While the series has since become a multiplatform release, for years it remained a PlayStation staple, so much so that certain characters became mascots for the platform on a similar level to Spyro or Crash Bandicoot.
When it finally arrived, the wait was worth it. I remember going to Japan before the game’s western release and seeing arcades stacked with Tekken machines, exclusive characters and stages blasting across the screens that I wouldn’t be able to play on my console for several years. It was able to compete alongside genre giants and modern entries remain a staple even today. 3D brawlers with more simplistic inputs and varied characters that consider the perspective of curious newcomers are so powerful, drawing in crowds unafraid of being brushed aside by genre elitists demanding you decipher combos and stop pressing whatever buttons happen to cause the most damage.īeginning life as a case study for Namco to develop 3D characters for the first time, Tekken was never intended to be a fighting game at all, but the sense of personality and weight born from their experiments resulted in a game that took the arcade scene by storm. Tekken and SoulCalibur on the other hand, I can fuck with those. Related: Belle Review - A Spellbinding Animated Adventure From Mamoru Hosoda
Granblue Fantasy Versus and Guilty Gear Strive look gorgeous and are clearly marvelous achievements in their own right, but they aren’t for me, and that’s totally okay. This means that a number of games in the genre are often out of my reach, demanding an expertise I know I won’t have the patience to learn, so I let them fall by the wayside. My brain isn’t the type that is adept at learning combos or move sets for dozens of characters, and I’ve no shame in admitting that I’m the type of girl who will button mash her way to victory or die trying.