Tekken 8 tech preview: the first fighting game based on Unreal Engine 5

As 2023 comes to a close, I think it’s fair to say that the fighting game genre is in a great spot. Capcom and NetherRealm both launched stellar new entries in their respective franchises this year, with Street Fighter 6 in particular righting the wrongs of the previous numbered entry. In January of 2024, Bandi-Namco will unleash Tekken 8 – and I’ve played a near-final version of the game at an event, so I wanted to share my initial thoughts. This the first new fighting game to ship on Unreal Engine 5 while also skipping last-gen consoles and the Switch – so how does it fare thus far?

During my time with Tekken 8, I had a chance to play several different modes including the story mode, the arcade quest mode and Tekken Ball – more than what’s available in the publicly available demo. As feature-packed as Street Fighter 6 and MK1 are, there’s a sense that Tekken 8 might still have the most to offer.

Based on the first chapter of the story mode, this section feels like a natural evolution of what was achieved in Tekken 7 via a formula arguably pioneered in Mortal Kombat 9. That is to say that cutscenes and event sequences are used to chain together battles to tell a larger story.