The long-running Tekken series is nearing its third full decade and Bandai Namco is celebrating the eighth mainline entry alongside regular trailers showcasing the roster. We already have a playable demo showing off more-refined gameplay alongside truly jaw-dropping graphics, and now we’ve got our first glimpse of the memorable playable bear Kuma in the new game. Kuma as a character has been around since the first game and has been a favorite of mine for many years now, largely due to the evolution of the character and its origins in wrestling bears.
With King being the franchise’s best-known wrestler, I’ve always loved pitting Kuma (or Pands, but usually Kuma) against King and Armor King over the years to pay homage to wrestling bears of the past like Terrible Ted alongside the wrestlers who faced bears like Tracy Smothers and even “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton. As a playable character, Kuma is known for having slow movement speed, but swift attacks that evolved from being an alternate visual form for Jack before becoming his own fully-fledged character with his own moveset consisting of a lot of claw strikes, salmon hits and of course, a violent bearhug.
Tekken 8 Aims to be True Next-Generation Fighting Game
As the series has evolved, we have seen Kuma go from a bloodthirsty bear to one that is both bloodthirsty, but also wanting love. Kuma pines for Panda and that love-hate relationship leads to bear-on-bear violence in games and having bears in place makes the series stand out in ways that most fighting games can’t compare. There really aren’t games throughout history with playable bears beyond Yogi games and of course, Fire Pro Wrestling having wrestling bears playable over the years, while the recent AEW Fight Forever had a bear costume akin to something a mascot would wear as a playable outfit in its creation suite.
Kuma is the only gaming bear that’s been given any sense of personality over the years and it’s fascinating to see him become this biker leather-clad baddy who smacks enemies with salmon while throwing them to and fro. The playable demo of Tekken 8 features a handful of playable characters, but no Kuma, which is a bit disappointing. He should be a riot to use in the full game and if Tekken Ball from Tekken 3 is any indicator, he’ll be a blast to use in Tekken Ball. Tekken 8 launches on January 26 on Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and PC hardware and is shaping up to be the best-playing entry in the series to date.
