Tekken 7: Kuma and Panda Trailer

With Tekken 7 coming closer and closer to hitting home, albeit with no known release date outside of “early 2017,” it’s time to fill up the roster with the more familiar names who didn’t make the arcade cut. Tekken’s cast is so rich and enjoyable that you can be missing a chunk of great fighters and not even realize it. That’s the case with Kuma (and to a lesser extent Panda), who is a major staple in the series despite being absent from Tekken 7until now.

I guess I was so distracted by having Akuma around that I totally blanked on how much I missed THE Kuma.

As always, Kuma and Panda are treated as two separate characters despite being two different skins for the same moveset. Outside of character design and storyline, the thing separating them is their animations in non-gameplay behavior. In other words, intros, winning poses, and what they do upon hitting their Rage Arts. Panda plays volleyball on her opponent while Kuma smacks them around with a fish.

The Kuma concept first showed up in the first Tekkenas Heihachi Mishima’s prized pet and bodyguard. The first Kuma died of old age prior to Tekken 3, only to be replaced by his son with the same name. The intelligent bear martial artist is driven by his loyalty to Heihachi, rivalry with Paul Phoenix, and unrequited love for Panda. In Tekken 7, with Heihachi back in command of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Kuma is one of his generals.

Hence the cool cyborg armor.

Panda was also introduced in Tekken 3. She’s the bodyguard and sister figure to Ling Xiaoyu. Outside of rejecting Kuma’s advances, Panda’s MO is basically being a background character to Xiaoyu’s exploits.

In terms of returning characters, I’d say expect announcements for Anna Williams or Armor King sometime in the near future.

Tekken 7will be released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows sometime in the first half of 2017.

Gavin Jasper wants an extra version of Kuma with some of Akuma’s moves. That would rule. Follow Gavin on Twitter!