New Tekken Tag Tournament Release Chances Are Low, Devs Say

In an interview with IGN, the Tekken 8 team discussed the possibility of a new Tekken Tag Tournament being released.

Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada commented on the topic, indicating the chances are low:

That’s a very difficult question. Back in 99 when I created the original Tag Tournament… each character had so many moves in a 3D fighting game, right? Compared to other titles, there was already plenty to learn with just one character. And then on top of that, having two—though back then in Tag 1, many characters were considered clones or had different looks but shared similar move lists. As the Tekken series progressed, characters became more unique in their move sets and so on. So now, it’s even more complex trying to learn and master one character, then another on top of that. Then when you factor in the combination of both your characters plus your opponent’s characters, the knowledge required to properly enjoy the game increases exponentially.

So, hardcore players really thrived in Tag 2, for example. But for the average player, it was very difficult to appeal to a more casual audience, I suppose you could say. So if we were to do this again, rather than having it as a standalone release, it might be better implemented as some sort of separate mode within a mainline Tekken game, right?

Michael Murray, producer of Tekken 8, added:

Nakatsu [Kohei Ikeda, Tekken 8 director] and I probably grew up playing in arcades while he was developing Tag 1, so we’re very fond of it. We’re likely the more hardcore type who enjoy controlling multiple characters and such, and we loved Tag 2. But we’re well aware many players couldn’t engage with it due to all the required knowledge.