TEKKEN 7 Review

For nearly 20 years TEKKEN has dominated the fighting game arena, and with its latest instalment, TEKKEN 7, things aren’t looking to be any different. There’s no denying that we’ve all played at least one fighting game before and TEKKEN would most likely be in a lot of gamer’s top 10 lists. For me, TEKKEN has always been a staple and somewhat of a landmark game in my gaming life, so it’s definitely one of my favourites.

In TEKKEN 7 the Mishima family are at it again, in a feud that has spanned over twenty years and would put the Skywalkers to shame. This family feud has been the main premise for the TEKKEN franchise, a constant struggle for power via the King of Iron Fist Tournament.

The story for TEKKEN 7 sees things becoming a little bit more involved and urgent, I guess you could say. The world is a war zone after the events of TEKKEN 6 and honestly you’d need a degree in K-drama and a few hours spare to understand all the backstory involved.

The new story mode is a slight diversion from the original format. In TEKKEN 7, the story mode is split up into 14 chapters which see you play through the main story as specific characters for each chapter. Also available is some character specific side stories which need to be selected separately from the story mode menu. The story is tied together with seamless CG and cut scene transitions and feels rather well polished, although the voice over narration tends to come off a little 1950’s B-grade detective at times. The story isn’t going to blow you out of the water here or hit the heights of Injustice 2, but it doesn’t need to and it’s not trying to. This is TEKKEN and honestly it does more than enough by staying true to itself.

With a new game comes new features, the biggest news for players in this regard comes in the form of a feature called ‘RageArt’. This is a massive large scale attack which can only be performed when your health bar reaches critical levels. For players who remember Soul Calibur V it’s a bit like the move Critical Edge. Whilst in Soul Calibur the move felt a bit hit or miss, in TEKKEN 7 Rage Art is a complete hit (if you manage to use it correctly). It will take you a few attempts to figure out how best to use RageArt (ideally in a combo as they can be blocked fairly easily and you’re generally in a panic the first time you attempt one), but once mastered they quickly become a very useful tool.

One of the best things about TEKKEN has to be the insane depth of customisation on offer. From the various levels of character customisation to profile customisation options, there’s no shortage of things to unlock. And what better way to do that than with my new favourite game mode outside of the core story, Treasure Battle! Treasure Battle is essentially a never ending horde mode but for fighting games and it’s actually a real delight to play. In Treasure Battle you will fight your way through waves of different fighters to unlock glorious, glorious treasure. With each win you will unlock bonuses such as experience, money, and objects used for customisation.

Other game modes include an online mode, which offers you the ability to play casual and ranked. This is always nice for those of us not wanting to be so competitive. However, sadly missing from the line up this time around is Team Battle which I’m personally sad to see left off the game select menu. The same goes for Survival mode, which some might argue is replaced quite well by Treasure Battle.