Astro’s Playroom is out now, offering a surprisingly strong gameplay loop that takes players through PlayStation’s history of tech and games. One of the many franchises referenced within Astro’s Playroom is Tekken, with the legendary fighting series seeing a cameo supervised by the game’s director.
With Tekken 7’s fourth season pass recently kicking off, the franchise is alive and well, making a cameo within Astro’s Playroom extremely well-deserved. Katsuhiro Harada oversaw development of the easter egg, supervising the Astro’s Playroom team as they built the reference to his series. He shared the news via a reply to a fan that shared the moment on Twitter, and the special scene shows Kazuya and Heihachi doing battle with one another.
Perhaps Harada needs to get more involved with the upcoming Tekken movie to make sure it’s accurate, as his supervision clearly paid off with this easter egg. The special scene showcases the two fighters’ iconic hairdos, with the characters using some recognizable moves from the fighting franchise in front of a few cheering bystanders. They are all bots, of course, with a camera man recording as the action takes place.
With the Tekken franchise selling 50 million copies, it is no surprise that it was included among the long list of cameos within Astro’s Playroom. A bot based on Sam from Death Stranding can be seen wielding a huge stack of boxes and stumbling everywhere, while Cole can be found electrifying wires just like he did in Infamous. Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, and even MediEvil references can be found within the game, giving the Tekken easter egg some impressive company.
While Astro’s Playroom could have easily been a brief tech demo that players put down after a few moments, the game instead became an excellent PS5 launch title. Featuring solid platforming and some mind-blowing use of the DualSense controller, the cute game stands out as a must-play title for next-gen adopters. It really is the cameos like this homage to Tekken that will put a smile on the face of PlayStation fans, though, making the game truly special for those who have played on the systems for years.
With Astro confirmed to return, hopefully the little bots next adventure has as much heart in it as Astro’s Playroom did. If the next Astro game references Tekken again, perhaps Katsuhiro Harada will provide another special assist.
Astro’s Playroom is available now exclusively on PS5.
