Tekken 3
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| Tekken 3 | |
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| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Release date(s) | Arcade
PlayStation
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| Genre(s) | Versus fighting |
| Mode(s) | Up to two players |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 (as a part of Tekken 5's Arcade History mode) |
| Input | 8-way joystick, 6 buttons; Gamepad |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system(s) | Namco System 12 |
Tekken 3 is the third installment in the popular Tekken fighting game series. It was the first game released on Namco's System 12 hardware (an improvement to the original two Tekken games, which used System 11). It was the last installment of Tekken for the PlayStation. It was released for the PlayStation in 1998, and in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of Tekken 5's Arcade History mode.
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[edit] Gameplay
Tekken 3 maintains the same basic fighting system as its predecessors, but brings improvements, such as significantly more detailed graphics and animation, 15 new characters added to the game's roster, and faster and more fluid gameplay. Perhaps the most noticeable change in Tekken 3 is sidestepping, allowing fighters to step "into" or "out of" the background, whereas the element of depth had been largely insignificant in previous Tekken games. Another feature added to more fully take advantage of the 3D space was being able to dash or run in 8 directions, increasing the mobility of the fighters. The improved engine allowed for quick recoveries from knock-downs, more escapes from tackles and stuns, and newly-created combo throws.
Tekken 3 was the first Tekken to feature a beat-up mini-game called Tekken Force. Tekken Force pitted the player in various stages against enemies in a side-scrolling fashion. This was continued in Tekken 4 and succeeded by the "Devil Within" mini-game in Tekken 5. There is also a mini-game called Tekken Ball, similar to beach volley, where one has to "charge" a ball (hit the ball with a powerful attack) in order to hurt the opponent.
[edit] Story
The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2 draws to a close. Jun Kazama comes to the stunning realization that Kazuya Mishima's supernatural strength stems from Devil. But she cannot help being drawn to him, propelled by a mystic force beyond her control. Several days later, the final challenger arrives to face Kazuya, the organizer of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2. In a reprise of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 1, father and son clash in a cursed blood battle. Eventually, Heihachi Mishima emerges, scarred, but victorious, to regain control of the immense Mishima Zaibatsu. Unaware of Devil's presence, Heihachi casts the lifeless Kazuya into a volcano.
As Kazuya's body burns, the Devil appears before the pregnant Jun Kazama in a bid to enter the soul of the new life beating within her. But in a desperate struggle for the future of her child, Jun defeats Devil and retires to desolate Yakushima so as to raise Kazuya's son, Jin Kazama, alone.
Having regained control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Heihachi sets about to further increase his powers. He embarks on a crusade to win the trust of world leaders by putting wars and conflicts to rest. Using his immeasurable wealth, he forms Tekkenshu, a mercenary group employed to quell conflicts efficiently. He also takes a strong interest in the well being of developing nations by helping them build agricultural systems that will sustain them. Through Heihachi's efforts, the world appears to be regaining peace.
Around fifteen years have passed, and Jin Kazama is now 15 years old.
Under Heihachi's orders, the Tekken Force are excavating a Central American archeological site when they discover a mysterious life form. Heihachi orders the creature's capture, but loses contact with the Tekkenshu after a garbled radio message, "... they are all dead... Ogre(Fighting God)?!..."
Upon arriving at the dig, Heihachi finds a field of corpses. Heihachi is wracked by sorrow, but also realizes that the power of the mysterious life form could be the key to his long dormant dream of world domination. To obtain this mysterious power of Ogre, and the world, Heihachi tempts the fates once again...
Within weeks, strange disappearances occur throughout the world. Persons of strong soul, masters of martial arts, and other derivative fighting disciplines are reported missing with no knowledge of their whereabouts.
Jun Kazama instinctively picks up on the dark power encroaching on her life. She has no understanding of what it is, but senses that she has become a target. Accepting her destiny, she tells Jin everything that she knows of their haunted past to prepare him for the fateful day that she now feels is imminent. She tells Jin to go to his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, if anything should befall her.
Her intuition proves right on a cold and stormy night. Ogre comes to the mountains, bringing a chilling, swirling wind. Jun instructs Jin to run away. But against his mother's pleas, Jin opts to face Ogre and is knocked unconscious.
When Jin awakens, the house and everything around it is burned to the ground. Jin searches frantically for his mother, but she is nowhere to be found.
Jun has died at Ogre's hands. Honoring her instructions, Jin goes to Heihachi and begs to be trained in order exact revenge. Heihachi, hearing Jin's tale, is convinced that Ogre is after the souls of powerful fighters. To attract Ogre, Heihachi decides to host the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3.
Four years later, on Jin Kazama's 19th birthday, the curtains rise for The King of Iron Fist Tournament 3.
[edit] Character Roster
[edit] Returning Characters
- Paul Phoenix
- Nina Williams
- Anna Williams (unlockable)
- Heihachi Mishima (unlockable)
- Yoshimitsu
- Lei Wulong
- King (it should be noted that this King is a successor to the first; the first King was killed by Ogre)
- Kuma (unlockable/time-released; Like King, this Kuma is a successor, more notably a son to the first; the original Kuma died of old age)
[edit] New Characters
- Jin Kazama (the son of Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama)
- Forrest Law (Marshall Law's son)
- Hwoarang (Baek Doo San's student)
- Eddy Gordo
- Bryan Fury (replacement for Bruce Irvin) (unlockable/time-released)
- Gun Jack (unlockable/time-released/ Incarnation of Jack, Jack-2 and Prototype Jack)
- Ogre (unlockable/time-released)
- True Ogre (unlockable) (incarnation of Ogre incoporating long-ranged attacks and teleports although is slower than Ogre presumably to balance the character)
- Julia Chang (Michelle Chang's daughter) (unlockable/time-released)
- Ling Xiaoyu (Wang Jinrei's granddaughter)
- Panda (unlockable/time-released)
- Mokujin (unlockable/time-released)
- Tiger Jackson (unlockable/ Extra costume for Eddy Gordo)
[edit] Bonus Characters (Playstation Version)
- Gon (unlockable by either defeating him in the Tekken Ball mode, by placing third in the Survival mode and entering GON as your initials, or by beating the game with Doctor Boskonovitch)
- Doctor Boskonovitch (unlockable by beating him in the extra stage of Tekken Force, available only when you complete it for the fourth time)
[edit] Ports
Tekken 3 was originally ported to the PlayStation with two new characters. The PlayStation version features Tekken Force and Tekken Ball, which aren't in the PlayStation version of Tekken 2.
The PlayStation version of Tekken 3 was later emulated for the Sega Dreamcast with improved graphics. However the game came out at the end of the Dreamcasts lifespan and due to lawsuits, very few stores sold the game making the Dreamcast version rare, even on places such as Amazon and eBay.
The PlayStation 2 release of Tekken 5 features the Arcade version of Tekken 3.
[edit] Reception
Tekken 3 is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the series as well as the best fighting game for the Playstation. It was released during the peak of the 3D Fighting game gerne and the PlayStation's popularity selling over 6,000,000 copies worldwide, which is double than what Tekken 2 ever sold.[citation needed] Critics consider Tekken 3 to be one of the greatest video games of all time, this is because it excels in just about all aspects such as graphics, sound, features, gameplay and replayability. In December 2006 it was ranked #6 on Game Rankings top ten games of all time and on GameSpot's top ten list it was ranked #10.
[edit] Scores
- IGN - 9.3 out of 10
- GameSpot - 9.9 out of 10
- GamePro - 5 out of 5
- PSM Magazine - 5 out of 5
- Gaming Age - 97 out of 100
- Famitsu Magazine - 39 out of 40
[edit] Trivia
- Tekken 3 was only possible on the Playstation due to Sony creating a new tool for the Playstation devkit called the performance analyser back in 1997. Without it, Namco would not have been able to port Tekken 3 to the Playstation unless they made use of the I/O port for a RAM cart which can only be found on the earlier versions of the old Playstation model. One of the developers stated that without the performance analyser, Kings movelist animation alone could not fit into the Playstations system RAM. Still, Namco had to do away with the arcade versions 3D backgrounds, cut the resolution down from 640x480 to 368x480 and also take out some frames of animation to get Tekken 3 working at 60 frames per second on the Playstation. These changes were all due to the fact that the arcade version was made for the Namco System 12 arcade board which has more RAM and a higher CPU clock speed than the Playstation.
- Games journalist Paul Davies, whilst editor of long-running games magazine C&VG, almost lost his job due to the sheer volume of Tekken 3 coverage he ran each month. This included printing every character's complete moves-lists twice (once for the arcade and once when the PlayStation version was released), and 3 consecutive previews in the final months before the release. Whilst some magazines do this with most big games, it is rare that both previews were cover stories - one of which was the main cover story, before the review was also the main story two months after the first preview.
- Storywise, 20 years passed from the previous release. Many Tekken 2 characters were dropped. Some were replaced by their equivalent versions. Tekken 2's Kuma is the father of Tekken 3's Kuma (male). Forrest Law is the son of Marshall Law. King is the follower of Tekken 2's King, taking some of Armor King's moves. Jin is the son of Kazuya and Jun, taking most of their moves. Other characters returned, with the acception of Nina and Anna. Nina and Anna had undegone cryogenic sleep, and Nina suffered from amnesia. Gun Jack is a combination of Jack, Jack-2, and Prototype Jack.
- Tekken 3 marks the first time that the series took a more Japanese Manga-like direction in terms of theme (evident in some of the characters behaviors and movie endings), character design (Gon, Ling Xiaoyu, Mokujin), and artistic presentation.
- The Arcade soundtrack feautured the same theme for all of the lower row (unlockable on the PlayStation) characters (except Heihachi and Ogre; they, as the bosses, had their own original themes), the console featured remixed versions of the arcade music for most of the characters, while Hwoarang, Eddy, and Xiaoyu had brand new individual tracks(also done for the unlockable characters). You still have an option to change the songs back to the Arcade versions.
- The Arcade version of Tekken 3 features Anna Williams as an alternate costume for Nina. She shares the same moves, stance and voice. Her character portrait is similar to that of Tekken 2, but with slight 3-Dimensional touches.
[edit] Bugs
Arcade version:
- During Replay, your character's 'attack' voice, as well as their 'injury' voice will sound for any attack or combo displayed by him/her.
[edit] Changes
Brief changes were made to the following characters:
- The console version features Anna with her own character space, along with a different voice, portrait and a series of original moves, and collection of outfits added. Her stance is the same as the two previous Tekken games.
- The Arcade version focused on Yoshimitsu's new 'space armor' style. For any attack involving infliction of weapon damage, a laser-like sound replaced that of a sword chop in order to fit his space theme (He is equipped with a light saber, rather than a sword). The 'sword chop' fx returned to the console version, however.
