TEKKEN 7

Pros

• Introduces many new characters
• Keeps traditional gameplay mechanics
• Allows music customization
• Extremely smooth fight animations

Cons

• Requires button mashing
• Controls need to be configured
• Some characters must be unlocked

Tekken 7 is a fighting game that tells the story of the final chapter in a feud between different martial artists that has lasted for over 20 years.

All of your favorite characters from previous releases are here. If you've mastered Hwoarang, Forest Law or Ganryu, then you shouldn't have any difficulty picking up the game and playing it like a practiced master. You'll soon find that you know all of the moves that you've been pulling off on the console versions for years. While the controls are slightly different, especially if you're playing with a keyboard, you'll find that the game itself doesn't necessarily differ too much from any of the console releases that have come out over the years.

This is good news for those who don't have much experience with Tekken as well. If you were to learn to play Tekken 7 as your first game in the title, then you could go back and figure out any of the others based on intuition. You might end up missing all of the new characters that were recently added, however.

Check out Akuma, for instance, who is a dark master of Satsui no hado. He was added as a crossover from the Street Fighter universe, and players can fight against him as the final boss if they make certain moves in the game's elaborate story mode.

A number of other characters were added on top of this. Fahkumram is a legendary Muay Thai champion who wants to free his family from a series of corrupt officials that you'll meet in the single player mode. Gigas introduces cybernetics to the story and even a demonic version of Mishima Kazumi shows up.

Perhaps the most interesting inclusion is Geese Howard. That's the same Howard you probably already know as the crime boss of South Town from games like King of Fighters and Fatal Fury. They've ported over everything about his character, including his unique hakkyokuseiken-based fighting style. The design team also worked on bringing in some additional real world martial arts, including Savate and Wing Chun-style Kung Fu.

Outside of the storyline, not much has changed and that's a good thing for anyone who prefers to enjoy a traditional Tekken experience. When the first game was released, critics were quick to point out that each fist and foot of a character was tied to a single button. This made it easy to time attacks and take out opponents with well-placed combos.

This title continues that tradition by giving gamers the opportunity to carry out devastating moves against their enemies by using a single foot or fist at a time. While this is really designed with controllers in mind, those who prefer to fight with a traditional keyboard shouldn't have too much difficulty with it.

For instance, some players remap the movement controls to their WASD keys. They could then tell Tekken 7 to map End, Delete, Home and Insert to various attacks. While it's not an ideal solution, the fact that the game makes this at all possible shows that the developers were dedicated to developing a well-rounded product that should please those who invest in mechanical keyboards and other pieces of gaming technology.

Players from this demographic should also find that their accelerated graphics adapters work perfectly with Tekken 7. The game's frantic action can sometimes make fights look like little more than a sudden burst of light, which speaks volumes about how hard the engineers must have worked to port this title over to the PC platform.

Those who have a special graphics card or dedicated external GPU will find that they can run Tekken 7 nearly in true HD. In fact, some players could even output fights over their HDMI adapter and enjoy all of the action on a big screen.

They'll also get an opportunity to enjoy all of the work that was put into the character models. Some of the new characters are based on colorful pieces of artwork that shouldn't be enjoyed any other way.

For instance, Lucky Chloe is a freestyle dancer that wears a costume based on those worn by some in the Japanese pop music scene. Negan, from Walking Dead fame, includes all of the accouterments that someone from his series should have. You'll be able to see these small details when you upconvert the resolution of the game.

Gamers who don't mind installing DLC packs will get to enjoy other crossovers, including an appearance from Noctis Lucius Caelum. While it might seem unusual to include a Final Fantasy XV character in this title, Tekken 7 packed in so many different characters that none of them should really appear jarring at all.

In fact, there's a good chance that you might want to add in more.

Pros

• Introduces many new characters
• Keeps traditional gameplay mechanics
• Allows music customization
• Extremely smooth fight animations

Cons

• Requires button mashing
• Controls need to be configured
• Some characters must be unlocked