Tekken 3

"Baek Beat Down"

Tekken 3 is a new way of looking at the world of Tekken and stepping away from the old style of fighting that the previous two Tekken games had to offer. With several new characters and different styles of fighting at your disposal, this is the last great Tekken game for the original Play Station that still gets played over all other versions. Adding in characters such as Eddie and Bryan Fury, you have a balance of characters that range from ultra fast to ultra powerful. The story line is still extremely vague with most of the characters, and you won’t get an ending in the game once you’ve defeated it. Like most fighting games, there are no modes other than a one-player fight fest and a two-player versus that you can compete with another player. Unlike Tekken Tag, there is no tag in feature and you’ll have to practice up on a single character to learn all of their moves before you actually move onto all of the characters!

Kicking Your Ass…

Tekken has been known for one on one battle against the computer or an opponent with some technical fighting that is almost akin to Virtua Fighter and its subsequent games. If that wasn't enough, some of the characters that have returned have some tricks that really show off some spectacular moves! If you add this into the fact that most of the characters also have a new move set to compliment their new look and attitude. Some of the missing characters include favorites like the high kicking Baek, and the sensitive Jun, only to be replaced with characters such as Hworang and Jin! The list of characters goes on and on, and really the focus of the game is to try and create a rather unbeatable character team that will dominate over anyone or anything that comes your way.

One of the coolest features that you have at your disposal is the practice function, which allows you to go through with just about any character you have and learn how to use them effectively. The key to becoming an expert Tekken player is not to simply mash on the buttons and hope for the win, but go through and totally master a character in order to understand where they are strong and where they are weak. Those who really take the time to learn how to use each of the characters should practically be undefeatable when it comes time to go through the versus mode. Versus mode or course, allows you to go one on one with a friend and you’ll really be able to fight for both bragging and skill rights.

Now, what you have to remember is that there is a dodge feature in this version of the game that goes a long way in determining whether or not you are actually going to make it through the battle. Every character has a strength and a weakness, with most of the game characters having a pretty good selection of offensive and defensive movements. Throws are important with the dodge feature and the fact that you can now attack while dodging to the side makes for a whole new world of fighting against either a human opponent or the computer! Tekken has been 50 percent control and 50 percent fighting and nothing in Tekken 3 is any different.

You'll find that the massive amount of moves in the game will keep even the seasoned Tekken player playing for weeks just to learn the ranges on all of the moves, all of the moves themselves and then to learn how to control the character in side stepping situations! With that being said, the advanced combinations and moves have a learning curve depending on the character used. Where a seasoned Law player will remember the moves, a King Player will find that the timing required is completely different then it was before to execute the massively damaging multi-throw combination that made him famous!

Furious Action… -

Although they aren’t as impressive as Tekken Tag and not as clean as Tekken 4, Tekken 3 does a good job with the speed and character design that you would expect and hope for in a fighting game. The visuals are a step up from the first two games, in which Tekken 3 is now starting to completely move away from sharp edged polygons and into a more streamlined state. Every move and action on screen is near fluid, and some of the more advanced throw combinations are truly killer to look at and watch as well as at a respectable speed that doesn't show the much in terms of slow down. However, Tekken 3 does in fact suffer from a bit of small break up during some throws and certain special moves that won't really catch your attention unless you're looking for them. New moves and new throws all come with different camera angles, which help to really bring the action home to the eyes and never really stops the overall action from being fast and furious in each and every battle.

Funky Dance Beat…

The audio here comes across as dance type music set in a fast paced fighting game. Each stage has its own personality that is set up by the stage music. While it doesn't interfere, or take away from the action, it merely accentuates the fight you're in. The sound effects range from your basic thuds and crunches to the ever-popular bone snaps that sound truly sickening and add a bit of flare to fights! With that being said, most of what you hear is nothing that will detract from the game play and will actually get you more into the mood when you hear the announcer tell you to start fighting. With the additions of these new musical selections, the only thing that is missing here is the sound effects, which really haven’t changed much from the previous Tekken games. This might be something of a downfall if you’re more inept with the newer versions of Tekken.

Break It Down

Tekken 3 is a great place to start in the series because of the advanced moves that you can’t find in the previous two games. If you like the Tekken series and you haven’t touched Tekken Tag or the Tekken 4 game for the Play Station 2, then this is a great place to start learning. With several characters that have wild moves and exceptional fighting capabilities, there is plenty of challenge and modes that you can enjoy for hours before moving onto the next set of games. Tekken 3 could be considered the last, best Tekken game on any format and system by some, and well worth having in your collection of Play Station games.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/02, Updated 02/22/03