Tekken 7

While not without its technical flaws with online play, this enhanced brawler won't disappoint longtime fans of the franchise or those new to fighting games. Along with the Story mode, which lets you play as many of the fighters to learn (and master) their various moves and abilities, the Offline mode is divided into Arcade (complete stages and a boss), Treasure Battle (customize your fighter with money earned by winning matches), Local Versus (fighting someone beside you), Practice (instead of a tutorial), and Customization mode (have fun changing up your character, tweaking the menu screens and hearing all the game's music). Treasure Battle is one of the better solo modes, as you can also unlock new abilities and other goodies as you progress through opponents. Online Mode houses ranked matches, tournaments, and lobby rooms to find other online Tekken 7 players to challenge. Finding someone to play against, or waiting for the consoles to sync, sometimes takes a while (or you need to leave and try again), so hopefully this will be fixed soon. Most online battles were smooth, but there were a couple of minor lags, which unfortunately is quite noticeable in a fighting game.

Whether you're fighting against computer-controlled opponents or human ones (offline or online), those familiar with Tekken will have no trouble learning the basic combat moves (low, mids and highs), as well as defensive maneuvers, like blocks and counters, triggering a special move, seeing how to use the environment, and toying with chains and combos. New to this year's game is Rage Arts (a temporarily super attack) and similar Power Crushers move. There's a lot to like about this game -- despite some matchmaking and multiplayer performance issues that might be ironed out in the near future. Tekken 7 is a robust, challenging and gorgeous fighting game that pushes the series forward and is worth the price of admission for fans of the franchise.