Tekken 3 is the third installment of Namco’s premier 3D fighting game franchise. Converted from the arcade to the PlayStation, Tekken 3 ran on the technology called the System 12 board. It is a step better than Namco’s System 11 board, which is nearly identical to the PlayStation. The trick was to pull off a conversion to fit with the console’s architecture and technology, and they did just that.
Tekken 3’s fighting styles range from street fighting to beautiful ancient oriental fighting styles. Each of the 20-plus characters features a different style (Kung Fu, Capoeira), some of which must be mastered before using adequately. At first, you have 10 fighters to choose from but as you complete the individual story/arcade modes, you will unlock that person’s counterpart. Their story is represented by various intro and ending cinematic sequences.
As in the previous Tekken titles, each character has an abundance of moves he or she can perform. They consist of throws (for up close battle), punches and jabs, and kicks (both aerial and on the ground). To help players get used to controlling the game, each fighter’s move list can be accessed at any time via a pause menu.
Players are given quite a few options of gameplay styles to choose from: Arcade, Versus, Team Battle, Time Attack, Tekken Force, Practice and a hidden Beach Ball mode (a competition to see who can keep the ball from touching the sand). The arcade version is simply that and the team battle mode allows you or a friend to choose a team of fighters and go into battle one by one. New to the series is the Tekken Force mode — a Final Fight inspired side-scrolling action game. It contains four levels and after you complete them, you are given a counter. When you finish it a certain amount of times, a special character is introduced and unlocked.
STORY:
Set fifteen years after the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2, the story starts with Jun Kazama, who has been living a quiet life in Yakushima with her young son, Jin, who is the son of Kazuya Mishima.
Heihachi Mishima, meanwhile, has established the Tekken Force, an 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. However, while on an excavation in Mexico, a squadron of Heihachi’s Tekken Force is attacked and vanquished by a mysterious being. The only surviving soldier manages to relay a brief message to Heihachi, describing the perpetrator as an «Ogre» or a «Fighting God». Heihachi and a team of soldiers investigate, with Heihachi managing to catch a glimpse of the culprit. After seeing the Ogre character, Heihachi’s long dormant dream of world domination is reawakened. He seeks to capture Ogre to use him for this goal.
Soon after, various martial arts masters begin disappearing from all over the world, and Heihachi is convinced that this is Ogre’s doing. In Yakushima, Jun starts to feel the presence of Ogre approaching her and Jin. Knowing that she has become a target, Jun tells Jin about Ogre, and instructs him to go straight to Heihachi should anything happen. Sometime after Jin’s fifteenth birthday, Ogre does indeed attack. Against Jun’s wishes, Jin valiantly tries to fight Ogre off, but Ogre brushes him aside and knocks him unconscious. When Jin reawakens, he finds that the house has been burned to the ground, and that his mother is missing and most likely dead.
Driven by revenge, Jin goes to Heihachi and tells him everything. Jin begs Heihachi to train him to become strong enough to face Ogre again. Heihachi accepts and takes Jin in as well as going to Mishima High School where he befriends Ling Xiaoyu and her pet panda and bodyguard (aptly named «Panda»).
Four years later, Jin grows into an impressive fighter and master of Mishima Style Karate. On Jin’s nineteenth birthday, the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 3 is announced, and Jin prepares for his upcoming battle against Ogre. He is unaware, however, that Heihachi is merely using him and the rest of the competitors as bait to lure Ogre out in order to capture him. Meanwhile Ogre captures assassin Nina Williams (who was recently taken out of her «cold sleep»), puts her under his spell,and sends her to enter the tournament and kill Jin. Jin manages to free Nina from Ogre’s spell before continuing on the semi-finals.
Eventually, the tournament leads to the final confrontation between Jin and the God of Fighting. Ogre is able to transform into a much more powerful «true» form, known to the players as «True Ogre». Jin emerges the victor and Ogre completely dissolves. Moments later, Jin is gunned down by a squadron of Tekken Forces led by Heihachi, who, no longer needing Jin, finishes the job personally by firing a final shot into his grandson’s head.
However, Jin, revived by the Devil Gene within him (because after Jin’s mother had gone missing following an attack from Ogre, Devil returned, branded Jin’s left arm with a mark, possessing him), reawakens and makes quick work of the soldiers, turning his attention to Heihachi and literally smashing him through the wall of the temple. Heihachi survives the long fall, but Jin, in mid-air, sprouts black, feathery wings and strikes Heihachi one last time. He then flies off into the night, leaving his bewildered grandfather staring after him.
PLAYSTATION VERSION:
Tekken 3 was originally ported to the PlayStation with two new characters — Gon and Dr. Boskonovich. Anna was also updated and given her own character select spot complete with a unique portrait, voice, stance, a few of her own unique moves (as well as her moves from the first two games, some of which were given to Ogre) and her own ending, as opposed to in previous installments, where she was basically a model-swap of Nina. Still, she reused a lot of Nina’s strikes and throws. She was made even more unique in Tekken 5.
The PlayStation version features new Tekken Force and Tekken Ball modes, as well as all modes present in Tekken 2. Due to PSX hardware limitations (less video RAM and lower clock speed) the visual quality was reduced. The backgrounds were re-made into 2D panoramic images, the character poly-count was reduced, and the game ran at lower overall resolution.
NEW CHARACTERS IN TEKKEN 3:
— Bryan Fury: A known officer within Interpol, Bryan Fury was shot and killed by gunmen during a shootout in Hong Kong. His corpse is placed in the custody of Doctor Abel for scientific research and he is revived in order for him to be Abel’s agent in obtaining classified information on raising a cyborg-led army. Bryan enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3 in hopes of killing Yoshimitsu and capturing Dr. Boskonovitch, Abel’s rival.
— Dr. Boskonovich: Originally worked for the Mishima Zaibatsu. During the first Tekken, the Manji ninja clan (led by Yoshimitsu) raided the Mishima Zaibatsu’s vault. During the raid, Yoshimitsu lost his arm and was found by Boskonovitch who helped him escape. He was kidnapped by Kazuya Mishima in the run-up to Tekken 2 and was forced to work for him. Some of the many projects involved the creation of the bio-weapons Roger and Alex and the completion of the Prototype Jack unit. He began the «Cold Sleep» project as a means of preserving his daughter’s body (who seemingly died) by using Nina and Anna Williams as test subjects. After completing his tasks, and before being executed, Dr. Boskonovitch was rescued by Yoshimitsu. Nearly twenty years later, he contracted a rare disease that affects the spine. In order to cure himself and to revive his daughter, he needed the blood of the fighting god, Ogre. He turned to an old friend: Yoshimitsu for help. Yoshimitsu entered the Tekken 3 tournament and was successful in retrieving a sample of Ogre’s blood after it had been killed by Jin Kazama.
— Eddy Gordo: Is an Afro-Brazilian video game character in the Tekken fighting game series by Namco. He made his debut in the arcade version of Tekken 3 in 1997 and his first console appearance was in the 1998 PlayStation port of the title. Eddy’s storyline from his debut through Tekken 5 revolved around his quest for revenge for the murder of his parents, culminating in the defeat of Kazuya Mishima during the events of Tekken 5.
