Tekken 8 is a great Tekken game, but that might not be enough

polygon.com:

Tekken 8 is the next installment of the nearly 30-year-old fighting game series. Its mere existence is enough to delight a lot of returning fans — myself included. I have no doubt that my cabal of Tekken-faithful friends will have hundreds of hours of fun sparring in online matches and local tournaments. We’ll have growing pains, quibbles with character balance, and opinions, but Tekken 8 is going to give us what we want, and what we want is gaudily dressed weirdos juggling one another through the air with gorgeous attack animations, all to the thumping beat of maximalist electronica.

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I’m less sure that Tekken 8 will be the game that turns fighting-game-curious button-mashers into frame-counting die-hards. It is the most accessible entry in the series to date, with the best tutorials and training mode, simplified control options, and two whole single-player campaigns. That’s all good stuff! But it has the unenviable privilege of following the most complete, feature-rich, and joyous fighting game on-ramp ever.

But before we get bogged down in comparisons, let’s talk about what’s in the box.

In marketing materials and in-game tutorials, Tekken 8 encourages “aggression.” That might seem like an obvious mission statement for a fighting game, but the Tekken series has always had extremely strong defensive options. Tekken uses auto-blocking, which means you’re safe from most strikes unless you’re actively pushing forward or hitting an attack button. Traditionally, you’ve also been safe from chip damage (a small amount of damage that passes through a