Tekken 8 has been a long time coming. Its predecessor, the unprecedentedly popular Tekken 7, launched what feels like an age ago; the original arcade release happened all the way back in 2015, before a much-updated version came to consoles in 2017. However, its shockingly long life cycle — perpetuated by an incredibly strong competitive core — has ultimately paved the way for the big-budget bombast of Tekken 8. Much like Street Fighter 6, this feels like a fighting game with backing, packed with modes and dripping with visual spectacle.
In a nutshell, Tekken 8 is the generational leap that fans have been waiting for. While the skeleton of Tekken 7 still remains — in terms of fundamental mechanics, animations, and general gameplay rhythm — considerable meat has been added to the bones, and the whole package has been fleshed out in almost every direction.
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We should probably start with the fighting system itself, which is supremely satisfying. Tekken has always excelled in providing audiovisual feedback, as attacks connect with crazy hit sparks and characters are sent flying — but Tekken 8 takes it to a new level. There's a distinct bass to all of the sound effects — even when you're just blocking — and scoring a counter hit results in an eye-popping explosion of character-specific colours. Just watching is a thrill, but actually playing is a joy.
Tekken 7 was already an intense, fast-paced fighting game, but a smattering of fresh mechanics makes its successor the most over-the-top, impactful entry in Bandai Namco's franchise. The Heat system is front and centre, essentially letting you power up your character once per round. While in Heat (yes, there are already plenty of jokes), combatants gain access to enhanced attacks, some entirely new moves, and the choice of either a Heat Smash or a Heat Dash. The Smash is basically a fast-acting super attack, while the Dash can be used to extend combos or maintain your offensive pressure. Opting for either ends your temporary Heat state until the next round.
On a surface level, Heat is really just another way of letting players pull off more cool moves. It's activated with the press of just one button, and the following Heat Smash requires a tap of that same input — it's designed to be as accessible as possible. However, more advanced players will quickly realise that Heat adds another layer of tactical thinking to Tekken's usual flow. For example, saving your Heat for later in the round is a great way to eke out close-call victories, as its activation can force your opponent to block and effectively guess against your next attack. On the flipside, popping Heat early can provide serious momentum, and so the choice is always important.
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Making these snap decisions is where Tekken 8 shines, and the mechanical depth that's on offer — especially as you learn the intricacies of your chosen character's move list — is engrossing. The basics of Tekken are still here and they're still as dynamic as ever, with high, mid, and low attacks all intertwining with one another, but the Heat system encourages a kind of aggression that you'd typically associate with explosive 2D fighters like Guilty Gear or BlazBlue.
That's not to say Tekken 8 can't be played at a slower pace, but there are more ways to pressure your opponent's defence than ever before. And in turn, having to stand up against such onslaughts makes the eventual read all the sweeter. A perfectly timed sidestep, low block, or parry, leading straight into your own launcher and high damage combo, feels fantastic. In some ways, there's a heavier emphasis on risk versus reward in Tekken 8, which often leads to some truly intense matches.
But what if multilayered systems and mechanics aren't necessarily a selling point? Well, the good news is that Tekken 8 is easily the series' most accessible instalment. Right off the bat, the game will ask if you want to enable 'Special Style' controls, which lets newcomers perform key moves and combos with simplified inputs. Special Style certainly isn't going to carry you all the way to competitive glory, but it provides a fairly effective route to understanding the overall rhythm of Tekken's gameplay. Even better, you can actually toggle Special Style on and off, in-game, during a fight — a great learning tool when you're trying to familiarise yourself with different characters.
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Speaking of learning, Tekken 8's headline single-player modes — The Dark Awakens story campaign and Arcade Quest — are on hand to ease you into the experience. Arcade Quest in particular is a perfect introduction, as it combines a fun little storyline about rising through the arcade and tournament scene with neatly crafted tutorial sections.
Arcade Quest isn't quite the single-player time sink that we were hoping it would be, however. The mode's enjoyable while it lasts, as your custom avatar travels between arcades, taking on increasingly challenging opponents in search of unique customisation items and in-game rewards — but the adventure's only a few hours long. Once you've shown your comically stern rival who's boss, there's little left to do outside of rematching previous opponents.
Thankfully, Arcade Quest is also your gateway to Super Ghost Battle, which is the real star of the game's single-player suite. In this mode, you can take on 'ghosts' — AI-driven fighters that are based on real player data. In essence, you're kind of playing against other people, but offline, and beating ghosts nets you in-game currency and ranking points for your current character. If you're not quite ready to jump online, Super Ghost Battle is the place to be, and you can easily lose hours to the grind.
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Initially, Super Ghost Battle offers up a huge roster of ghosts based on developer data, but you can also fight against your own ghost, or download ghosts of other Tekken players — including friends, randoms, and seasoned pros. Now, it's important to note that ghosts aren't one-to-one copies of their originators, but at times, they come impressively close. Even just taking your own ghost for a spin, you'll immediately spot similarities in movement, attack patterns, and combos. Supposedly, the AI will only get better as players sink more time into the game — and that's quite exciting, given how reactive it already seems to be.
So what about Tekken 8's much-touted story mode? Well, we can safely say it's far better than Tekken 7's attempt, as the series' most absurd elements are dialled up to eleven. The plot hinges heavily on troubled protagonist Jin Kazama and his apparent inability to control his dark powers — all while his tyrannical father Kazuya plunges the world into chaos. It's one of those fighting game storylines that relies on prior knowledge of the franchise, but honestly, even if you're completely new to Tekken, you could just sit back and have fun watching the ridiculous action unfold.
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The storytelling's cliche and often unapologetically stupid, but that's sort of what we want from Tekken anyway. The plot points are so over-the-top that trying to play things straight is how we ended up with Tekken 7's awkward campaign. What we have here is around five hours of devil-on-devil madness, complete with some shockingly hype cinematics and beyond flashy boss battles. If we're going to rate Tekken story modes based on moments of pure fan service and awesome action, Tekken 8's offering wins by a country mile.
Oh, and we have to quickly mention the Character Stories, which mark another big improvement over Tekken 7. Here, each of the game's 32 characters get their own mini arcade mode (a proper Arcade Mode also exists), capped off with a unique CG movie at the end. Some are played for laughs — as you'd expect — while others offer a bit of insight into the fighters themselves. They're fun to unlock, and they harken back to the good old days of collecting all of the arcade endings.
Of course, when you've had your fill of battering the CPU, it's time to jump online. For the first time in series history, Tekken 8 features an online lobby, where avatars fight at arcade machines, send messages, download ghost data, and play a few rounds of Tekken Ball (which is back and somehow even more brutal). You can queue for casual matches or show your skills in ranked duels — or you can just set up your own avatar-less lobby for quick battles against friends or otherwise. Aside from a few pre-launch connection issues, it all works great, and in terms of online options, it's much more robust than anything Tekken's done before.
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But online modes are nothing without solid netcode, and so we're happy to report that, based on our testing, Tekken 8's rollback functionality is rock solid. Playing against others here in the UK, we barely dropped a frame, while taking the fight to Europe resulted in mostly seamless matches. It didn't really have much of a choice, but Bandai Namco appears to have delivered a high quality online experience — and that's a huge deal after years of dodgy Tekken 7 connections. We'll obviously have to wait and see how things hold up post-launch, but right now, it's looking very promising.
Conclusion
Tekken 8 is a modern fighting game masterclass. It doesn't skimp on single-player modes, its online offering is robust, and it's a serious visual spectacle. But most importantly, the battles are brilliant; accessible yet deeply technical, and supremely satisfying to be a part of — perhaps more so than ever before. There's no fighting game series quite like Tekken, and Tekken 8 is the franchise at its bombastic best.
Comments 70
As someone who's been playing Tekken for roughly 25 years, I've been very excited to post this review!
If anyone's got any questions about the game, just let me know and I'll try to answer them.
Pros: One of the best fighting games out there
Cons: Eddy as paid DLC
I do not play online so I just can't justify shelling out full price for fighting games on release with the limited amount of time I end up spending on them. I did it with Tekken 7 and it was one of my rare regretful purchases so I will check this out when it hits the $20-30 range, awesome as it may be
Wish I was still into fighting games but I'm just not. Loved tekken back in the ps1/2 days.
Glad it's a banger for those that love the genre.
Is the little dinosaur in it
Both Street Fighter and Tekken getting great new entries? It's like the 90s all over again.
Great review, your enthusiasm comes across well in the text
@ShogunRok do you think their is potential for them to add the team battle for Tekken 8 down the line as DLC/a free update? I feel like it would make sense if they are going to have this game around for as long as Tekken 7. That mode was amazing in Tekken Tag Tournament.
Also amazing Review, can't wait to play this game.
@ShogunRok as someone who owns both Sf6 and Mk1 ,do you think tekken is different enough to warrant another fighting game purchase ? Tekken was the first game I bought on the ps1 ,so it holds a special place in my gaming heart.
@johncalmc And does he do the farting move?
@QBGaming12 I wouldn't count it out. Tekken 7 got some big updates and much more DLC than was initially planned, so I would assume Bandai Namco has big plans for Tekken 8's ongoing support. Fingers crossed!
@Mephisto2869 Tekken's a fully 3D fighting game, so even on just a fundamental level, it feels a lot different to play than SF or MK. I would immediately recommend Tekken 8 if you enjoy fighting games — it's an excellent example of the genre.
I suppose it really just depends on whether you have the time. Playing multiple different fighting games at once can be tricky!
@JohnnyShoulder @johncalmc Sadly not, but with the amount of people who ask if Gon's still in Tekken, I actually think Bandai Namco could justify getting the rights to use the character again.
@johncalmc @JohnnyShoulder @ShogunRok
People, people... 'No unfortunately not... He's Gon'
So is the single player good as stated as a positive here. Or not so good as it’s a negative over on purexbox
@ShogunRok as someone who's not played one of these much since Tekken 3, how easy do you think it will be to get back into? Street Fighter 6 did an amazing job for newcomers and lapsed players in getting them up and running.
Overall I do prefer fully 3D fighters and am a big Virtua Fighter fan but want to get back into this series
>No team battle
Thank you for highlighting this in your review.
WHY DOES HARADA HATE ME SO MUCH.
Probably wait for this to drop in price some. Not bc of quality or lack of desire but bc the volume of unplayed games I have.
@carlos82 I think this is arguably the best point to get back into Tekken. It's the most accessible it's ever been, the training mode is the best it's ever been, and modes like Arcade Quest ease you into the systems really well.
The last Tekken I played was Tekken Tag Tournament. This could be my first one in forever to play again, looks like a solid game!
@ShogunRok cheers mate,I'll pick it up at some point,will probably wait for a bit of a discount.
Got it pre-ordered and just waiting for the pre load to get on and start. I grew up with Tekken 2 and the fact Jun is finally back after all this time has made this GOTY for me.
@ShogunRok sounds good to me, I've even got an adapter ready for my arcade stick to be compatible
@ShogunRok I've a blast playing GG with my bro through crossplay, because he's on PC.
is there a crossplay in Tekken 8 ?
@ShogunRok How good is the cosmetic side compared to outright insulting offerings of MK1 and SF6?
I really loved the demo when I played it a few weeks back. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy.
Great to hear, the best fighting game franchise just keeps on rocking! Can't wait to play in a few!
@Blacksmith1985 Yep, full crossplay between all platforms.
@DennisReynolds The customisation system is really good. There are loads of items to unlock with in-game money (which is easy to get, both online and offline), and you can fully customise the colours of clothing. You can also adjust accessories.
I've been playing the demo and it's great. Played a bit of Tekken 7 today and realised how much slower it is, Tekken 8 is snappy and the battles more technical. The counters move more fluid and it has a much faster rhythm.
@ShogunRok - how's the balancing between the characters? I had the CNT and it was quite unbalanced, but I take it that's been sorted now?
No Heihachi, hard pass for me
@ShogunRok Great review! As a fellow long-time Tekken fan (I probably played Tekken 3 more than anything else on PS1) I'm glad this entry meets your approval.
Question about the practice mode: how would you say it stacks up compared to Tekken 7 and especially Street Fighter 6? Maybe I misunderstood, but I heard there are "sample combos" now. Are these akin to SF trials?
Ghost mode sounds interesting, I'll have to give that a try.
Have played Tekken since my Japanese import of the original back in 1994. So as a Tekken vet, I am excite!
@Blofse Yeah, I think it's more balanced than the network tests. Based on what I've played, I'd say it feels quite well balanced overall, but you never quite know how characters will shake out until more people have the game. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two characters turn out to be trouble, at least early on, but I suppose that's just the nature of modern fighting games.
@ShogunRok Thanks that's good to here.
@Melee_Ace The practice mode is really, really good. You can set up specific situations and replay them over and over until you're happy. You can even replay parts of matches with the replay feature and try different things to see what works.
And yeah, there are combo challenges for every character. You get special profile customisations for beating them.
Roll on Friday. This might just be the first game that gets me to pay for online sub with Playstation.
Glad to see tekken 8 got a 9.tekken is a iconic fighting franchises.word up son
The mention of Tekken takes me back to my childhood. Tekken 3 was amazing. But is this game even better?
Meaning is this Tekken the best of all time, or would Tekken 3 still stand as the seminal entry!?
Gotta rotate with Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, King of Fighters 15, and Samurai Shodown. I don’t need anymore fighting games. 😂
Very excited to give this a go. I came onboard the Tekken train with Tekken 3. Unfortunately the modern $70 MSRP is still a steep asking price, so I'll probably purchase at a discount and when Eddy is available. As an aside, I can't get past how hideous and out of place these avatars are 🤔
Friday can't come soon enough 😁
Pre-ordered this as I haven't played the series since 3.
I will definitely be getting this after at least the first price drop it gets, $70 is too much for a fighting game that will probably have lots of season passes.
Yes yes yes! Hyped for the best fighting game franchise there is (there is simply no match for me), and I can't wait to play with my favourite characters! Glad it's reviewing well
@EfYI Tekken 3 was incredible for its time, but the series has evolved a lot since then in terms of systems and mechanics. Tekken 7 was the best-playing Tekken ever, in my opinion, and 8 is even better.
I am excited for this game! When it is complete, I'll be all over it.
@johncalmc @Faenor @ShogunRok Gon Baby Gon
Hell yeah, can't wait for this!
Oh man, it feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this! I cannot wait to play this all weekend long! It’s been ages since Tekken has been this exciting.
Really want this for ps5 but no way I'm paying for the game and expensive ps+ sub for one game. Will likely do PC
Thanks for the review! Can't wait to get my hands on this newest title in the TK franchise.
@EfYI tekken 5 is better than 3
Next Gen. Wait, I need to wait for the PS6?
Would like this but i just suck at Tekken. SF or MK... no problem but ive always struggled to get my head around Tekken. I just find it hard and awkward. The demo disnt change my mind either.
I'm getting the collector's edition. Really hope that this will overtake Tekken 5 as the best Tekken game.
A poor substitute for Virtua Fighter, but VF doesn't really have any players left, at least not in Europe, so, ehh, I guess I'll play it. I just hope the gameplay doesn't consist of mostly looking at loading screens anymore. (The rematches are nice and quick, but I don't really do a lot of rematches.)
The first con isn't one. This isn't Tag Tournament, it's Tekken 8.
And with these graphics, Tag would have been more difficult I guess.
>Still no team battle mode
That honestly seem rather silly to put. That belong with Tekken Tag. Not in this. But that said, great review otherwise and glad to see Tekken 8 improved much more over Tekken 7!
@rawzeku @Nintendo4Sonic he's referring to Team Battle mode in earlier Tekken games. Upto 8 v 8 sequentially, not tag. You fight 1 v 1 lose or win another battle starts, the losers character is replaced the winner carries on with the character at the same HP. Street Fighter 6 has a 5 player team battle as an example and its a great mode.
@themcnoisy alright, I understand.
Man, mid-90's teenage me would be all over the current Tekken and Street Fighter resurgence.
Shame I cant get the same resurgence with my reactions and hand/eye co-ordination
Anyhoo.. Enjoy people, sounds like a great game!
I was very impressed by the demo, HUGE improvement over Tekken 7, a return to form.
Great review. Got my copy today, had the day off work and spent a decent amount of time playing it. I don't want to be prisoner of the moment so I'll refrain from giving a definitive opinion on the game for now but as a fan of this series, it's delivering.
why does it look like fireworks are going off every time somebody hits someone?
So far it's great.
Now how about a new Ridge Racer Namco ...
@hypnotoad
Would be awesome, but that ship has probably sailed, sadly.
Had a banger of a time with this one already playing with my friends, Tekken has never felt quite this good. The audio visual leap from the last installement is gigantic, every character's just oozing with personality.
Been playing this on pc and I have mortal kombat 1 and street fighter for ps5. But I must say to me tekken and street fighter are the winners this round. The rushed mortal kombat 1 with slowed paced kombat and character models besides the females is a horrible and step back from 11.
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