Tekken 8’s first DLC character will be series regular Eddy Gordo, kicking off its season pass this spring

Three more characters will follow throughout this year

Tekken 8’s first DLC character will be a familiar face: Eddy Gordo, the capoeira pro who has previously appeared in the mainline roster of the fighting game series since 1997’s Tekken 3.

Publishers Bandai Namco announced that Eddy will be Tekken 8’s first DLC addition alongside a look at the game’s opening movie, which shows the likes of Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima and the rest of the game’s roster preparing to fight and trading blows while thumping EDM plays in the background. There’s a bird flapping about too, but I don’t think you’ll be able to fight it.

The video shifts over to showing some of the behind-the-scenes mocap involved in recording its characters’ animation, before revealing Eddy pulling off some trademark capoeira moves and spin kicks to his signature music.

As revealed in the video, Eddy will be the first of four playable characters added throughout this year; after he arrives this spring, new characters will follow over the summer, autumn and winter. The four characters will make up the first season pass for the game, adding to the core game’s roster of 32 playable characters including regulars such as Yoshimitsu, King, Bryan and Paul alongside newcomers Reina, Victor and Azucena.

The latest iteration of the long-running fighting game will include a virtual arcade mode in addition to its story mode - focusing on the father-son scrap of Kazuya and Jin - and the local/online fights you’re after. It’s all done in Unreal Engine 5, so it’ll look very nice no doubt.

Tekken 8 will hit Steam on January 26th, with the Eddy DLC yet to be dated. The last Tekken ended up receiving over a dozen additional characters across four season passes - going beyond the game’s universe to include Final Fantasy XV’s Noctis and The Walking Dead’s Negan - so expect some wilder fighters to throw down in the future.