Tekken abdicates

In the grand scheme of things, it's easy to feel a little sorry for the Tekken series. Sure it racks up quite a bit of cash for Namco, but at the end of the day, I don't honestly think such a thing exists as a 'hardcore Tekken fan'. Look at any Fighting game forum, you will see people proudly and viciously defending the Streetfighter,King of Fighters,Virtua Fighter and even sometimes Dead or Alive series, but go and say 'Tekken sucks', and sure the response won't be a positive one, but it would more likely be a sort of half-hearted gesture, a sort of "Tekken isn't that bad" ideal. Asides from those with a casual interest in the genre, and games in general, who buy Tekken games because they are usually the most praised by Sony(wonder if that has anything to do with the series being exclusive to their PlayStation consoles?), who lead the market in terms of console sales, I always assumed, that like me, most gamers only bought Tekken games when they were reduced and the person was bored.

Arguably the most popular Tekken game is Tekken 3, this has less to do with the quality of the game, which doesn't actually seem to improve on the previous entry at all, and more to do with the fact that it was the first in the series (in PAL territories anyway) to land after the huge boom in sales of the PlayStation. High praise in PlayStation mags, coupled with positive word-of-mouth from those who played the game pirated or imported, lead to this getting the most sales, and in turn becoming one of the most popular games on Sony's console.

The story of Tekken 3 picks up decades after the end of the second game. Kazuya is dead, and with him the Devil that he contained within him. However, before death, he impregnated Jun Kazama, and the resulting child, Jin, was born, raised by Jun to be a peaceful and good boy.
However, Grandpa Heihachi has been up to no good, fooling around with some mystical creature known as the Ogre, trying to find a substitute for the Devil gene to become all-powerful. Through some altercations, The Ogre somehow ends up at the Kazama household, where it kills Jun, leaving Jin with nobody to turn to but Heihachi, who sees the potential Devil gene in the boy, trains him up in Mishima Karate, and for some reason decides to host another King of Iron Fist Tournament. In all honesty, that's about as good a story from the game you will get out of me, because I don't have the instruction manual, and it's been a while since I looked the story up on the Internet, because Ogre was just such a crappy idea and realisation that it pushed me well past the point of caring.

Anyway, all that really matters is that a lot of the old favourites are back Paul Phoenix,Nina Williams,King,Yoshimitsu...but wait...where is Kazuya? Kazuya was always Namco's one ace up it's sleeve in regards to Tekken. With him, they crafted a true rarity in videogames, a convincing,cool, Anti-Hero. Ordinarily, especially in a fighting game, I would commend the absence of a lead character story wise(actually wait, that only really applies to Streetfighter and Virtua Fighter), but when he is basically the only cool character in your cast, you are onto a problem. Sure Jin has an almost identical moveset, meaning I can play with him, but the clean-shaven,square-jawed MTV hero just isn't my thing. Naturally only a portion of the cast is available to select at the beggining of the game, you must unlock them via completing arcade mode with all the fighters. Hidden in there are Heihachi,Kuma and Anna, but the game also introduced a slew of new fighters to the Tekken universe. Cyborg fighter Bryan Fury,Taekwondo MTV hero Hwoarang,Capoeira cheap-fantasy Eddie Gordo and Marshall Law's identical son Forest all make their debuts here. The cast here, despite their numeracy, just bore me. By this time, the PlayStation was a huge hit with the lowest-common denominator, so naturally the women's clothes got skimpier, and the male characters became bland and disposable attempts at cool. Sure the odd fighter, such as Bryan, stood out in a positive light, to make matters worse, included were some really hateable joke characters, like Mokujin, a wooden dummy, and Gon, a small dinosaur from a manga.

Oh, so in case you are wondering what type of game Tekken 3 is, it's a 3D 1-on-1 fighter, where the idea is to win 2 out of 3 rounds of hand-to-hand combat, depleting your enemy's life bar with punches,kicks and throws.
Where Tekken 3 both scores it's points and loses them is the gameplay. In a wise move, Namco decided to stick with how the second, and excellent,entry into the series played. Only problem is they stuck to it too closely, meaning this is basically nothing more than the second game with worse characters but better graphics. Sure people complain about Capcom and SNK about their never-ending series entries, but at least they play around with the mechanics and such...this is near identical.
Where this entry into the series gained most of it's plaudits were the extra modes, including theatre, where you could watch all the unlocked endings, and if you have a memory card with the first two games saved on it, the endings from them, Tekken Force and Tekken Ball modes. The latter is a fairly amusing volleyball mini game, where you try to hit a floaty ball using your characters punches and kicks. It's nothing great, but an amusing distraction. However, possibly the game's biggest selling point, as well as it's most flawed aspect, is Tekken Force mode.

This is a Double Dragon style Beat 'em Up, except in 3D, where you choose your fighter, and face swarms of Heihachi's Mishima corporation soldiers across 4 stages, each one ending with a Boss fight, where you take on another fighter. This is an absolutely immense idea, that every company who puts out fighting games should have thought of years ago, but in typical Tekken series fashion, Namco buggered it up.
Controlling this mode is absolutely painful. Your character changes direction, rarely moves where you want them to, or aims at who you want them to, and it's just a horrible experience, made all the more frustrating by the fact it had the potential to increase the game's lifespan dramatically.

Graphically, I see no point in lying, Tekken 3 is impressive, very impressive. The fighters have carried on the smooth animation from the second game, but have been given a lot less blocky outer shell, making for some of the best looking fighters on the PlayStation. The backgrounds, while on the boring side, consisting mainly of mountains and such other high-excitement locales, all look the part, well detailed and often featuring stuff going on in the background.

Sound is bland. That statement sums it up in it's entireity. Music is nicely crafted, yet boring, and sound effects/voices don't do much for me either. Still, that's what the mute button and CD players are for.

Controlling exactly the same as the previous two entries into the series:

Square: Left Punch
Triangle: Right Punch
X:Left Kick
Circle: Right Kick

The set-up was good to begin with, and it was wise of them not to fool with it. Response isn't a problem either, so providing you stay out of Tekken Force mode, you shouldn't have any issues with control.

On the whole, I have to say that I just plain didn't like Tekken 3. The second game looked like it was going places, but this just didn't do anything of any real worth, sure Tekken Force was a great idea, but it's implementation was horrible. While this is better than the first game in the series, I still regard the second game as better, and would recommend it over this any day. With that said, this is easier to find, and it isn't outright bad, so I am going to recommend it, however, 3-Stars is all it could hope for, and I feel I'm being kind giving it that and a recommendation. It's easily the worst sequel(barring maybe it's spin off/PS2 update), but in fairness, the second and fourth entries into the series are actually the best, and had this been a seperate entity, instead of a Tekken sequel, I may not have been as harsh on it.
Still, Tekken 3 is a moderately fun game, especially on 2-Player. You can have a decent scrap on it, and that's basically why I recommend it, despite having so many bad things to say about it. Sure it was rather lazy, and stupid, but at the same time, when compared to a lot of the rubbish fighting games brought out on the original PlayStation, it's pretty good.

Other Tekken reviews
Tekken for PlayStation
Tekken 2 for PlayStation