Tekken 7 Review

Here’s a fun fact: Tekken 7 is actually the ninth addition to the main Tekken series, not the seventh. And it’s hands down the best one thus far, which is saying something.

The Tekken franchise has been going strong for 23 years and counting. And Bandai has managed to improve its original highly-technical fighting game formula with each new iteration. Over the years, Tekken has evolved into one of the most sophisticated and complex one-on-one fighters to date.

If you like winning by skill and skill alone — without any of the button-mashing cheapness found in so many other games — Tekken 7 will feel like kung-fu perfection in your hands.

Taking the high road

Tekken 7 takes the fundamentals of its predecessors to the next level. While others fighters (like Mortal Kombat) have considerably overhauled their foundational elements to drive demand, Tekken 7 has taken the high road. It has not scrapped the basics in favor of fancy mid-fight cinematics. Instead, it has built on them to create a truly seamless and action-packed experience. It feels like the old arcade versions and yet still somehow completely new. It embodies everything that has made the series so successful and yet looks toward the future at the same time.

Gameplay

The game’s classic yet modern vibe is largely a product of Bandai pushing the game’s graphics to a new plateau with the Unreal Engine and adding what are arguably its coolest features — Rage Art and Power Crush. Unlike its older siblings, Tekken 7 includes a brand new set of special moves that enhance the player’s critical damage at low health and allows them to attack through the opponent’s punches and kicks. These two small but highly influential additions shake up the classic Tekken formula just enough to make the game feel even more exciting when a fight gets down to the wire.

When you win by an extremely narrow margin, you know it’s because you’ve bested than your opponent skill-wise, and it feels beyond rewarding. That’s the true joy of every one of the Tekken games, and with its lightning-fast pace and hyperactive controls, Tekken 7 delivers on that feeling of hard-earned victory on a higher level of intensity than many of the other mainstream fighters currently on the market.