It's March 2026 and Tekken 8 is Being Review Bombed Again

Tekken 8 is yet again getting review-bombed after Season 3 repeated many of the same mistakes as the last one. The latest in the classic fighting game franchise has had a roller coaster of a time since its 2024 release, with impressive highs offset with equally massive waves of fan backlash. Now, over two years down the road, Tekken 8 has run into trouble once more.

Things had started out looking strong for the game. After a successful launch, Tekken 8 became one of the best-selling games of 2024, landing in similar company to Black Ops 6 and Helldivers 2. At the time, both critics and fans showered the title with praise, too, but unfortunately, that acclaim would not last. Controversy over microtransactions and balancing updates would put the Tekken team in a less desirable position, and while Bandai Namco has promised to change things for the better, it has not panned out that way so far.

Tekken 8 Director Responds to Season 2 Backlash

Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada responds to the backlash that the fighting game has been facing over the changes made in the title’s second season.

Fans Review Bomb Tekken 8 After Season 3 Repeats Season 2’s Balancing Missteps

Bandai Namco released Tekken 8‘s Season 3 update on March 17, promising to right the wrongs of the game’s disastrous Season 2, but things did not go according to plan. That same day, the title received a gut punch of 243 negative reviews compared to just 26 positive ones. Negative feedback has outweighed the positive every day since, often by a wide margin, bringing Tekken 8‘s recent Steam reviews down to a “Mostly Negative” rating, with just 24% of 1,242 reviews in the past 30 days being positive at the time of writing. Reading through this Steam feedback reveals that fans find Season 3 has repeated many of the biggest issues they had with Season 2, particularly in how it focuses on offensive buffs instead of defensive changes.

When Bandai released Season 2 back in April 2024, players felt the buffs introduced were overwhelmingly aggressive, which was all the more frustrating in light of how even early reviews found the game a little offense-heavy. The backlash grew so severe that Bandai Namco replaced the entire Tekken 8 balancing team a month later. That included giving Kohei Ikeda, also known by the moniker Nakatsu, greater control over future balancing adjustments. It looked like a step in the right direction, especially given Nakatsu’s work on Tekken 7 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Bandai also course-corrected with several “emergency” updates following the season. However, it seems like those changes may not have been indicative of the game’s future.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Recent Steam reviews of Tekken 8 show fans growing tired of getting their hopes up, only to see the same kinds of unwanted changes implemented again. So far, the review-bombing has not been quite as intense as the backlash to Season 2, so it’s unclear how things will proceed from here, but it’s likely not how Bandai Namco had wanted Season 3 to begin. Balancing updates are not the game’s only point of contention, either, as Tekken 8 has been review-bombed multiple times over its monetization, too. While players have praised Tekken 8‘s content and visuals, these positive aspects have not been enough to save it from its gameplay and microtransaction woes.

It’s always possible that Bandai Namco can turn things around and rebound from this most recent round of review-bombing. However, the future remains uncertain. On top of the game’s history of fan backlash, longtime Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada left Bandai Namco in late 2025. Season 3 was Tekken 8‘s first major update released without Harada at the helm, and it will be interesting to see how things go from here under new leadership.