Title: Tekken 3
Format: Sony PlayStation
Genre: 3D Fighting
Players: Two
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Memory: One Block
Rating: 10/10
Fifteen years after the second King of the Iron Fist tournament,
Heihachi's Tekken forces had been destroyed by something called
"Ogre." Heihachi learns this Ogre gets its powers from the souls of
defeated masters. Many have disappeared as of late, including Jin
Kazama's mother. Heihachi trains Jin the art of Mishima to team
up against this force which could threaten the Mishima empire.
After four years of training, Heihachi announces a third King
of the Iron Fist tournament, using Jin as bait to draw Ogre out
into the open.
I'll admit it right now; I was never a fan of Tekken, or Tekken 2
either. Regardless, I picked up Tekken 3 over the past week to see
what all the excitement was about, and to properly check out the
strategy guide Prima had sent me for review. I must say I was
very impressed, and found the game to rival, if not surpass,
my absolute favorite fighter at the time, Tobal 2.
Tekken 3 offers plenty to keep you busy for quite some time;
ten characters are initially selectable, and 22 (23 counting
Tiger) are available after you've unlocked all the hidden
characters. The standard Arcade and Vs gameplay modes are offered,
as well as Team Battle and Survival modes. Tekken Force is new;
it's a Final Fight-style romp through four relatively short, yet
tough, areas of the Tekken universe. This proves to be a key
to unlocking one of the hidden characters, literally. This mode
is difficult and short, but overall an excellent addition to
the game. Upon playing some more, you unlock Tekken Ball mode,
in which you hit a ball of your choice; beach, iron, or gumball,
and try to either get it past your opponent or nail him with it to
inflict damage. The Theater Mode is also an interesting feature; you
can view any of the FMV scenes in the game, and even one that's not.
Tekken 1 and 2 CD's can be swapped with the disc option to play the FMV
scenes off of them, as well.
It's been established that the PlayStation version of Tekken 3 offers
a lot more than the arcade; plenty of new gameplay modes, and several
new characters, but how does the game itself hold up next to the graphically
impressive arcade title? The answer, very well indeed. The graphics, most
notably the backgrounds, suffer a bit of a loss, and slowdown can be quite
prominent at times. Also, when True Ogre is on-screen, the background has been
blacked out so as not to choke the hardware. This may sound like a lot of degrading,
but the adjustments have been done as inconspicuously as possible, and while in
the heat of battle, won't be very noticeable, and won't matter, either (though the
slowdown could somewhat affect gameplay, it doesn't last for long enough periods
of time to cause any considerable problems). Fantastic music, available in arcade
original or a new remixed beat, compliment the
intense action, and the sound effects of all the slams, knock-downs, grunts and
groans are all present in unparalleled form.
Tekken 3 is a fantastic port of the incredible arcade game, and even surpasses
the arcade original when the multiple secret modes, new characters and other
features are taken into account. If you're a fighting fan, check out Tekken 3,
and if you're already an established Tekken fan, what are you waiting for?!
