The greatest fighting series of all time re-emerges with its signature elite mechanics, but lacks the content and depth needed to really get excited
The Iron Fist Tournament is back, and it's looking sexier and more jacked than ever before
SPOILERS
I love that I can revisit this franchise after nearly 10 years and still dig out the same filthy moves I've been using since I was a kid. It’s like riding a bicycle. Straight in with Law and I immediately unleash the mandatory double cartwheel kick on some helpless first Dan. King’s double footer, Yoshimitsu’s suicide sword blow, Jack’s flying drop kick, Paul’s mega punch, and of course, Devil Kazuya’s flying laser beam eyes—it's all still there, as if I’m that same 12-year-old lad slapping the shit out of any younger brother that dares to pick up the second controller.
I dove straight into Arcade mode, which features a new social tournament concept that, unfortunately, is poorly executed and lacks many positive aspects. The dialogue is atrocious, the Wii character design laughable, and in the end, I completed the entire mode in just four hours, losing battles only twice. Way too easy and unsatisfying. It felt like a mode designed for newcomers to Tekken, and to be fair, they did a commendable job with the tutorial modes in that respect.
On to Story mode then, which promised more substance and the potential for tougher battles. With the hardest difficulty turned on, again I was once again left very disappointed. I completed everything in another single four-hour sitting, with 90% of the battles feeling like a complete walk in the park. I know I’m skilled at Tekken, but I definitely peaked in the mid-2000s around the age of 21. My gaming fingers and mind are mere shadows of what they once were, so this game should definitely be putting up more of a fight than it did.
Battling Kazuya multiple times was epic though, whether in his normal or devil form. Those fights were intense and required numerous rounds for me to snatch victory. The showdown between Reina and True Devil Kazuya was especially hard, taking every ounce of skill and luck to get through it—what an infuriating set of combos he had! The final fight between Jin and Kazuya was also intense and farily epic, as we relentlessly beat the shit out of each other until, finally, after the 10,000th punch, Kazuya lay defeated and shamed.
The story is quite bad and nonsensical, featuring a lot of generic and repetitive dialogue. However, it does possess a fun atmosphere, and the graphics and cutscenes are visually stunning, significantly enhancing the overall experience. I understand that Tekken has never taken itself too seriously, but how difficult would it be to make the narrative at least as engaging and sensical as your average anime? Can anyone explain why Jin, after spending five games attempting to kill Kazuya, finally knocks him out only to casually walk away? Snap his neck and toss him into the ocean, you absolute helmet.
The fundamental battle mechanics are still top class but the modern additons are questionable. The heat system is fine, but I could do without it; ultimately, it is a basic version of what many other fighting games have executed more effectively. The air combos enable players to easily spam basic buttons, allowing them to juggle you endlessly, and the rage-art is the ultimate get-out-of jail-free card that cheapens the struggle of grasping victory from the jaws of defeat, making it unsatisfying to use.
After such a long hiatus, one would expect the game to return with a plethora of fresh ideas, but no additional content, depth, or complexity was injected into the game to make you feel excited or satisfied with the final product. When I saw Devil Jin and Devil Kazuya battling in the air during one of the cutscenes, I thought, this could be an amazing opportunity to introduce aerial combat, which unfortunately was not the case. The few new characters are decent but fail to stand out, and several classic characters are either missing or locked behind a paywall. The maps also feel somewhat underwhelming and limited, while the new knockout zones are rudimentary. They did add Tekken Ball (great), but there is no Tekken Force or Tekken Bowl. If the two main game modes can be completed in under ten hours, I would argue that more content is needed. Even the inclusion of game settings that allow for Tag mode, tournament mode, or other interesting match combinations would have been appreciated.
Ghost mode is genius, I'll give them credit for that. Battling an AI that has been trained on your own performances, or those of a friend, is an excellent way to train and become an absolute Tekken badass. Shame I have no friends to play with, and with local split-screen—a once essential feature of fighting games—still absen anyway, I found myself playing against random opponents online. Those matches to be fair, produced some exhilarating moments, and often pushed me to my limits. The victories were glorious, and the defeats were maddening.
It is worth mentioning the music, which is exactly how you'd imagine a Tekken game in 2023 might sound . Intense versions of dubstep, drum & bass, hard trance, and psy-trance can be heard, which, as a lover of each of these genres, can confirm a pretty obnoxious and generic execution. I will admit that the battle in space, accompanied by the epic cinematic turned DnB music, was cool, and elevated the fight. However, I still consider Tekken Tag 2 and Tekken 3 to be the benchmarks for a killer OST, noting that they provide intensity but also subtlety— a quality that is sorely lacking in this edition's soundtrack
VERDICT
Despite some moments of joy and challenge, the base game is far too easy and lacking in content. After a long wait, we get a fairly straightforward Tekken game that doesn’t make a statement about its direction in the modern era. After 25 years, I was eager for more than just the same exceptional battle mechanics and classic characters, but found no vision trying to take the game in new directions, or offer greater substance and depth in the story or additional modes. Nevertheless, the core fighting mechanics remain unparalleled and despite my personal reservations about Rage Art, the online mode is intense, well-balanced, and pushes you to your limits.
RATING BREAKDOWN
Gameplay
70
Visuals:
78
Story:
48
Music / Sound:
63
FINAL
MOOD
