Tekken 7

Tekken 7 is the seventh installment of the main line of the fighting series and brought a move to Unreal Engine 4, which makes the fights look significantly more realistic than in previous installments - from arena lighting to costume detail to slow-motion shots of the decisive hit. Development comes from Bandai Namco Studios, the same team that has long shaped the series, and the combat system and fighter roster continue the long-running family conflict of the Mishima clan, which has accompanied the series since its very beginning.

The arcade version was released back in 2015, exclusively in Japanese arcades, while the global release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC only arrived two years later, in 2017, and moreover with significantly expanded content - a large story mode was added, along with guest characters from other franchises that the arcade version didn't have at all. The arcade form was therefore purely a combat foundation without a story framework, intended for quick matches at the machine, where players paid per round rather than for longer play in a single sitting as at home. The character roster also gradually grew between the arcade release and the later home versions, as Bandai Namco added balance updates and new fighters directly into the arcade machines' game software, before the lineup was locked into the form known from home consoles.

Precisely because the arcade version preceded the console release by two years and lacked a large part of the content players today associate with Tekken 7, it is a fundamentally different experience than the later home version - closer to the pure combat core than to the complete package for home play with story and unlockables.

Why play it: An interesting choice for players who want to see Tekken 7 in its earliest, purest form - exactly as players first encountered it in Japanese arcades, before it was expanded two years later by home versions with story and guest fighters.