Tekken 8 Trailer Shows Off Kuma and New Gameplay

On November 12, developer Bandai Namco officially announced the final character for Tekken 8‘s roster with Reina, a brand-new character for the series. Now that the day-one roster has been locked in, the developers have started to release new trailers for all of the previous characters to show off some of their new moves. The latest of these Tekken 8 trailers features Kuma, everyone’s favorite fighting bear. As you can see in the trailer below, Kuma is ready to “snap you like a twig” when Tekken 8 finally launches next year.

Tekken 8 Kuma Gameplay Trailer

The trailer starts out innocently enough. We see Kuma doing his thing in normal combat, using both his hard head and trademark salmon to deal damage to his opponents. Things take quite a turn when Kuma goes up against Panda mid-way through the trailer. As he often does, Kuma professes his love for Panda, asking her to marry him. Unfortunately for anyone hoping to see the two get together, Panda slaps Kuma’s salmon out of his hands before jumping into battle, confirming that she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings.

Kuma’s unrequited love will seemingly continue, but fans will be happy to see the big ole bear can still pack a punch. To bring that point home, Kuma’s final move of the trailer sees him turning his salmon into a rocket that explodes when it hits Panda to finish the match. What’ll be more intriguing for Kuma in Tekken 8 is who he’s going to follow. Remember, he was previously serving Heihachi Mishima who, so far, hasn’t been announced as a character in Tekken 8. We know that he’s working on a secret weapon that will somehow help Heihachi, but otherwise, we’ll have to wait until Tekken 8 launches to find out what he’s up to.

Tekken 8 Day One Character Roster

Thus far, Bandai Namco hasn’t announced any DLC characters, though we know that at least four are coming during the game’s first year. With that in mind, here is the complete day-one roster in case you’ve forgotten:

• Jin Kazama
• Kazuya Mishima/Devil Kazuya 
• Jun Kazama
• Lars Alexandersson
• Paul Phoenix
• Marshall Law
• King
• Jack-8 (New)
• Nina Williams
• Ling Xiaoyu
• Leroy Smith
• Asuka Kazama
• Lili De Rochefort
• Hwoarang
• Bryan Fury
• Claudio Serafino
• Raven
• Azucena Milagros Ortiz Castillo (New)
• Yoshimitsu
• Steve Fox
• Sergei Dragunov
• Leo Kliesen
• Kuma
• Shaheen
• Feng Wei
• Panda
• Zafina
• Lee Chaolan
• Alisa Bosconovitch
• Devil Jin
• Victor Chevalier (New)
• Reina (New)

What is the Release Date for Tekken 8?

Tekken 8 launches on January, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Now that the full roster is available, we’ll probably hear about the first DLC character within the next few weeks. After all, the team will want to keep the hype at its maximum while selling as many copies as possible. If they announce a fan-favorite fighter as part of the post-launch campaign, that’ll keep the excitement rolling long past the initial launch.