Tekken Bowl is back, and everything is OK
Take the catmen bowling
Tekken was always a ridiculous game as far as I was concerned, which was exactly why I love(d) it. Of course, it's a Very Serious Fighting Game to others, but my sense is that those others would object to the upcoming inclusion of a ten-pin bowling mode, and as such they should get the heck out of my Tekken. Tekken Bowl is Tekken heritage, and I had worried that it would be a casualty of the (new to PC) series' attempts to keep up with the ultra-competitive Street Fighter joneses.
Perhaps I should have taken more faith from Tekken 7 [official site]'s joyfully ridiculous character creator, though - for, yes indeed, we're taking the skinheads, demons, boxing bears and confused cyborgs bowling once again.
Tekken Bowl feels like it's been part and parcel of Bandia Namco's 3D fighting series/landmark PlayStation 1 game forever, but in fact it only made its debut in fourth game Tekken Tag Tournament and, though it showed up again in Tekken 5, has been AWOL since. Somehow, though, it is absolutely the Spirit Of Tekken, and I find news of its return, albeit as paid DLC, in Tekken 7, heartening. Though not without its highly technical elements, this was always the fighting game about having an excellent time, rather than the one about making spurious claims about the size of your genitalia, and random bowling excursions with Tekken's roster of ridiculous men, women, demons, angels, bears and military killing machines was absolutely a component part of that.
So, without further ado, here's what Tekken Bowling looks like in the cold light of 2017. WARNING: features an adult male human being wearing sunglasses indoors and going bowling BY HIMSELF.
I mean, it's a shame that Ridiculous Lonely Sunglasses Man takes up a full half of a trailer which would be far better served showing us ridiculous bear-headed men, demonic patriarchs and nightmare-voiced catgirls, but, yeah, that's Tekken Bowl alright. Not too much to glean outside out Tekken + Bowling, but it's good to see that it seems like they're going for a generous roster of characters, as opposed to the disappointing mere trio offered in 2011's iPhone Tekken Bowl release.
While we don't have pricing or exact release date details, let's hope that the fact they're calling it "Ultimate TEKKEN Bowl" suggests they're going to push this for maximum silliness. It's due as DLC for Tekken 7 some time this August.