Following its soft-launch last summer and its staggered official launch over the course of this past month, Bandai Namco has officially launched Tekken (Free) worldwide a couple of days ahead of schedule. In case you haven’t been following along, this is a mobile-ized version of the classic fighting game franchise, which means it’s a simplified “swipe fighter" like Marvel Contest of Champions (Free) or Injustice 2 (Free) rather than a full-fledged fighting game with virtual buttons like Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition ($4.99). It features a huge cast of Tekken characters, each coming in a variety of classes and styles. The big differentiator in Tekken compared to other swipe fighters is its Waza Card system which sees you collecting and upgrading a variety of special move cards and then equipping up to three of them during battle. Unlike similar games which typically have 3 levels of special move per character, in Tekken you can mix and match your Waza Cards to create different fighting styles and then blend those card-based special moves into your normal swipe and tap fighting to create a variety of cool combos.

If you’re looking for a traditional fighting game, you’ll likely be disappointed with this new Tekken. However, if you enjoy the free to play swipe fighters then this is a very good one of those. The fighting mechanics are really solid and have a nice rhythm to them, and the Waza Card system is a really neat way to add some customization and variety to your fighters. It’s not meant to replace full-blown Tekken on consoles, but it acts as a very nice complimentary experience for fans of the series. Collecting and upgrading characters is a lot of fun and this is the type of game you’ll play for months and even years as you slowly build out your roster. Also this worldwide launch includes a brand new character to the Tekken universe named Rodeo which will be included for all players in all regions for free as part of the pre-registration campaign rewards. You can see a video about Rodeo below, but if you’re at all interested in these swipe fighters on mobile I’d definitely recommend giving Tekken a download for free and checking it out, then stopping by the forum thread to share your thoughts with the community.