Tekken 8 review – 3D fighter packs more punch than ever

It's been almost 30 years since the original Tekken burst into arcades to face off against Sega's Virtua Fighter and kickstart a decade-long battle for 3D fighting supremacy. Arriving on PlayStation, the game's smooth, detailed 3D visuals, arresting characters and accessible four-button control system brought a new generation of fans to the fighting game genre, and subsequent instalments have built on those solid credentials, although not always with the same impact. While Tekken 7 was subtle step forward rewarding committed players, Tekken 8 feels like the first iteration in a long while to truly up its ambitions and entice newcomers. The result is a thrillingly vibrant video game. For the uninitiated, Tekken 8 is the latest in a series of fighting games by arcade legend Namco, in which a group of gloriously ostentatious warriors compete to win the King of Iron Fist tournament in one-on-one battles in an enclosed arena. Players fight against successively tougher computer-controlled opponents in Arcade and Story modes or against each other in local or online Versus bouts.