Fighting games have had a recent resurgence, with Street Fighter 6 and Mortal Kombat 1 receiving critical and commercial success last year. However, a new challenger is making its way into the ring: Tekken 8.
The Street Fighter and Tekken are long-running Japanese fighting game franchises that debuted in the ‘80s and ‘90s and they’re still revered to this day. With Tekken 8 coming out soon, how does the game compare to Street Fighter 6? They’re both fighting games, right? Even though plenty of fans enjoy both, these games have many differences that go beyond the surface.
2D vs 3D Fighters
Right off the bat, Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6 differ in their gameplay styles. Street Fighter 6 is a 2D fighting game, which means characters move along the X and Y axes. You can move forward and backward, as well as jump and crouch. However, Tekken 8 is a 3D fighter, which means it has an added Z axis. Characters in Tekken have the extra benefit of pulling off moves like sidestepping to avoid incoming attacks.
As such, timing and accuracy are the two most important factors in Street Fighter when trying to land attacks on your opponent. The same goes for Tekken, but you also have to consider movement and the positioning between you and your opponent. Street Fighter 6’s gameplay is a little slower-paced and requires players to judge the distance between them and their combatants. Tekken 8’s gameplay in comparison is much more aggressive and you’ll oftentimes try to close the distance between you and your rivals.
Street Fighter has traditionally been seen as the easier franchise to get into with its less complex combos, but both Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 have new control schemes to get players acquainted with the gameplay. Street Fighter 6 has a controller layout called Modern Controls, which halves the number of button inputs needed to perform certain actions. It also makes it easier to pull off super flash attacks.
Tekken 8’s version of this is called Special Style. However, the biggest difference between it and Modern Controls is that Special Style can be toggled on or off at any time, even if you’re in the middle of getting beaten up by your opponent.
Gameplay Modes
Fighting games have always served niche audiences, so it’s impressive that Street Fighter and Tekken have been able to resonate with mainstream audiences as much as they have. However, both franchises have been taking steps to be more approachable to a general audience to bring in new players.
Street Fighter 6 has its World Tour mode, which acts as a tutorial mode to help players learn more about its gameplay mechanics. You can also create an avatar character and level them up sort of like an RPG by traveling the world and fighting against other characters. It’s an incredibly engaging way to get new players familiar with the ropes of how to play Street Fighter.
Tekken 8 has something similar with its Arcade Quest mode. It’s also a tutorial mode but feels like a much more family-friendly version of Street Fighter 6’s World Tour. You can make an avatar as well, but they only act as kids in a world of arcade machines. Here, they solve their problems by facing off against each other in games of Tekken.
Gameplay from Tekken 8.
Both Street Fighter and Tekken have memorable characters throughout their respective franchises. However, they each take slightly different approaches. Tekken usually has a bigger initial roster at launch than Street Fighter. So if you’re looking to experiment and play with as many characters as possible from the jump, Tekken 8 might be a better choice.
Street Fighter has around half the number of characters that a typical Tekken roster would at launch. However, Street Fighter’s update cadence is more consistent and regularly adds more characters to keep players coming back.
Street Fighter 6 launched with 18 playable characters while Tekken 8’s roster includes 32. Of course, both games will receive ongoing support with new characters, so their rosters will eventually even out with roughly an equal number of fighters.
Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 are tenured veterans in the fighting game genre. Both are incredibly well-polished and fun games in their own right, and whether you prefer one or the other is determined by your own tastes. You can’t go wrong with either game!
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