Tekken 8: Closed Network Test Preview

ign.com:

I’ve greatly enjoyed the fighting game renaissance over the last few years. Between the success of Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6, and the general improvements to netcode across the board, the genre seems to be at its strongest since the arcade days. And after my time with the first weekend of Tekken 8’s Closed Network Test, it seems primed to bring the Heat to a new generation, despite a few hiccups that can hopefully be attributed to normal pre-release obstacles.

In our earlier preview, IGN’s Mitchell Saltzman covered the new mechanics introduced with the Heat system, noting that it doubled down on the uniqueness of each character. I’m happy to report that this holds true with the characters that have been added since the build he played, although they’ve simplified the Heat system just a bit. Instead of certain moves using stocks of your Gauge, both Heat Drives and Heat Smashes now just use the rest of your bar. It’s still a lot to wrap your head around, but thankfully the closed test included a quick tutorial to run down these changes.

Given the limited time available for the Closed Network Test, I’ve tried to focus on some of the newly added characters: specifically Lili and Jun. Sorry Hwoarang. No one’s got time for your nonsense.

Lili, my main from Tekken 7 – other than Armor King – is well known to be one of the most evasive characters in the series, with a fantastic side-step, tricky launchers, and even a command hop that can be followed up with either a low or mid attack, forcing you to guess if you need to block standing or crouching. Going into Heat mode in Tekken 8 boosts her evasiveness, letting you use your command hop twice in a row by holding the button down, and using these hops actually