Tekken 8: Tekken Fight Lounge First Look – IGN First
18.10.2023 - 16:41
/ ign.com
/ Michael Murray
Online lobbies you can run around in are all the rage in fighting games these days. There’s the Tower and Park from Guilty Gear Strive, the Battle Hub from Street Fighter 6, and so on. Tekken 8 joins the craze with the Tekken Fighting Lounge, and it’s got a little bit of everything. In fact, it might be the fighting game genre’s best online lobby yet.
The Tekken Fight Lounge is divided into four areas: the Battle Area, where you can fight against other players and watch other matches in progress; the Customization Shop, Iron Fist Outfitters, where you can spend your hard-earned fight money on customization options for your avatar; the Beach Area, where you can relax, enjoy the vibes, and most importantly, play Tekken Ball; and the Tekken Dojo.
If you’re familiar with online fighting game lobbies from the last few years, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how the Tekken Fight Lounge works. You select a region, and then choose a Lounge from a list. Once you’re in, you can travel around the lobby freely, going in and out of the sections at will without any loading. The Tekken Fight Lounge has a little bit of everything. There’s a competitive atmosphere that harkens back to the glory days of arcades, but it’s also a place where players can hang out, make new friends, and build an online community.
According to Tekken 8 producer Michael Murray, the atmosphere is intentional. “It's kind of like a love letter to arcade culture,” he said. “I'm old enough where I was able to experience that firsthand at various locations. First, when I studied abroad in Japan, I went to all the arcades and all the titles, all the fighting games you could ever want to play were there. It was amazing. Each had their own unique atmosphere. So the aesthetic look of it, you know that that made its way into this. The director, Nakatsu, and myself, we looked at various major arcades, even one of ours in London, the Namco one, which was really impressive.
“And so it's not one particular one, but kind of the elements from all of these arcades. So that people who have been before will be like, ‘Oh, man, this is what it felt like, I miss it. It's awesome. I can do it online from the comfort of my home any time I want.’ And then for new players who maybe haven't ever been there, because they've disappeared a lot in the West. And we've seen kind of a revival of the 80s, and that whole culture of neon and stuff like that, right? So we're thinking maybe that's something that would even interest younger players, even if they haven't been in arcades and say, ‘Okay, I've seen this in the movies or TV, or heard about it from OG players. Yeah, it does look like a lot of fun.’”
Players will probably spend most of their time in the arcade area, which of