A modder for Tekken 8 removed all the fighters’ unique features to make the gameplay “more reminiscent of Tekken 5.”

A modder for Tekken 8 has pared back the fighting game to its bare essentials by removing most of its flashy new features, in an effort to “get us back to [Tekken 5] days.” The mod is called “Good Ass Tekken” and it basically turns the game into a good-looking remake of older versions.

You can see the mod in action in this video of bad blood inheritor Devil Jin fighting lip-licking Russian slimeball Dragunov. The mod removes the heat bar, the rage state, armoured moves, and tracking attacks. Which is, uh, more or less everything that makes Tekken 8 distinct from its ancestors (and slightly angrier).

Rage, for example, is a glowing red state that you enter on low health, which allows you to bust out a powerful “rage drive” or “rage art” – often a means of regaining some momentum when you’re on the ropes. The heat bar is an even newer feature, added in Tekken 8, which lets you chip away at an opponent’s health even when they block, among other advantages and uses.

These aggressive fist-augmenting tricks are designed to encourage players to push their opponents (you can read how it works in our Tekken 8 review). But not all players seem to be enjoying the resultant pummelings, which can result in quicker fights where one mistake means the match is lost. The mod’s maker, “KulaGGin”, called the mod’s return to classical fighting “how I see real Tekken”. The modder also wants to increase the distance players can backdash “for better footsies”, make launching attacks reliably unsafe when you whiff, and dial back the ridiculous damage you can currently do with combos.

If you’re sold, you can download the mod on the Fight Club Discord, as noted by Automaton, who first spotted it. To the unTekkened eye, the above brawl between Devil Jin and Dragunov may simply look like more fighting game co-biffery. But to anyone that’s played the latest game’s onslaught of flashing body parts, it is noticeably clean. A Tekken for purists.

Me? I like the rage state – it’s my “smash glass in case of bear” button. And armour moves (which let you absorb a hit as you attack) grant players at least one panicky option if things are going terribly. I would miss them if they were gone. But I could certainly see a “no frills” mode like this being appealing to more grizzled Tekkenistas.

At least it doesn’t make the game more like Tekken 4, a game that was so stressful to develop it reportedly caused the game’s director to lose all the hair on the right side of his body.