RFM Talks: Tekken 3

Released in 1998, Tekken 3 took the fighting scene by storm. MobyGames holds it as the Highest rated PS one game to date. I'm no expert but in my humble opinion it is the greatest 3D fighting game of all time, here's why.

The key feature to Tekken’s mass appeal has to be it’s accessibility. The game’s control scheme is such that a person playing for the first time would be able to come to grips with the mechanics in a matter of minutes and those more dedicated would be able to find a deep enough combo system to perfect over a longer playtime. Unlike Street Fighter that requires a player to perform arcs and charges with the analogue stick/D-pad or Virtua Fighter with it’s complex time based inputs, Tekken keeps it simple by assigning limbs to the four face buttons, making combos easy and logical.



Another of Tekken 3’s draws is it’s roster, Perfectly combining the badass with the mad cap
Tekken provides something for everyone. Very rarely in fighting games, do I feel compelled to play every character but given the variety here there’s plenty to experience.
Each fighter looks and plays great, all have been superbly motion captured in their signature martial art styles and help communicate their individual personalities. Unfortunately you won’t be throwing any fireballs here that’s not Tekken’s style.



Combining both aforementioned features I would say I’m able to attribute a lot Tekken 3’s greatness to one of it’s characters.

My first experience playing Tekken 3 was on a Playstation demo disc. Though the demo only had two playable characters I would play that thing again and again, because of Eddy Gordo.
Eddy is definitely the first man of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines rhythmic movement with unorthodox acrobatic strikes. Until Tekken 3 I’d wager no one had even heard of or had seen Capoeira before, that’s because Eddy put it on the map.



Namco had the right idea in creating a new character for their franchise that had such an awesome fighting style and one that lends itself so well to their control scheme that focuses on using hands and feet. Not only that, Capoeira’s dynamic moveset makes for a truly three-dimensional experience when compared to other fighting styles we’re used to seeing in these games. What I mean by that is, when looking at martial arts in fighting games there’s often a lot of back and forth in a manner similar to fencing rather than a real fight where opponents might circle one another. This is probably done on purpose as to not disorientate the player but in that case they may as well still be on a 2D plain. Having a character like Eddy who is very acrobatic with his flips and spins that go into the Z-axis, really show off what a 3D fight is capable of and definitely set Tekken apart from rivals on the market at the same time .



Visually the game looks great and when you consider the humble beginnings of the first Tekken it’s come a long way. It’s easy to see that Tekken 3 really pushes the capabilities of the playstation’s hardware as many games do toward the end of a console's life cycle.

All of the characters look great and from a design standpoint these may still be the best incarnations to date. Maybe it’s just me but I prefer the meatier, lower-poly models of Tekken 3 compared to say 6, I’d say that the most recent renderings reak of the uncanny valley. Given the obtuse nature of these characters, that were originally designed in such a way so that you could easily tell them apart in their original low polly beginnings they don’t need to look realistic. I’ll give a little shout-out to Capcom for the work on Street Fighter X Tekken here as they made some beautiful models of Tekken characters in their Caricature style. 



I also want to praise Tekken 3’s stellar soundtrack. The Tekken franchise has been very consistent in delivering great background music ever since the experimental beginnings of the first iteration, as a lot of games were at the time given the new advantage of the CD format. Listening to the music of Tekken 3 you’ll find that it perfectly captures the spirit of the electronic, Big Beat genre that was popular in the late 90s with musicians like The Crystal Method and Chemical Brothers just watch the game’s intro and you’ll see.

Lastly I just want to point out a few little features that are the icing on the cake.
Last bosses are shite nine times out of ten and though Ogre isn’t perfect he’s a damn sight better than Azazel from ‘6 or Seth from bloody SF4, the Shower of bastards that they are.
There’s also the daft little mini-games like volleyball or the Pseudo beat-em up mode that offer minutes of fun but are a welcome little distracton especiall when playing with friends.
A big one for me is the fact that the game doesn’t frustratingly kick you out to the start screen whenever you lose in the arcade mode, I’ve never understood that. There’s also just a simple joy of unlocking characters every time you beat the story mode just to add reason to keep playing instead of having to pay for them when they’re already on the bloody disc (I’m looking at you Capcom).



The best testament to this game though was at one of my (saucy) dinner parties around Christmas last year. Towards the end of the night I had everyone gather around to play Tekken 3 and everyone had a blast. A game that’s 15 year old can still unite everybody, regardless of how acustomed they were with fighting games or any games for that matter, I think it says it all really.

For those of you interested, Tekken is available on the PSN store and it's also relatively cheap to buy an original copy on ebay. Please check it out if you haven't already.

Thanks for reading

Kris.