92-year-old bests the rest in elderly Tekken 8 tournament

Trust some elderly Japanese folks to come up with a positive story around Tekken 8. Esports association, Care, has been running tournaments since 2019, with its last two introducing Tekken to the mix. Typically, Care would have them play less action-oriented games, but has been all in on Tekken since the Summer.

In the most recent tournament, 92-year-old Hisako Sakai beat 74-year-old Gorō Sugiyama in a Claudio and Lili showdown. The match is hilarious off the bat, with the pair gunning for each other immediately with some heavy button mashing.

Despite his younger age, Sugiyama was completely decimated by Sakai’s Claudio button-mashing. It was so intense, the 92-year-old didn’t even drop a round. I’m taking her tips and tricks over any esport professional in the future.

The Care Esports YouTube channel has full matches split across YouTube. I think what makes this even more of a delight is that it’s semi-professionally produced, with commentators and everything.

Elderly game tourney is the best news Tekken has had in months

It’s some positive news for Tekken, as the latest entry, 8, hasn’t been best received by players. A few months ago, complaints stemmed from a balance update with Season 2, which apparently made the game a bit too shallow for legacy players. There are other complaints that dig into the minutiae, but most updates haven’t brought the game in line with where the vocal players want.

Even our own fighting game-obsessed Olivia Richman has been critical of the game in her coverage, calling it “cooked”.

Then, on December 8, the series’ steward, Katsuhiro Harada, announced he was leaving Bandai Namco. Fans are now concerned over who might follow, even saying that they don’t want it to be a “white guy”.

Harada was director or producer on almost every Tekken game from 3 onwards, starting out as a voice actor for the game. For Tekken 8, he was Executive Producer, matching with his statement that he’d been handing off responsibilities in the lead-up to his retirement from the company.

While Tekken might be in the dumps, I’m going to spend my lunch watching these elderly people mash on controllers like pianos.