Tekken 3
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 Welcome, to the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3.
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Tekken 3 (鉄拳3) is a fighting game, the third entry in the Tekken series. It was released to the arcades in 1997, before being ported to the PlayStation in 1998. The arcade version of the game was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of Tekken 5's Arcade History mode. The game was also re-released as part of Sony's PlayStation Classic.
Plot
Fifteen years after the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2, Heihachi Mishima has established the Tekken Force: a paramilitary organization dedicated to the protection of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Using the company's influence, Heihachi is responsible for many events that have ultimately led to world peace. One day, a squadron of Tekken Force soldiers search an ancient temple located in Mexico under the premise of an excavation project. Soon after arriving there, Heihachi learns that they were obliterated by a mysterious and malevolent creature known as Ogre. Ogre is unleashed and Kills Jun Kazama, before her death she tells him to seak Heihatchi Mishima, his grandfather. Driven by revenge, Jin is confronted by the Devil, which brands Jin's left arm and possesses him. Jin goes to his grandfather Heihachi and explains his situation to him, begging him for training in order to become strong enough to face Ogre. Heihachi accepts and takes Jin under his wing.
Why it Rocks
- The game heavily expands upon the gameplay of the previous games by adding lots of things such as quick recovery and reversals...etc, making the game fresh and fun to play even today.
- Characters can sidestep in or out of the background which makes it easier to move and avoid your enemies.
- Characters now jump normally compared to previous Tekken games.
- 23 Characters (2 are skin/pallete of other characters while 2 are console exclusive), 6 are returning characters while 17 are new, which makes it easy for newcomers to start with this installment:
- Jin Kazama: the successor to Kazuya Mishima at the time, he's easy to use and would later be not just a fan favorite to the series but also the main character in most games.
- Ling Xiaoyu: A Chinese teenager practicing Baquazhang and Piguaquan who's very easy to use but hard to master.
- Gon: A small dinosaur from the manga of the same name, making it the first and only time he appears outside of Japan as well as the first guest character in the series.
- Ogre: A mysterious immortal bioweapon alien known as the God of Fighting. One of the two main bosses in the game.
- True Ogre: The final form of Ogre who's also the successor to Devil/Angel, one of the two main bosses in the game.
- Bryan Fury: An undead cyborg kickboxer with great moves that are easy to learn and fun to watch.
- Mokojin: A 2,000-year-old wooden dummy who randomly switches to a different character style every match, for example in one match Mokojin could play as Heihatchi, in the next match Mokojin could play as Nina Williams.
- Unlike previous installment, with the exception of Gon and Doctor B., all characters can be unlocked by just playing Arcade mode a number of times (depends on the character) which makes it easier to start with any character you want.
- The characters/game content can also be unlocked by played Vs Mode for a number of times, which is a great way for those who just want to get into multiplayer without the need to play Arcade.
- Introduces Tekken Force, a beat em up mode up to 4 stages where you choose your own character and battle soldiers across the stage until the end of the stage where you beat a certain character, once you finish the 4 stages you win a key, earn 3 keys to be able to challenge and unlock Doctor B.
- Introduces Tekken Ball, a new mode where you choose a character and play volley ball against another character instead of fighting and you hurt your opponent either by scoring a goal with the ball or hitting your opponent with the ball really hard.
- Theatre mode now available where you can see the endings of all characters anytime after you win arcade mode with them.
- Inserting Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 disc while on Theatre mode lets you see the ending of these games
- Amazing and iconic soundtrack
- The graphics are much better than the previous games, taking the PS1's power to its max.
Bad Qualities
- Tekken Force's controls are very awkward as it's based on a fighting game controls and not beat em up controls
- Speaking of Tekken Force, you unlock Doctor B. with him and he's not really fun to play with.
- Some characters have the same ending, such as Panda and Kuma, Yoshimitsu and Doctor B., Ogre and True Ogre.
- Introduces Eddy Gordo, a good character but well known for being the easiest button masher character.
Reception
The game received universal acclaim with many praising it for the massive improvements over Tekken 2, the amount of content, the graphics, the storyline and the game being beginner friendly.
It received 96 out of 100 in Metacritic which is still the highest rated Tekken game in the series as well as the highest rated fighting game ever as well as the second highest rated game for the Playstation, The first being Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
It's still seen even today as one of the greatest game of all time.
Trivia
- The game is the introduction to many players to the Tekken series, this game introduced more players to the series than Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 combined.
- Tekken 3, along with Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, are considered the highlights of the Playstation Classic miniconsole.
- A Tekken game called Tekken Advance, was released for the GBA, it's considered a port of Tekken 3 since it's largely based on Tekken 3 with the exception of the Tag Mechanic from Tekken Tag Tournament.
- Another Tekken game called Tekken Card Challenge was released exclusively to Japan for the Wonder Swan, it's a card game based on Tekken 3 with all the characters returning and includes the character Crow, a character exclusive to Tekken Force Mode in Tekken 3.
- This is the first game where the final boss isn't part of the Mishima family.
- The arcade port was added to Tekken 5 as part of Arcade history.
- This is the first and only time Gon appears outside of Japan, it is also the only game Gon appears in the series.
- This is the first appearance of guest characters, a concept that wouldn't appear again until Tekken 7
- Although new characters are more than old ones, many of the new ones are replacing the old ones, for example, Jin has the same gameplay as Kazuya and Julia has the same gameplay as Michelle.
- Anna's ending in the Japanese version is different from the international version, both endings have Anna and her sister Nina relaxing at a pool while a bunch of men come to them, in the international version all the boys go with Anna and ignore Nina but in the Japanese version, two of the boys get along with Anna while Nina refuses one of the boys so she goes and pulls the string of Anna's bra, humiliating her in front of the boys and then walks towards the camera, revealing that she's Nina.