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At EVO 2019, Bandai Namco announced that martial artist Zafina and kung fu master Leroy Smith will be coming to Tekken 7 as part of its third Season Pass later this year.
Spiritual warrior Zafina — from Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 — will debut in September. Leroy Smith is a new character to the series; an American martial artist who lost everything to gang warfare when he was young, he’s now back for revenge. Zafina will not feature in the game’s Story Mode, and Leroy will join the roster this winter. The third Season Pass will also update the game with new moves for all characters, a new feature and a new stage.
However, the internet span into a frenzy when Bandai Namco seemed to tease that Solid Snake from Konami’s Metal Gear series might be an upcoming fighter. In a clip that wasn’t streamed to live audiences and only played exclusively for the attendees, Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada spoke to Solid Snake in a codec conversation (via LightningCam on Twitter).
snake??? what are you doing here? #Tekken #MetalGearSolid #EVO2019 pic.twitter.com/mukJF5KlSa
— LightningCam @ EVO (@LightningCam) August 5, 2019
Given the colourful roster of Tekken 7 DLC characters — who among them include Geese Howard of Fatal Fury and Negan from The Walking Dead — and that Snake is a seasoned fighter in two Smash Bros. entries, adding the special ops agent into the mix wasn’t a stretch of the imagination.
Alas, EVO was in fact playing a prank on us all. The clip was in jest, and it turned out that Solid Snake won’t be coming to Tekken 7. The feverish excitement it drummed up has to count for something though. Harada and Snake should keep in contact, maybe as pen pals rather than through codec conversation, in case anyone gets the wrong idea.
Just to clear things up, the Snake cameo video that we showed during Tekken finals was our idea of a little joke. It was not intended to imply a character reveal, and was done on our own, without consulting Bandai Namco. Sorry for any confusion!
— EVO (@EVO) August 5, 2019
Tekken 7 is out on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One. Watch the third Season Pass reveal trailer below.
