Tekken 7: Ultimate Edition (PlayStation 4) Review

Some more extensive reviews of Tekken 7 exist here at Cubed3, back from when the fighting game launched on PS4 and PC, so be sure to check those out, too. Since then, however, multiple season passes and DLC, as well as some bundles, including this very Ultimate Edition, have become available.

This is the most comprehensive version of Tekken 7 to buy if looking for the most content at the best possible price - but only really when taking discounts into the equation. Tekken 7: Ultimate Edition's standard price on the PlayStation Store is a whopping £74.99. It wouldn't be recommended to lay down such a sum, especially as this does indeed get a very tasty discount pretty often. Four times this year already, Ultimate Edition has been reduced to £14.99 - a fantastic deal for a pack that contains the full game and season passes 1 and 2.

This means an extra nine characters (when including the original pre-order bonus fighter Eliza) are thrown into the base roster, which makes for a staggering 45 playable combatants. Staples ranging from Heihachi, Jin, Law and Nina to brand-new characters like Josie, Katarina, Kazumi and Shaheen mean there is someone for everyone. Street Fighter's Akuma even enters as a guest fighter, while Fatal Fury's Geese Howard, Final Fantasy XV's Noctis, and - as crazy as it sounds - The Walking Dead TV show's Negan make up a diverse cast.

Sadly, the male to female ratio is way out of whack, with 30 male fighters to just 13 women (excluding the bears). Picking up season passes 3 and 4 will net you three extra females and three males, but it's a crying shame Tekken 7 is so heavily inundated with guys as things stand. Whether more passes happen or not, hopefully Tekken 8 balances things better in the future.

The series is now more beginner-friendly than ever, thanks to some modern button mash combos and Rage Arts that can turn the tide for a character on the side of a pummelling. There are a few brilliant tools at your disposal for becoming a better player, too. Practice mode features punishment training, which allows you to learn the precise timings of when to punish an attack or specific combo, with visual and audio cues as to when to retaliate. Replaying your saved matches is now even more worthwhile, too, as the game will pause at key moments to display a moment you could have punished or suggest a combo that would have done more damage than you originally did.

These are fantastic additions and set the tone for what should come as standard in all fighting games, but Tekken 7, for all its intents to be an accessible and newbie-friendly title, bizarrely lacks any kind of training mode that goes into depth on the systems of this game or to teach people how to play. Dead or Alive 5 and 6 and many 2D anime fighters set the bar here, with excellent examples of teaching players the absolute basics right through to the most technical of combat in guided lessons. To find Tekken 7 void of anything of the sort except load screen tips that cannot be reread elsewhere is surprising.

Worse still, in an act so disgraceful that it almost makes one not want to purchase the entire game on principle alone, is that viewing frame data - the most basic of options in modern fighting games today - is not an option in Tekken 7 at all and must be purchased as downloadable content. Sure, it's £2.49 - not unaffordable for most people - but what on earth is this doing carved out of the main game and not even included in a free update? Unbelievable stuff.

Visuals are fantastic, audio is great and even allows you to play the soundtracks from previous games in the franchise, and stage selection is just about good enough, but Tekken 7 lets itself down in a few areas that perhaps the hardcore online group might not bat an eye at. It is impossible to do a VS Battle against the CPU (with this limited to humans only), the story is weak (everyone is a polyglot, and the narrator sounds as bored as you will be) and its side stories for characters not featured in the main plot are laughable one-battle events, and there is a lack of modes all around for the offline player.

Customisation options for characters are vast, even if it takes forever to unlock everything, although it would have been great to see more variety in the actual outfits available, and not just in accessories and masks (as amusing as many are). Bowling also returns as a minor distraction minigame, and there is a throwaway VR mode that doesn't do what you think it does (you don't fight in first-person, and you basically fight in an endless practice match). Thankfully, the actual combat is still as crunchy and flashy as ever, retaining that Tekken spirit.