Unfortunately, minor gameplay refinements aside, Tekken 7 settles on being not much more than a re-skinned, prettier version of Tekken 6.

After such a long layoff, one would expect Tekken 7 to feel fresh and exciting. While it’s only been a few years since Tekken Tag Tournament 2arrived, it’s been almost seven since the last canonical entry in the franchise, Tekken 6, came to consoles. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s a bit disappointing that, after such a long wait, the overall experience feels too familiar.

However, besides a few, albeit welcome, adjustments, Tekken 7 is still Tekken. On a purely mechanical level, Tekken 7 is a deep, strategic fighter, with new visuals that benefit from new, more powerful hardware. To say that Tekken 7 has deep combat would be an understatement. There’s not enough here to keep those outside of the serious fighting game bubble occupied. This version of the game takes Fated Retribution, and adds a single-player story mode and other features to provide the most comprehensive version of the Tekken 7 experience. Tekken 7 launched in Japanese arcades in 2015, followed by an updated arcade version, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution. Like all entries in the long-running series, this Tekken 7 is actually an enhanced port version of a fairly long-standing arcade game. To its credit, the game is still approachable for casual fans thanks to its arcade roots. Heihachi Mishima, a series favorite, has 78, in addition to a large assortment of (sometimes) incredibly complex combo strings. It’s okay, this happens in a game where each character has more than 50 named moves - many more when counting combos. You’ll look down at your controller, rack your brain trying to remember what combination of buttons you inadvertently pressed, and, inevitably, pause the game to check your move list. Unless you’re a fighting pro (and even if you are), chances are that at some point you will try to input a certain move in Tekken 7, but instead of watching the attack play out on screen, your fighter will do something you haven’t seen before.

Classes of tekken 7