Download added: t7_master_raven.jpg (65520 bytes) "Master Raven is supposed to be a ninja but fights like pretty much everyone else."
The Tekken series, in my very brief experience with it, has always been a button-mashing slap-fest, but at least you could have some yucks along the way. Tekken 7 is just...boring. I'm not sure how you make a fighting game this dreary; it may very well be the dullest fighting game I've ever played.
Tekken 7 inherited the somewhat genericized character base character models and fighting system of the preceding game, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (see entry 1391), and the ridiculously detailed character customization system--although when I played it, it looked like it might have had slightly fewer customization options per character.
While characters may animate differently, the hits they dish out end up feeling the same, and everyone can do pretty much the same long combos. The genericization probably helped the developers crank out the starting cast and DLC characters in record time, but aside from playing dress-up with them, it's a little hard to see the point when they feel so similar to each other while fighting. Tekken characters have always shared a certain base feel and some moves--it isn't like Virtua Fighter, where each character makes you feel like you're learning a unique martial art--but even up through Tekken 6 the characters felt at least a little distinct from each other while fighting (well okay except for those who were actual move clones, like Eddie and his replacement er student, Christie). That is not the case here in 7, at least from the bit I experienced before giving it up in frustrated boredom. It has, however, been hugely popular.
