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Review: Tekken 3 |
Alright, ladies and gentleman, let’s take a little trip. To say, oh, I dunno, about two months ago. [insert fruity dream music here]. Ahhh… another trip to my beautiful arcade. What am I going to play today? Will it be the great, but beaten to death X-Men vs. SF? Nah.. no competition… BORING! Will it be a rousing round of SF3? [snicker] Yeah, whatever. What’s this? Ahhh… Tekken 3. How long I have waited for you, my darling.
Well, as one might imagine, since then I’ve had trouble keeping my hands off it (the game, you sick monkeys!). Tekken 3 plays far better than its predecessors, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better “3-D” fighting game out there. Well… let’s go by category, shall we?
In the graphics department, Tekken 3 places a close 2nd only behind the beautiful VF3. However, what Tekken has always lacked in graphical superiority, it has made up for in the sounds and gameplay department. Not to say that Tekken 3 has poor graphics. Oh, not at all, my friends. The polygon count and the smoothness of the animation destroy all of its predecessors, thanks to Namco’s System 12 arcade board. However, what has improved the MOST graphically are the backgrounds. The first time I saw some of these new “homes”, I nearly cried. Brilliant examples of this are Law’s, Heihachi’s, and Nina’s stages. They’re really great for mood purposes.
As far as sound goes, Tekken 3 has always been top-notch. Nothing’s changed. Every snap, crackle, and pop sends a shiver down your spine. Particularly good ones that come to mind are King’s reversals (more of a crackle) and Lin’s more rhythmic palm-shots.The music is, naturally, a mesh of techno beats and typical gaming music. As usual, it is an excellent bonus to an already superb game.
Time to discuss gameplay, Tekkenites. Any true fan of this game will tell you why they play Tekken: gameplay. Once again, Namco delivers a spectacular batch of new moves, techniques, and best of all… throws. While all of the old characters retain their old throws (Paul, Nina, Law, and Heihachi), most of them also have new grapples to add to their repertoire. The same goes for their moves and strings.
One thing Namco really seemed to stress in their newest addition to the series was variety in characters. Often times, especially in VF and SF, many characters are EXACTLY the same and make the game repetitive and decreases the amount of replay value. The first two Tekkens were awful in this manner. Almost every single one of the sub- bosses in the old games played exactly like another character, if not two or three other characters. Namco has completely erased this notion with this game. Not only do the old characters play differently with new moves and throws, but the new arrivals are NOTHING like their predecessors. The crowning example of this being Eddy Gordo, the capoeira expert with the legs of pure adrenaline. Personally, I can’t stand Eddy, mainly due to the fact that he is the Wolverine of Tekken 3 (Any moron can walk up, smash the buttons and can have a chance against even the most seasoned veterans). However, you gotta love Namco for using such an off the wall character idea. Jin is a mesh of the Mishima style of fighting (Heihachi and Kazuya) and the Kazama style (Jun). Hwaorang is a disciple of Baek Doo San, the Taekwondo master from number 2. Hwao, however, is far superior to his mentor in that he doesn’t rely totally on kicks. However, his kicks are a site to behold and his throws are incredible to watch. Finally, we have Lin Xiaoyu, who utilizes a couple of defensive styles for an excellent collection of moves. She has several different forms of cartwheels, backflips, forward flips, and palm strikes at her command. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to use her much, so I can’t personally say how she plays.
The old guys (and gals) have some serious new stuff. The person with the most new stuff, however, is probably Lei. I don’t use him much, but I’ve watched people change to 5 different animal forms of Kung Fu:Monkey, Drunken Fist, Dragon Fist, Tiger, and one other I can’t recall. Each style drastically changes his form of attack. Law comes off as pretty much the same character (even though it’s supposed to be Forrest Law, the SON of Marshall Law). He has a couple new flips, and a look that is even more Bruce Lee than his father (right down to the outfit!). King is, of course, King. He has a ton of new throws, some of which are incredibly painful (including 4 or 5 new entire multi-throws), and a new, brawnier look (a new King, actually.. .one of the orphans that the original King brought up before he was murdered). Yoshimitsu has a few new moves, and a more sinister look. Nina and Paul are probably the least changed, especially Paul. However, they were the most powerful characters in the last one, so they didn’t really need that much beefing up.
As usual, the new Tekken has a host of time-release characters like the last one. In this session, we bring in Kuma (naturally), Julia Chang (an exact replica of Michelle), Gun Jack (combination Jack 2/P.Jack), Mokujin (a wooden dummy that assumes the moves of one of the other 17 characters for one round), Bryan Fury (a mesh of Bruce Irving and Lee Chao Lei), Heihachi (he’s gotta be pushin’ 70!), and the two Ogres (the last guy). All of these characters resemble other characters, but have new moves and much different styles (unlike the old ones).
As far as new gameplay aspects and techniques, Tekken 3 has MORE than its fair share. More characters can now use reversals (not just Nina and Paul), and there are now reversal reversals. Yup, that’s right. If you know you’re fighting someone who does nothing but reversals, you can automatically counter these boring fighters with the reversal counter. There are also many other ways that characters react to hits in this game. For instance, some moves make characters fall to their knees while others will make them take a couple of steps back. A dodge style of move has also been implemented to make the game a little more “3-D”. These, plus a larger reliance on juggles and a smaller reliance on hitting a character while they’re on the ground makes for a much better balanced game.
Bottom Line: Tekken 3 is a large, but subtle improvement over the previous incarnation. Unlike certain other games with 3’s in them, this game is a welcome addition to the series, and will keep my quarters occupied for quite a few months.
