Tekken 7, the seventh entry in the decades old arcade and home console fighting saga, attempts to differentiate from the other new fighting games released in the past month by including an oddball story and creative characters. Unfortunately, the game does not do enough to stand out.
The Tekken franchise as a whole has been struggling on home systems in recent years, and this new entry does not seem to add enough new features to reclaim fighting game fans’ attention. These fans have had a lot of interesting, high quality releases so far this year, such as Injustice 2 and the impending release of Arms, so another AAA release can easily be buried under these superior titles.
While Tekken 7 does not necessarily have any glaring flaws to draw gamers away, it simply does not have enough unique traits to bring to the table to keep gamers interested. The stages are fine and the fighters are well balanced and varied, but the game lacks the focus and uniqueness to make it in the diverse cut-throat genre of fighting games. Perhaps a full arcade release or a large community tournament could make Tekken 7 a hit, but for now it just marks a slump in the aging fighting franchise.