined gameplay in the long history of this series, and finally, evolved. I have some qualms with the heat system, but it still makes the gameplay feel more fresh than it has in a very long time and was sorely needed.

Tekken is just above every single one of its peers in the gameplay aspect for me. This is the game that made me realise I have a fetish for block punishing, just because the sound design is so punchy and impactful that I can't get enough of it. Rage Arts are frankly a pain in the ass, but I understand their purpose and it's usually not difficult to bait and punish. Should be seeing much less of them at higher ranks anyway.

It's just amazing to see Tekken back on top and firing on all cylinders. T7 was made with a budget of 1000 yen and some pocket lint after T6 and TTT2 disappointing financially, but thankfully the game was still a huge sales success because people knew it played well and had some goofy ass guest characters.

Namco clearly spent those newfound funds wisely, giving T8 not only a slew of content but also some of the best visuals of the entire fighting game genre right now. This is probably a reason why everybody and they mama is buying this game, and I am fucking elated to see my one of my favourite series back where it belongs.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, Tekken's complexity is brutal for newcomers. It may be the hardest game in the world to play at a competitive level. But it genuinely is accessible at the same time, with a massive roster of iconic characters that all feel so good to play even when you have no idea what you're doing. It is simultaneously soulcrushing and intensely rewarding, and feels like it has endless depth in addition to so much stuff to just mess around with.

This is some good ass Tekken. This is a goddamn fighting game.