ROUND 8 FIGHT!

Tekken 8 is a blend of nostalgia for fans and a pair of welcoming arms for newbies.

- MOLLIE TAYLOR

Tekken 8

Tekken 8 feels like returning home.

It's a bit of a cringe opener, I know but across my 40 hours spent with this game for this review I couldn't help but feel like I was being reunited with an old friend, a series I adore so dearly. Tekken is back and I couldn't be happier! It's a game so rife with nostalgia-inducing moments yet manages to bundle them together into this incredibly approachable, newbie-friendly package. It's a far cry from the bare-bones experience that was its predecessor - Tekken 8 is truly the next generation of fighters, a bombastic showdown you should absolutely witness no matter how long it has been since you last peeped into a King of Iron Fist Tournament.

Tekken 8's nostalgic vibes feel deliberate. It's going all in on its story -called The Dark Awakens - building to a dramatic end to the war between Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima.

It's such a fitting culmination, one that genuinely shocked me in how good it actually is. The story mode is fantastically paced, seamlessly transitioning from cinematics to fights across its numerous chapters.

The cutscenes are also beautifully animated, going for some huge-ass anime-scale fights, which were rad to watch. Some chapters even diverge from the standard "cinematic into fight" formula - such as one that turns the game into an old-school Tekken Force-style brawler - which made sure it never got too monotonous.

Dialogue and translations can be a bit shaky and stiff at times but it's one of the more cohesive stories Tekken has spat out.

Tekken 8's story is filled with little call-backs to previous games and references that long-time fans will absolutely eat up.