Fighting games are fantastic titles that work well during gatherings and hangouts with friends – they allow for friendly competition, guaranteeing loads of fun.
But that’s not all! Typically, they also enable solo play, making them a great way to unwind after a tough day at work or school.
Over the past few months, sequels to several popular fighting game series have been released, including Bandai Namco’s Tekken, which started in 1994, and Capcom’s iconic Street Fighter, first released in 1987.
Would you like to know how the new instalments of these games look? What sets them apart from their predecessors, and which one is worth buying? Here’s a brief comparison
Gameplay Changes
Comparing both games with their predecessors, significant progress and changes are noticeable, especially in terms of graphics and combat mechanics. Over the years, both series have undergone various changes, making these games much more user-friendly for both veterans and beginners.
A notable difference is the addition of new single-player modes to both games. In Street Fighter 6, there’s the World Tour campaign, allowing players to create their own avatar and navigate a semi-open world where their character completes tasks and develops as a fighter.
Interestingly, Tekken 8 also features such a mode called Arcade Quest, but with a huge difference – our customized character develops while playing Tekken on arcade machines. Tekken stands out here due to its more interesting approach to this matter.
Players appreciate that Street Fighter 6 has a much lower entry barrier than Tekken 8, making it easier for people who have never dealt with the SF series or fighting games in general. This is attributed to the elaborate lore of the second-mentioned game, as well as more complex sequences of moves and combos compared to SF6.
An additional advantage of this game is the Modern Mode, which simplifies control inputs (veterans can still play on Standard Mode).
A treat for Tekken 8 players may be the Heat Mechanic, which is a passive meter system that increases the power of character attacks. This mechanic makes fights in Tekken 8 much more brutal, appealing to fans of aggressive fighting games and those already well-versed in beat’em’up games and looking for something new in a gameplay.
Graphics Changes
As mentioned earlier, significant graphics changes have been made over the years – after all, 30 years have passed since the first Tekken, and the first Street Fighter was released a whopping 37 years ago.
The latest instalments of both games look fantastic and undoubtedly meet the requirements of the dedicated platforms (PS5, XSX, and PC with GeForce RTX 2070 / Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics cards).
Street Fighter is generally considered a pioneer of 2D fighting games, while the Tekken series is recognized as the king of 3D fighting games. However, these differences have somewhat blurred – now in both cases, we can see well-crafted 3D graphics, side-view fights, and fully detailed, interactive arenas of various kinds.
Character animations and attacks are well-executed and pleasing to the eye – you can observe muscle movements, naturally flowing hair, and even drops running down the characters’ faces during fights in the rain.
Differences include the engines used – Tekken 8 utilizes Unreal Engine 5, while Street Fighter 6 runs on the RE Engine. What’s the difference? In short – UE5 looks better, but REE runs better. However, developers have addressed this issue by choosing a right graphic style for their games.
In Tekken 8, the graphics balance on the edge of realism and anime aesthetics, while SF6 features a stylized, a little crazy and typical for the series aesthetic – but slightly modernized. Which one is better? Opinions are divided here – the final choice depends on personal taste and attachment to one of the brands.
Characters
Most fighting games offer players a diverse roster of playable characters – the same is true for Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6. However, players unanimously emphasize that Tekken 8 excels in this category. Players highlight that the base version of T8 offers much more content without paywalls compared to SF6.
In total, Tekken 8 offers a choice of up to 34 playable characters, with additional ones expected with each DLC season. Among those available in the base version, we encounter 4 newly introduced characters: Azucena Milagros Ortiz Castillo, Jack-8, Reina, and Victor Chevalier.
In the case of Street Fighter 6, the game starts with only 18 characters, with the number expected to increase with DLC. However, SF6 triumphs in terms of the number of new characters, featuring 7 brand-new heroes: Jamie, Kimberly, Lily, Manon, Marisa, JP, and Luke, whose renewed version (he has been seen in previous installments of the game) also serves as a semi-main character.
Players emphasize, however, that in Tekken 8, characters are not only more numerous but also more interesting.
Due to the more elaborate lore of the game, each hero is characterized not only by a unique appearance and fighting style, but also by unique lines or responses triggered by specific opponents. In SF6, there is one set of responses.
However, a funny and original motif for Street Fighter 6 is the possibility of facing… a truck. (lol)
Community
Both series have their own fandoms, but there are also individuals who treat games from both the Tekken and Street Fighter sagas with similar sympathy.
Both of these groups eagerly awaited the premieres of their beloved games – Street Fighter 6 on June 2nd, 2023, and Tekken 8 on January 26th, 2024. Importantly, both games were available months earlier as demos, and at that time, the first comments evaluating the productions and comparing them to each other appeared.
At first glance, an important issue can be noticed – although the Tekken series itself is a few years younger than Street Fighter, its fanbase seems to be somewhat more “mature” and more attached to traditional solutions and characters. This may be due to the elaborate, full of tragic twists lore of the game or advanced gameplay mechanics.
Among the comments, it was possible to read that players hoped to see classic characters and the return of some that were removed from the game. Players also believed that mechanical solutions did not require improvements.
In contrast, the Street Fighter fanbase is much larger, but judging by comments and player reactions, it may seem composed of younger people who expected changes and improvements from the new release, as well as new, more interesting characters.
Summary
In summary, both Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 have undoubtedly met expectations and appealed to the tastes of players. Both titles have been significantly upgraded graphically and have seen a series of mechanical improvements that “complicate” and may also facilitate gameplay – so that everyone, both seasoned players and newbies, can enjoy these titles.
How do these games differ? Certainly in aesthetics and graphics, the number of playable characters, the depth of the storyline, the complexity of controls and executed attacks, and also, as we didn’t mention earlier, the music theme.
Which one is better? In my opinion, the choice of the game is a highly individual matter.
Everyone expects something different from gameplay, is drawn to different aesthetics, audiovisual setting, and is interested in different difficulty levels. In the case of such age-old franchises, sympathy for the entire series remains relevant and affects the reception of the latest installment.