After being canceled in 2020 and turning into a summer-long digital tourney in 2021, EVO is back in full force this year. The fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada drew players in from around the world. Between the hype matches and floor festivities was a slew of announcements. Multiple fighting games are getting rollback netcode, and theFatal Furyseries is finally picking back up with asequel toGarou: Mark of the Wolves. It was a great time for players and spectators alike, and it feels good to have EVO back. Out of all these announcements, the latestTekkennews stood out.
This announcement came after theTekken 7Grand Finals on Sunday afternoon, and initially took the form of a casual update trailer.Tekken 7was confirmed to be getting a balance update this month, and the Tekken World Tour 2022 Global Finals will be held next February. However, the trailer started with an Unreal Engine logo and Bandai Namco’s redesigned logo. When the trailer concluded, Kazuya Mishima’s originalTekkenmodel cut to a modern look with the message “Get Ready” fading in. With series director Katsuhiro Harada making only a brief appearance, the door is open for fans to speculate on what this teaser means.
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Tekken 1 Remake
The first thing on many fans' minds when the trailer ended was that some sort ofTekken 1remake could be in the works. It would be an odd move, but not unprecedented.Soul Calibur 6brought the seriesback toSoul Calibur 1, largely owing to theSC5cast being less popular.Tekkendoesn’t have that problem, and even with Heihachi Mishima possibly dying for good at the end ofTekken 7, he could still appear as a memory like his late wife Kazumi orKing of Fighters’ Geese Howard. Seeing as the teased look at a modern Kazuya has his scar and red eye, both of which came from games afterTekken 1, a remake seems unlikely.
Tekken X Street Fighter
The next possibility isTekken X Street Fighter, the other side of thedecade-old crossover with Capcom’sStreet Fighterfranchise. Due toStreet Fighter X Tekken’s disastrous sales and reputation, theTekken X Street Fighterproject was put on indefinite hiatus. It appears that Akuma’s story-integrated cameo inTekken 7may be the furthest this crossover goes.
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Tekken Tag Tournament 3
TheTekkenfranchise is not limited to numbered games and crossovers. There have been several spin-offs, such asthe live-serviceTekken Revolutionand twoTekken Tag Tournament(TTT) titles. TheTTTgames are quite popular with the fans, as both of them are non-canon mashups of characters, withTekken Tag Tournament 2serving as the main competitiveTekkengame afterTekken 6. It had some balance issues due to mixing boss characters in with normal fighters, but it was still enjoyed by fans.
The one issue with releasing another dream matchTekkengame is thatTTT 2underperformed. Due to many fighting games releasing around 2012, it seems likeTag Tournament 2was lost in the fold. TheWii U’s low install baseand small traditional fighting game audience meant it had trouble keeping up. While a re-release ofTekken Tag Tournament 2might do better now than it did a decade ago, the fact that it undersold means that a third entry is unlikely.
Tekken 8
With all that being said, it’s very likely thatTekken 8is currently in development. The opening logos are a big indicator, as specifying Unreal Engine impliesTekken 8maybe developed on Unreal Engine 5. It’s difficult to tell if Kazuya’s teased model is new, but it could be. Also, unlike most fighting games,Tekkentends to move forward chronologically with each game. Those familiar withTekken 7’s story will know that it ends with a homage to Kazuya’sTekken 1ending, in which he throws a defeated Heihachi over a cliff, which could be the scene shown in this teaser.
One other reason to believe the mystery project isTekken 8is that Bandai Namco recently fell victim to a ransomware attack, and a schedule detailed its next year of major games. This list has not been verified, butTekken 8was also part of the more provenleaked Nvidia GeForce Now database. Bandai Namco has yet to show more than a minuscule teaser for the nextTekkenproject, but more information may come by the end of the World Tour Finals.Tekken 7has been hitting hard for the past five years, and it feels like the right time to start preparing for its next title bout.
