'Tekken 7' shows off fiery opening cinematic

Big name arcade release "Tekken 7" is being readied for a Japanese debut on February 18, with its opening cinematic being issued in advance.

Big name arcade release 'Tekken 7' is being readied for a Japanese debut on February 18, with its opening cinematic being issued in advance.

Martial arts mainstays of the fighting game series, Kazuya and his father Heihachi face off inside an active volcano.

Tieing them together is a third character, Kazumi, who is mother to Kazuya and wife to Heihachi.

Now in its 21st year, the 'Tekken' series was one of the first to successfully grapple with taking the then-supreme fighting game genre's standard side-on, two-dimensional perspective and transposing it into a fully 3D engine.

Even if first-person shooters have become the action genre of choice since the turn of the century, a dozen sequels and spin-offs followed 1994's original 'Tekken,' even including a crossover title with one-time fierce rival 'Street Fighter.'

The mid-February release of a 'Tekken 7' arcade cabinet in Japan is to be followed by a worldwide roll-out in March.

Its international audience has continued to influence character design as four new competitors are introduced to an already diverse line-up, with a Brazilian, an Italian, a Saudi Arabian and a kitten-eared fan of Japanese pop culture added to the roster of fist and feet fighters.

A home edition is expected to come to PlayStation 4, revitalizing a close relationship between Bandai Namco's franchise and the Sony brand's earliest days, while studio representatives have not yet moved to rule out versions for the Xbox One or the older, more widely owned PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.