What parents need to know
Tekken 8 is a 3D fighting game, where opponents compete in 1 against 1. The graphics are in 3D as well.
Each of the two players chooses a character from a selection, and the 2 opponents compete in an arena.
Each character has unique characteristics and special powers, but they have a common basis of action: normal moves, special moves, and super powers, throws, guard.
Although the developers have planned many arguments to introduce beginners to this opus, veterans of fighting games and especially the Tekken series will naturally be advantaged thanks to the similar basics and mechanics.
To follow the scenario, there is no need to have played the previous games.
The game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. It does not influence our opinion.
Details
Level of experience required
| Age | 3+ | 7+ | 12+ | 16+ | 18+ |
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Evaluation
The fighters confront each other with punches, kicks, headbutts, magic energy, bites, throws, knives, firearms.
However, there is very little blood.
Many female characters have wide necklines, suggestive poses, and bathing suits.
There are also many male characters shirtless or in bathing suits.
Requires to know how to read for several years to understand the multiple instructions.
Language of combat, provocation, the street.
Encourages combat, competition, training and perseverance.
The female characters are particularly sexualized but this has diminished since the previous opus.
The game is going to be constantly updated. Every few months, new characters, costumes will be purchasable with real money.
If you want all the additions, it’s going to be very expensive in the medium and long term.
Local game modes
Story: The Dark Awakens: A Story … The Nanardesque depicts Jin and his allies fighting the forces of evil embodied by his father Kazuya. The cutscenes are punctuated by battles that you must win in order to progress through the story. Strangely, and even in easy mode, computer-controlled opponents are difficult to defeat.
Character episodes: choose your favorite character, and discover their personalized story after winning 5 battles.
Arcade Quest: An offline lobby where you play as your custom avatar to learn the game through various battles against the computer. A good alternative for solo players who want to get to grips with the game.
Super Ghost Battle: Face off against opponents reconstructed by the game’s AI, in order to get used to different styles of play.
Arcade Battle: 8 fights in a row against the computer.
VS: Play against a human opponent, against the computer or see 2 computers face each other.
Driving Range: Training
Tekken Ball: Tekken 3’s fabulous game mode is back. It involves kicking a beach ball with your character in order to throw it at the opponent with force. If it hits, the opponent loses health bar. The goal is naturally to drain the opponent’s health bar.
Gallery: A mode to contemplate the fabulous images, movies of the series, that you unlock in the other game modes.
Online Game Modes
Tekken Fight Lounge: a large hub where you can play as your customizable avatar in order to navigate through several lobbies, communicate with other players and compete against them
Ranked Match: Ranked Online Games
Quick Match: Unranked Online Games with Fewer Search Criteria
Player Match: Lobby dedicated solely to finding opponents and facing them. Allows you to invite your friends and watch other people’s matches in the lobby.
PS5 Tournaments: Tournaments organized by Playstation that will appear in the future.
Leaderboards: ranking of players according to their rank
Tekken’s network code has never been better. It’s very reliable, but it falters when playing against players who are connected via Wi-Fi with their console/computer. Many competitive gamers then decide to decline Wi-Fi players and players with poor connections so as not to have poor quality matches
Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)
Numerous season and annual passes will appear over the years, offering more and more characters and content for the game.
The first Season Pass contains 4 characters that will be released over the course of the months, and a skin for the avatar used in Tekken Fight Lounge and Arcade Quest.
If you want to complete your game, you will have to get them, or wait for them to drop in price.
Our opinion
Tekken 8 is definitely the best TEKKEN released to date.
The content is colossal at launch: many game modes for solo and competitive players, 32 characters, tutorials, a Tekken Ball mode. There’s a lot of fun to be had for years just with that.
The graphics are sumptuous, the game runs perfectly well on all machines (if you have a powerful enough computer).
However, it’s still Tekken at its core, and the developers haven’t put much effort into allowing casual players to adapt to the combat system.
There is a Special Style that can be activated/deactivated during combat on the fly: this one allows you to change the function of the front buttons of the controller in order to allow you to execute combos automatically by pressing the same button several times. It’s nice, it simplifies and makes it easy to make impressive shots.
It’s just that it’s 2 auto-combos, and it’s not enough, you get bored of it quickly. You’ll have to go back to normal mode to do something else. While Street Fighter 6 has redesigned its control system entirely to allow new players to approach the game, Tekken 8 offers a system here that cannot replace the original mode in the long run.
In addition, the Special Style allows you to perform the Electric God Wind Fist, a move with a manipulation known to be very difficult to execute, with a single button press for characters of the Mishima bloodline (Kazuya, Jin, and Reina). The fact that the move is originally difficult to execute helps to counterbalance its power from a game design point of view. This makes the characters in question stronger than expected.
Despite all this, we know that many people who don’t want to learn how to understand the game, will get the game, press all the buttons and have fun anyway.
They will then be treated to a deluge of charismatic characters, particles, explosions, lighting effects and a very well made and very fun game.
Experts are also over the moon with the game, Bandai Namco has met all expectations and even more with this game.
Note that at launch, the game is particularly expensive: 93 CAD + taxes for the basic edition. $150 + tax for the Ultimate Edition featuring the next 4 characters to be released and cosmetic additions.
The game will also be constantly updated in the following years, constantly adding characters, adding fees to the initial bill. If it frustrates you not to have all the characters in a game… Tekken (and other fighting games) will constantly remind you that you don’t have them in future updates.
All of this is classic for the fighting game business model right now, you just have to know what you’re getting yourself into when you buy the game.
Tekken 8 is, despite all my criticisms, an incredible package that many, many players have rushed to buy. And you’d be wrong to deprive yourself of it if you like this kind of game.
