Tekken 8, Brian Cox Come Together For Tekken Story Recap

3.9

Tekken 8 isn’t short on curious characters, from karate badass ‘Devil Jin’ Kazama right through to a giant fighting panda. But never in a million years did I guess we’d be getting a catch-up trailer presented by none other than Succession’s Brian Cox.

Despite the name, Tekken 8 is the 11th fighting game in the Tekken series, and Bandai Namco is rightly concerned that people won’t be up to speed with the saga’s events. So they’ve put out a story-so-far trailer to explain.

That’s not entirely unexpected – Alan Wake 2 did much the same thing. But whereas Alan Wake 2’s was narrated by the man himself, Tekken 8’s story-so-far trailer is fronted by actor Brian Cox. Yes, the man who played Succession’s antagonistic patriarch is helping would-be players catch up on this one-on-one brawler.

And yet, while it’s only five minutes long, the recap is an oddly compelling watch. If you’ve watched HBO’s Succession you’ll be nodding to yourself every time Cox, who played Logan Roy in the series, talks about someone hurling their father off a cliff. Or if you’re a Super Troopers fan, you’ll picture him hurling Rod Farva into the abyss.

And, as several fans point out, Cox absolutely nails the pronunciation of the Tekken’s Japanese names. He likely had a coach on-hand to help him, but as one Twitter user put it, “Brian Cox perfectly saying ‘Mishima Zaibatsu’ is just ear candy to me.”

Cox isn’t a regular gaming fixture, but he’s lent his voice to a few games. He played antagonist Lionel Starkweather in the then-controversial Manhunt, and was the Helgen overlord Scolar Visari in the Killzone games.

Sadly, Logan Roy is not a playble Tekken 8 fighter, though given that Tekken 7 got The Walking Dead’s Negan as a DLC, you never know what the future will hold.

Tekken 8 releases this Friday January 26. To make sure you can run it, check Tekken 8’s system requirements and whether Tekken 8 is Steam Deck compatible.