Bringing a gun to a fist fight
Ah, Tekken. A stalwart fighting game franchise that takes a licking and keeps on ticking. A mysterious game that’s simultaneously serious and goofy at the same time.
This is a melodramatic game that follows the story of a family line that continuously dicks their children over and over in bids for power, while also starring characters such as wrestlers in jaguar masks, panda bears, boxing kangaroos, and a mannequin made of logs.
Keep in mind this is Tekken number 7. People have long-running attachments to characters and the way Tekken plays represents the bygone era of the 3D fighter. In a world where the mind share is dominated by Street Fighter and even Guilty Gear or Marvel, Tekken stands alone now as the defacto 3D fighting game, complete with sidesteps and almost endless juggle combos.
So what are your thoughts now that this game which has spent years exclusively in Japanese arcades is finally in your hands? How do you feel about the direction the Mishima saga is going? And no mention of the Mishimas is complete without bringing up Akuma’s canon involvement with them. Are you going nuts with the character customization? Putting pizza backpacks on your Pauls and Laws? And where are you on the Tekken spectrum? Me, I’ve never been a Tekken guy, but I recognize the significance of 7 finally arriving on western shores.
Leave a comment below to share you experience with Tekken 7 (now with hopefully fixed netcode as I’ve heard). Here are what some of our community members are saying.
Nanashi dreams of a Virtua Fighter world:
I like it. And even though my guy Lei isn’t in the roster, I can say this makes me very happy for the future of 3D fighting games seeing as it’s quite popular and hyped up. That’s two good ones on the PS4 I can think of. Hopefully it could mean… one day…. A fucking VF6.
Mike Sounders is on board with recognizing the strongest martial art:
That there aren’t enough pics of Akuma using a gun floating around.
GatlingCombo has an ironic name for talking on Tekken:
Fortunately the main thing I love about Tekken 7 is the combat system. It is less juggly then 6, has a few more stage interaction moments, and the rage abilities aren’t hard to pull off. They can easily be stringed with other combos also. I really really love the fighting in Tekken 7. I will agree that you’ll be googling what the fuck some of the rage attacks actually do because the game only tells you randomly during loading screens.
I thought it was cool (and funny) how they made several characters a little more fabulous. My main Feng Wei has gauntlets with chains dangling from them as if he ripped them off of somewhere, as well as a fashionable scarf because yeah. And Hwaorang wears a jacket Kanji style.
Now for the stuff I hate. Tekken 7 has the worse music out of the Tekken series. I get that some people like dubstep, but like most dubstep, there isn’t much creative being done with it in this game. The character roster confuses me a bit with Bruce, Lei, and others missing for lame reasons. Nitpick: the hair effects and customization SUCKS, and the game doesn’t look much different than 6 to me. The stages are lame and boring also compared to 3-6.
Retrofraction is on the Switch boat but forgot to get a ticket for the Tekken boat:
I have yet to play it, looks great. But I will probably need a Switch port before I can play it.
Fenriff loves what he can’t understand:
The mechanics and fighting are fun, and the cast is varied and enjoyable, but the complete lack of any way for people to learn how it works is a huge oversight. The story mode was ridiculous in a good way up until the end, when it started making dumb ways to up the difficulty, and the fact that the story of this entry doesn’t even actually finish. The character episodes were a big disappointment for the most part, being both short and completely throwaway. The online is totally fucked. The arcade mode may as well not exist, though that’s not much of a problem because Treasure Battle helps make up for it.
It’s a weird scenario, because at its core it’s a great time, but there are also a lot of obvious oversights/issues.
OrochiLeona is haunted by the specter of Street Fighter V:
It’s great, comfortably fills a SFV-sized hole of disappointment. Not too much has changed, but Tekken rarely changes. It could do with a bit more meat on it’s features, maybe a tutorial for new players, or some combo trials for each character.
My only real regret are the *awful* character endings. Previous games have really creative and entertaining 3-4 minute movies, but T7‘s are short and thoroughly dull.
I have it on PC, out of interest, it’s a very solid port.
