Bandai Namco has taken the lid off Tekken 8 in a big way during a lengthy gameplay stream that has confirmed Nina Williams as a playable character, shown off a good chunk of gameplay, and announced that alpha tests will also take place in the coming months.
Truth be told, it would be more surprising if Nina Williams wasn’t in Tekken 8, since the ‘silent assassin’ has featured in every game since the first. This trailer was more to introduce the character’s updated look and show off more gameplay.
Speaking of gameplay, the 36 minute stream featured Tekken Project Executive Director Katsuhiro Harada and Game Director Kahei Ikeda – AKA Nakatsu – diving into the game’s new gameplay mechanics including a new heat system, modified Rage Art system that uses a common input – Rage Drive from Tekken 7 has been removed – and a recover gauge that has some common ground with the Tekken Tag Tournament games.
They also confirmed that closed alpha tests will take place for Tekken 8 over the coming months, with the studio looking to gather feedback from fans and players. However, these will be held “in selected locations around the world to gather feedbacks of the battle system.” The first alpha test will be held during Evo Japan next month, with would-be players needing to apply via a website that will open later this month.
This new trailer follows on from Tekken 8’s appearance during The Game Awards, which showed off battles with cities being blown up like it’s a Marvel or DC super hero film. That trailer also confirmed a bunch of characters including Kazuya, Jin, Paul, King, Law, Lars, Jack-8 and the return of Jun Kazama.
Looking back on the last game, Tekken 7, we awarded it a mighty 9/10 in out review, saying: “Tekken 7 is a phenomenal fighting game experience and one I’d highly recommend. It’s by no means perfect, as the game is not without a few technical issues online, some long loading times, and minor continuity errors, yet as far as most people will be concerned, it delivers a stunning, up-to-date fighting game experience from one of the masters of arcade fighting games. A solid return to form.”
