Injustice 2 Vs. Tekken 7 - Which Game Is Better?
6. How Much Does It Bring As A Sequel?
In many respects, Tekken 7 is the best Tekken has ever been. Performance-wise it's sublime, the offline component not suffering anything close to frame rate drops or graphical hitches. Over two decades into its life, you could absolutely argue that altering any major component of such a beloved formula would only be a misstep. To that end, T7 gets 'Rage Arts' and 'Power Crushes', the former being one-time-use screen-filling special animations that feel somewhat lifted directly out of Street Fighter, and the latter letting you absorb damage and keep moving.
The Rage Arts are visually fantastic, but as they only activate when you're on low health and the latter can't be relied too heavily on, very rarely do they factor meaningfully into play - other than as a last-ditch attempt to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. Atop that you've got the three-to-five hour story mode, six all-out new characters, one gender-swap, two established fighters with meaningful changes and Akuma making his Tekken debut. Everybody is nicely balanced - Akuma weirdly feels just like he did in SFV - however the problem in this category comes from just how much base content is reused from older entries in the franchise.
Seriously, some of the entrance/victory poses, dialogue and overall movesets are 16 years old at this point. Too old, if - like me - you've been playing Tekken since the very beginning. It's not that everybody or anything needed overhauling, but if you were expecting the decade wait between instalments to mean something substantial, sadly, it really does not.
Onto Injustice, and NetherRealm have smoothed over the jittery animations and occasionally naff character models of the original, adding more uses for how your Special Meter can affect movement, as well as bulking out the narrative to include an endless loot-grind called the Multiverse. There are 18 new characters all with the requisite costume unlocks, an arcade ladder, survival modes, fight modifiers and just so, SO much equipment to combine for future fights.
Tekken 7 wows upfront with good nostalgia plays thanks to its franchise-tributing Jukebox and Gallery modes, but once that effect wears off and you're fighting the same way with the same fighters and seeing the same entrance/victory animations, it really hammers home how little T7 brings to the table.
Winner: Injustice 2