Genre: 3D / Fighting / One-on-One CDs: 1 (599.3 Megs) Players: 1 or 2 Player Versus ESRB: Teen
Animated Violence
Publisher: Namco Retail Barcode: 7 22674 02079 4 Memory: 1 Block
Developer: Namco Sony ID: SLUS-00402 Accessories: None
Released: April 29, 1998 PSRM: 009510


Box Copy
The fight of your life.

An ancient evil force has reawakened, attacking in secret and feeding on the souls of mighty warriors. To lure it out of hiding will take the greatest fighting contest the world has ever seen...Tekken 3. Some are fighting for revenge, some for honor. Ultimately, all are fighting for their lives and the fate of mankind.

Discussion
 There are three main staples in the PlayStation owners dietary supply of 3D fighting games: Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Soul Caliber. Namco makes two of them, and both have gone on since the early days to many sequels and other projects. Tekken was Namco's first true fighting game hit for the PlayStation back when it launched an era dominated by the two rivalries of Street Fighter against Mortal Kombat and Tekken taking on Virtua Fighter.

Before we get on to the review, there's something I must get off my chest that's been a burden since these games launched. Despite graphics and their animations, Tekken IS NOT A REALISTIC FIGHTER in any way, shape or form. Millions of gamers have shunned the Street Fighters and other 2D games simply based on TekkenÕs visual presentation and style. It does not matter that Eddy does perfect Capoeira or that you can pull various moves off with each direction of the joystick. There is one very, blatantly obvious fact presented in the game that prevents it from being considered a realistic game:

You. Can. Juggle. Š You can literally hit someone, watch as they bounce off the ground and then carry him or her across the screen in mid air with your fists. You can low kick someone on the ground and watch as they slide across grass like it was ice. Not realistic, ever. If you want a realistic fighter, go play Bushido Blade 1.

Phew.

So anyway, Tekken 3; As mentioned earlier, a beautiful game that closed out the series on PlayStation 1. You and various combatants must fight each other to win the right to have your ass handed to you by an ancient demon god. It's important to point out that this is where the Tekken series began to spin wildly out of control when it came to its storylines. The first Tekken was simply a tournament, and you had to defeat Heihachi. The second Tekken had you taking on his now demonic son Kazuya. With 3, we begin to see more spiritual beings brought in, including the freaky demon dude in 5 and that dragon thing in 6.

Tekken's control scheme is a little awkward in how it is performed. While it's not quite the dial-a-combo that was Mortal Kombat 3, there seems to be a speed aspect that I just cannot figure out. If you press a combo pattern at a normal speed, nothing really happens; if you speed up the process, suddenly they'll start combining the moves. I've tried over the years to get it down, but to no avail. This is no means a knock on the game, simply an observation.

As mentioned in the Trivia, the game's backgrounds take a hit from the arcade, but the loss is both minimal and understandable. Considering the RAM they had to work with, the fact that they got the characters to animate and look as great as they did is a testament to the programming team.

Of special mention in the characters department is Gon; an adorable little dinosaur that was licensed from a Japanese comic artist. While he isn't canonical in any sense, taking on Gon in Tekken Ball Mode is a hoot, and a welcomed chuckle in versus mode when you just want a laugh instead of getting your ass handed to you again.

Besides Tekken Ball, there is also Tekken Force mode, in which you pick a character and battle your way through the streets as if you were playing Final Fight. The usual suspects like Versus, Practice, and other modes join the fray as well. The game has held up remarkably well, and if you never picked up Tekken 5 on PS2, this is a hell of a worthy purchase for any Tekken fan of fighting fan in general.

The game does have a minor flaw though, at least for PlayStation 3 owners using HDMI. While it does play fine, the characters suffer from terrible graphic issues as the move. It almost looks like interlacing issues. If you turn on the smoothing option, it helps a tiny bit, but it is still prevalent. Might just be an output issue, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

Trivia
  • Greatest Hit with a variant below.
     
  • Tekken 3 was the final Tekken for the PlayStation, thanks in part to the PlayStation 2 being just around the corner (at least on the development side). The game's release proved that the PSone hardware wasn't going anywhere. It's by no means perfect; the 3D backgrounds were reduced to an almost perfect flat illusion, and there's minor reductions on the characters. This is all nit-picking anyway - the game runs insanely smooth, it *still* looks gorgeous in S-Video after all these years, and the music is head banging central.
     
  • Probably one of the most enthusiastic beefed up home releases. Namco added in a guest character (the little dinosaur Gon), tossed in various fight modes, added a whole separate game variant (a Final Fight-like mode), and extra cinemas. Namco truly knew / knows how to bring a game home.
     
  • Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2 was essentially a upgrade kit to Tekken 3. Using a redone graphics engine, a new Tag Mode, and a new selection of extras, Namco used it as a launching platform for their PS2 library as well as a benchmark / demo reel for the PS2 unveiling.
     
  • The series is one of the few non-SNK brands to actually progress and age the characters in the game. By the time Tekken 3 hit, there were already parent & child relationships (i.e. Michelle and Juila, Law and Forrest), obvious signs of aging (Hihachi, Nina, Paul, etc), and various story arcs that were now taking a serious tone (Jin's parents are Kazuya and the deceased Jun).
     
  • GameShark fans were given a rude surprise in the vein of 'A Christmas Story' when the game arrived on US Shores. A fan-site of hackers created a rather lengthy code that had to be inputted very specifically for it to work. Being one of the gullible ones, I took the time to do it. All that happens is the title screen's Mode Letters have been re-arranged to read something like, "Versus Books Rocks with Style"
     
  • Speaking of GameSharks, you can actually create a code set where you can map the character graphics to any character move set. Watching a Panda act like a cute Japanese school girl is a sight you have to see.
     
  • Namco did something pretty cool with the release of Tekken 5 on the PS2. If you jump into the game's Option Setting, you can find the emulated versions of the real arcade roms of Tekken 1, 2, and 3.
Variants / Misprints
Tekken 3 received the standard Greatest Hits release variant, but then something peculiar happened.

The ESRB updated its Icon Graphics to a Solid Black Font, as to be easier to read from a distance. When this happened, Namco only changed the Icon on the manual; the discs inside were the same. Air Combat shares the same variant. Recent research has not been able to turn up a Black T ESRB disc, so for now it's just the manual.

Oddly enough, the back insert has a small layout problem compared to the original release. The body copy that begins under the "The Fight of Your Life" headline has been slightly adjusted and bleeds into the top left screenshot. The move makes no sense (I'm a graphic designer by degree) and is presumably a small accident that wasn't caught. Curiously, the caption text is now not bold, and Namco's address changed in the bottom.

Tekken 3 - Greatest Hits Release (White ESRB T) / All Information Same as Black Label Release

Tekken 3 - Greatest Hits Release (Black ESRB T) / All Info Same - See Notes About Manual
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