Hard to believe it has been almost seven years since Tekken 7 released on home consoles and PC, but yet here we are, on the cusp of Tekken 8’s worldwide release in 2024. The last of the major fighting games to see a current-gen release, can Tekken 8 compete in a genre that has been heating up in recent years? There’s only one way to find out, so read on!

Fantastic Visuals, Smooth Action

The quick and dirty version of this review, is that Tekken 8 is a superb fighter that respects the long lineage that it came from (Tekken the series actually holds the Guinness World Record for longest running narrative in video games), while introducing some new mechanics that freshen things up and reward aggressive fighting. At the same time, a new control scheme will help newcomers or those without the time to dedicate to fighting games. There’s a lot to dig in to here, so let’s start with how Tekken 8 looks and feels.

As can be seen in any gameplay footage, Tekken 8 looks gorgeous and plays smoothly. Bandai Namco leaving the previous generation of consoles behind frees it up to look better, though on PC your mileage will vary depending on your specs. We tested on hardware ranging from a lowly 4^th-gen i7 laptop paired with GTX 860M, and a higher-specced 12^th-gen i7 paired with an RTX 4080, and they both maintained solid frame rates throughout, though naturally the older system needed everything turned down to low. But with AMD’s FSR 2.0, which even runs on NVIDIA’s GPUs, Tekken 8 remained playable in that case, in 1080p no less. As this is the first AAA-level fighting game made in the Unreal Engine 5, it has a lot of hype to live up to, and thankfully on a technical level it appears to do so.

Heated Rage Arts

A flashy new current-gen game engine is great and all, but what really matters is what has changed in terms of fighting mechanics, and what has remained the same. The biggest change is the introduction of a new Heat system. This replaces a couple of Rage-based systems from Tekken 7. Both players begin with a full Heat bar, located beneath the health bar. Once per round (so up to five times per match if it goes to five rounds), either player can press a button to enter Heat mode, which plays a short cinematic and immediately attacks, while also buffing up their attacks in general. Blocking regular attacks in this mode does chip damage, which is indicated by a white portion of the health bar. This damage can be recovered by landing hits on the opponent, which reminds me of Bloodborne which similarly rewarded playing on offense rather than defense when you get hit.

Rage Arts make a return here as well, triggered when your character’s health reaches a low enough threshold. Once you enter this Rage state, even if you manage to recover your health above the threshold level, your Rage state remains. Pressing R2/RT when in this state launches each character’s Hail Mary move, which does more damage the less health you have left. These are the flashy “Ultimate” moves seen in other fighting games, and while they are not gory like in Mortal Kombat, they are over the top and just ooze with that pure Tekken style we have come to know and love. They are importantly also not guaranteed to hit, and dodging, interrupting or even countering these moves is a great source of trash talking when playing against other players.

Accessible for Most

A new special style control method is available for those who don’t play fighting games as often, which is enabled by default by pressing L1/LB. This shows and on-screen guide for what moves are available, and allows combos to be performed with the press of a single button, combined with an optional direction on the joystick/directional pad. This is a nice crutch for people who either can’t or don’t want to memorize combos, though of course you won’t have access to every combo using this method. It’s a nice accessibility option for those that need it, and the feature can easily be ignored by veterans of the series.

There are 15 chapters to Tekken 8’s single-player campaign, and it’ll take most players somewhere around 4-6 hours to complete, a length on-par with most games in this genre. Of course, this depends on what difficulty level you pick, and how much of a challenge it presents you. The story continues six months after the ending of Tekken 7, and while it does offer some sense of conclusion to the seemingly never-ending fight between father and son Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama, as any good cinematic games does these days, it leaves the door open for sequels.

Outside of the campaign, and with online mostly disabled during our time with the game, there is still happily plenty to do offline. A new Arcade Quest mode lets you create a stylized avatar, who plays a part in a separate story about becoming the best Tekken 8 arcade player. A regular to the arcade scene named Max and his friends is eager to show you the ropes, and it serves as a more organic approach to tutorials, as it has you learn by doing, taking on other avatars, climbing the arcade ranks, and having fun.

Plenty of Things to Do

There are also character episodes, which tell a story unique to each of the game’s 32 characters. There are usually just five fights to get through, so while each individual episode might not take too long, spread out over a couple of dozen episodes, this still represents several hours of additional content that fans are sure to eat up. A couple of bonus episodes can only be unlocked after completing the main campaign, and their backstory is somewhat filled in during the campaign so their unlock requirements make sense here.

A ghost battle mode is also an option, which allows you to play against yourself, as trained by the play data you generate, so you can learn what you tend to do and how to get better. A Super Ghost Battle mode can be unlocked as well, and you can even play against other players’ ghosts, which is handy to learn how they play if they’re not online at the moment. Most matches you complete can also be reviewed in the replay mode. At certain points during most matches, the game will automatically pause the action, and alert you to some mechanic of the game that you could have used to generate a better outcome than what actually transpired. By simply hitting the Train button, you’re launched into a tutorial for whatever aspect of the game is being highlighted, where you can practice against a dummy to your heart’s content. Then, if you wish, you can go into the replay and actually take over the controls for several seconds, while your opponent continues to play out actions as they actually occurred. Your goal here is to change what happened, which is kind of surreal but also a neat learning tool. Rounding out the offline modes are Versus, Practice, and the return of Tekken Ball as seen in Tekken 3, where you are stuck to one half of a volleyball “court” and can only deal damage by launching a ball into the other competitor. It’s a light-hearted and fun mode that is sure to be a hit amongst friends and frenemies alike.

Customization is also a big part of Tekken, and for most things you do you earn in-game Fight Money, which is handed out pretty generously, with items set to relatively low prices. There are a lot off offbeat accessories, and you can color any piece of clothing the way you want it. Since the Arcade Quest includes a separate avatar, that means there’s a whole separate section of clothing and accessory choices here as well. If you enjoy spending hours crafting a perfect look, you’ll probably spend hours here, easily.

Time for the Next Battle

It feels like we are in a golden age for modern fighting games, and with Tekken 8’s excellent release, everyone’s favorites are here. Whether you venture online or keep things offline with friends and family, Tekken 8 is the ultimate version of the series, with crisp visuals, an exciting campaign, a large starting roster of characters, and plenty of modes to keep you busy with.

Tekken 8 joins a full roster of fighting games, and competes with the best of them. Naturally, as we couldn’t take the game online during our review period, it remains to be seen how effective Bandai Namco and Akira were at implementing rollback netcode. All Tekken fans should buy Tekken 8 without hesitation, and most fighting game fans will find something to like as well. Though the year may have just started, Tekken 8 will probably compete for fighting game of the year and barring any surprises, should be the runaway winner.

Score: 9.5/10

Pros:

• New Heat mode and style control scheme help to level the playing field
• A good starting roster
• Entertaining campaign, bringing some closure to the main battle between father and son
• Plenty to do offline, with good customization options
• Replays can help you master a character or combo options available to you

Cons:

• Online mode performance is a giant unknown until launch

Tekken 8 review code provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.