TL;DR: An incredibly well made Tekken experience for everybody, whether brand new to the series or a long time fan and competitor.

Tekken will always hold a special place for me (so obviously I am a little bit biased here) I grew up going to the local arcade/pizza place with my best friends JUST to play Tekken 3 for hours on end.

Tekken 8 feels like the next step for Tekken. It's hard to put this into words because I loved Tekken 7 and I believe I put something close to 800 hours into that game (at least 100 of those hours were spent in Tekken Bowl, but I digress) Tekken 8 is very clearly, to me, the Super Smash Bros Ultimate to Tekken 7's Super Smash Bros For Wii U/3DS.

Everything that felt like it was expanded on (just a little bit) in Tekken 7 feels fully fledged out in Tekken 8. The single player experience is INFINITELY better: The Dark Awakens is a VERY well done campaign AND Arcade Quest is an incredible way to teach new players the works of the game without forcing them into a training room or combo challenge. (Doing combo challenges and the very in-depth training room are still fully available though, as always)

And the Heat mechanic, while frustrating to play against at a lower level, becomes one of the most intricate and interesting pieces of playing the game, making the purchase of Tekken 8 worth it just to see the new combo routes that the heat dashes and openers offer.

Also, Kuma has an EWGF and they made Heihachi into a super cool chick with purple hair, so that's super cool for me (Kuma(and Panda)/Heihachi main)

Reviewed on Feb 06, 2024


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