Tekken 8 feels like returning home. A bit of a cringe opener, I know, but across my 40 hours spent with this game for this review I couldn’t help but feel like I was being reunited with an old friend; a series I adore so dearly. Tekken is freakin’ back, baby, and I couldn’t be happier.
It’s a game so rife with nostalgia transitioning from cinematics to inducing moments yet manages to bundle them together into this incredibly approachable, newbie-friendly package. It’s a far cry from the bare-bones experience that was its predecessor—Tekken 8 is truly the next generation of fighters, a bombastic showdown that you should absolutely witness now matter how long it’s been since you last peeped into a King of Iron Fist Tournament.
Tekken 8’s nostalgic vibes feel deliberate. It’s going all-in on its story—called The Dark Awakens—building up to a dramatic conclusion to the war between Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima.
It’s such a fitting culmination, one that genuinely shocked me at how good it actually is. The story mode is fantastically paced,
