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Tekken 8 will kick off 2024; January release date revealed

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This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

During this year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, Bandai Namco announced that Tekken 8 will launch on January 26, 2024, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Tekken 8 Arcade Quest Official Trailer gamescom 2023

Bandai Namco showed off a brand new trailer for the upcoming fighting game that introduced some newly revealed features. That includes a new single-player story, as well as Arcade Quest, which is an area that looks similar to Street Fighter 6‘s Battle Hub. Here, players can customize their own avatars to look family-friendly like Nintendo’s Miis.

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As for Tekken 8‘s playable roster of characters, Nina Williams and Paul Phoenix continue to be the only two characters who are playable in all main Tekken installments. Two new characters have been revealed so far, Azuscena Castillo and Jack-8. Azuscena is a Peruvian mixed martial artist who proudly promotes her family’s coffee company any chance she gets, and Jack-8 is the latest model of Jack, with a new voice and look.

Jin in Tekken 8
Bandai Namco Entertainment

Fighting games have seen a resurgence lately, with Street Fighter 6 receiving commercial and critical acclaim. Mortal Kombat 1 is also set to launch in September, and Iron Galaxy confirmed that Rare’s Killer Instinct would be getting a 10th-anniversary update later this year. Even Riot Games, best known for League of Legends and Valorant, is developing its own fighting game based on the League of Legends IP called Project L.

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So far, the 2024 video game release calendar is incredibly light, with the only other confirmed January launch being Prince of Persia: The Lost CrownSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launches on February 2, shortly afterTekken 8‘s planned release.

George Yang
George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…
If you want to up your Tekken 8 game, try this stickless controller
Kuma hitting Law causing him to fly toward the screen in Tekken 8.

With the release of Tekken 8, I’ve been at a bit of a crossroads. I had no clue what controller I wanted to use to learn and beat the rest of the competition. A standard Xbox controller? PlayStation’s DualSense? A fightstick? Or maybe it's time I looked to the future and tried out a hitbox controller? That last option is the one I'd ultimately go with, thanks to the Razer Kitsune.

Released last year, the Razer Kitsune is a hitbox-style fighting gamepad with no joystick. Its selling point is that it is sleeker than most hitbox controllers on the market and features high-quality buttons. It's a great option for those who love that style of control, but don't love carrying around a big, boxy gamepad. The true question, though, was whether or not I would prefer it over a classic gamepad, my Tekken comfort zone. I decided to take on a fighting game gauntlet with a day of matches with my little brother in just about every fighter I own to find out.
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A hitbox controller is a stickless arcade pad. It retains all the classic attack buttons but replaces the directional stick with buttons. I would compare it to playing on a keyboard but with more comfortable buttons to press and the up button placed where your thumbs rest. You may have heard of it a few times due to the controversy it causes in the fighting game community over it being the “easy way” to play fighting games.

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Reina crossing her arms and looking toward the camera in tekken 8.

In classic Tekken fashion, Tekken 8 is full of lore, as well as additional "what if" lore content. With a brilliant new story mode and a lot of catch-up material jam-packed into the game, there's a lot to take in.

Accompanying all of the canon narratives of the title are Character Episodes — mini arcade mode runs that feature each character in their final matches of the King of Iron Fist Tournament. Upon completing four fights, you're given a gorgeous cinematic ending that showcases what would happen if your selected fighter wins.

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Tekken 8's story doesn't end with the completion of story mode. There are still a few loose ends that the "The Dark Awakens" story mode doesn't cover. The big elephant in the room for fans everywhere is: What happened to Jun Kazama — if Ogre didn't kill her, what happened?

While we don't find out the exact truth in the main story mode, we can unlock Jun's Side Story to find it.
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