Thanks to the explosion of short-form video on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, the American restaurant chain Waffle House has gained a reputation as a bit of a Fight Club venue (as well as for having excellent hash browns). Apparently that’s spurred many Tekken 8 players to ask the game’s director to add a Waffle House stage to the game.
Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada posed the question on his X account over the weekend. “Ok, I will only ask once about this request,” he said. “Why do some communities send me requests for ‘Waffle House’?”
This wasn’t a rhetorical question, it seemed Harada really wanted to know why the fighting game‘s fans were so adamant about this particular ask. “Please be sure to explain the basis for the request, including the original story, history and background,” he went on.
The reason, of course, is that videos of late-night Waffle House brawls have flooded the internet over the past 18 months or so, and the virality of these videos have made the fights a kind of self-perpetuating phenomenon. The more absurd the antics captured on video, the better the chances of attracting millions of views. Videos feature fights between patrons and between patrons and staff, with nearby items like coffee pots and chairs frequently used as ersatz weapons in the heat of the moment.
However, Waffle House is a real business, and one that probably doesn’t want its brand permanently associated with people beating each other up. In a follow-up post, Harada seems to suggest that he’s considering making the request, but that Waffle House is unlikely to agree to have its logos and branding used in a fighting game stage.
“Thanks for the explanation guys,” he said. “And I understand that many people are requesting it. However, I think you are missing one important point. The restaurant has both the trademark and the rights to the restaurant, so if the restaurant chain’s headquarters refuses to accept my proposal, it will not happen.”
Of course, that leaves open the exciting possibility that Waffle House’s corporate leadership will accept Harada’s proposal, in which case we can look forward to Jin Kazama and Paul Phoenix scattering each others’ hash browns all over the dining room. Heck, you could even set up a Kuma vs. Panda bear fight in there.
Check out our Tekken 8 review, as well as our Tekken 8 tier list, which breaks down the full fighters roster from best to worst.
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Header image uses a photo by Michael Barera and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.