Game Theory: Has Tekken 8 finally become the right kind of stupid?

Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off the weekend by taking a look at the world of gaming, diving in to the ideas that underpin the hobby we love with a bit of Game Theory. We’ll sound off in the space above, and invite you to respond down in the comments, telling us what you’re playing this weekend, and what theories it’s got you kicking around.

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A serious question, about a stupid topic: Is there anything funnier than hearing Brian Cox, Succession star and Serious Actor, say the phrase “Devil Gene” over and over again?

That’s the query the video game-minded bits of the internet were forced to ask themselves this week, after Bandai-Namco released what we think was an intentionally humorous video promoting its upcoming Tekken 8, in which Cox was asked to deliver a monologue explaining the basic plotline of the entire Tekken franchise. And Cox was, of course, great in it, for the reasons he’s typically great in his recent move to self-aware pitchman: His voice projects total commitment to the material, he nails the handful of jokes that are actually in the script, and, most importantly, it’s all mixed with just enough irony in his eyes to let you know that, yes, he also thinks this story of fathers and sons battling it out for the ability to turn into purple-skinned devil men is all incredibly, fundamentally dumb.

Which is, interestingly, something we were already thinking about, even before the Cox video released, after a night spent playing the new Tekken 8 demo earlier this week. To wit: Has this franchise now become exactly the right kind of stupid, a level of commitment to absurdity, silliness, and sheer total “Who gives a shit?” fun that allows it to transcend the barriers to entry that keeps many regular players out of the hyper-competitive fighting game arena? The demo got us thinking about this because a) this is a video game in which its story mode opens with two men destroying Tokyo by turning into devils while blowing up, like, all the satellites orbiting the entire planet and b) it quickly introduces players to the game’s new “Special System,” a new control scheme that’s entirely predicated on knowing players want to look badass the moment they pick up a game like this.

Triggerable at any time, even mid-fight, the Special System is sort of like a number of “simple inputs” control schemes that have cropped up in fighting games in recent years, attempts to counteract the general perception that the only way to play a fighting game effectively is to fill your brain and fingers with dozens of patterns of intricate commands that can be executed in an instant. Tekken’s version of this simpler control setup is interesting, though, because it feels like it wasn’t so much designed to make it easier to fight well, but to look incredibly flashy and impressive while still taking a ton of hits to the face; switching back and forth between the two systems liberally as we played, it was honestly easier, more often than not, to win fights by relying on the more basic controls, which map punches and kicks to each of the four face buttons. But when we wanted to unleash a bunch of big, dumb, chunky hits that made us feel like we were taking control of the fights? Special System was the way to go, allowing a few simple jams of square and triangle to unleash particle-filled combos and high-risk/high-reward counter attacks.

Which kind of feels like the whole ethos that Tekken 8 is going for: It’s a fighting game where button-mashing can look good and feel great, even as it gives you the option to play more thoughtfully. It’s sort of the gameplay equivalent of paying Cox what we can only hope were massive wheelbarrows full of money to walk around in front of a green screen while delivering lines about the Devil Gene: Incredible polish and undeniable skill in the individual components, adding up to something that even the participants would probably acknowledge is over-the-top, silly, and dumb. Like last year’s Street Fighter 6 (which Tekken is pretty clearly operating in response to, including a new Arcade mode where you can walk around challenging people to Tekken matches), it’s an interesting effort to inject some much-needed accessibility into one of gaming’s most sheltered arenas. It also makes us desperately want to see other video game companies hire Cox to explain their stories; can you even imagine the meal this wily old bastard would make out of Metal Gear Solid?

Tekken 8 releases on January 26 and is available to pre-order now.

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