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| Tekken 3 | |
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Tekken 3 retains the heavyweight title. |
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I love all videogame systems. Each piece of machinery, and the software created for it, holds its own gems. But as a guy that works on and ultimately plays the PC more than any other system, I have lately held a bias towards the much flawed but very powerful Personal Computer. It seems to me that the PC can do almost anything that the consoles can do, only better (as long as you can deal with the headaches involved). But one thing that the PC can never do, is a good fighter. Don't waste my time by creating a PC game for this genre. I won't play it because I just know its going to suck. Which is shame, because I love pugilistic fun.
So, it's no surprise that my focus these days has shifted to the PlayStation. Tekken 3 has arrived and with it my undivided attention (or, at least as undivided as I can be as a writer for a multi-platform website). Tekken 2 has always held my esteem as the greatest fighting game ever created. There have been a lot of contenders since its release in 1996 and quite a few have done a good job in occupying my time. But nothing has produced the same giddy joy. Soul Blade came mighty close but it just didn't have the same depth. So, to say that I've been eagerly awaiting Tekken 3 as if it were the second coming of Christmas might be an understatement. I already knew that Tekken 3 was better than Tekken 2. I can thank the quarter munching arcades for that rather expensive sneak preview. I also knew that the Tekken team always created a richer game on the PlayStation than they ever did for the arcades. Suffice it to say that Tekken 3 is videogame mana. The greatest fighting game in world has been supplanted by its progeny. Tekken 3 does this by expanding on the aspects that made the earlier sequel so great. A plethora of characters, incredible move depth, superb presentation and enough extras to make the game feel like it is worth twice the amount you paid for it. There's a story in place surrounding the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3. While I don't need a storyline to give me a reason to beat the other digital characters to a bloody pulp, it's always a nice extra and in the case of the Tekken series, it considerably adds to the personal identification of each fighter. Tekken 3 takes place 15 years after the last Iron Fist Tournament. Heihachi Mishima, the biggest bastard in all of videogamedom, who killed his son in the last tournament, still holds sway over his ever more powerful financial empire. It all starts rolling when the world's best fighters start to disappear, supposedly at the hands of the "Ogre". The "Ogre" has been reawakened from its slumber in an Incan ruin. Heihachi figures that if he can lure the Ogre by staging the next Iron Fist Tournament, capture it and then steal its power, he will then be able to fulfill his dream of world domination. OK, everybody got that? Fine, dandy, let's fight already. The game is introduced by an incredible CG opening. It seems that every time the CG artists at Namco get together they raise the bar on the art and quality of CG. One just has to look at the grizzled unshaven face of Heihachi to recognize that these people are at the top of their field. The opening and all of the individual end game cinemas are breathtaking to behold. My only complaint is that they aren't long enough and sometimes suffer from some rather jilted and disjointed editing. I sincerely hope that one of these days these artists will be allowed the freedom to make a feature length movie. Yeah it would be expensive, yes it might only appeal to a niche market, but you know that even Pixar Studios would have to bow to the masters. So let's get back to the gameplay. Like I've said, this is Tekken 2, only better. New characters, new moves, sweeter graphics, but all of the same intuitive and responsive control that you are used to. Tekken 3 is yet another example of how not to mess with success. Many of the old characters have returned, either as much older versions of themselves or as the son / daughter of the old character who has been taught everything that their parents knew. Jin Kazama has developed a fighting style that is a mixture of his mother's (Jun Kazama) and his father's (Kazuya). Forest Law replaces Marshall Law. Paul Phoenix is older but still has all of his towering hair. Lei Wulong returns older but wiser. King has passed his mask to one of the orphans he helped to raise. Nina has been revived from Cryogenic sleep (strangely Anna is back and looks no older although there's no mention that she was put in the deep freeze as well). Julia Chang arrives in her mother's (Michelle) place. And then there's Gun Jack and the bears (Panda and Kuma). In fact there's really only six new fighting styles that you'll have to wrap your fingers around. They belong to Lin Xiaoyu, Hwoarang, Eddy Gordo, Bryan Fury, the Ogre and Gon. The latter, is a very popular Japanese comic book character that is one the strangest and most comical additions to the game. He's this tiny dinosaur that loves to charge, so keep close and stay low if you want to be effective against the little guy. Although there's a lack of complete newness to the characters I would be loath to say that this comes off as a detriment to the game. Namco is one of the absolute best when it comes to keeping things familiar and yet throwing in enough extras to breath new life into something that many others would call stagnant. First of all, there are enough new moves, blocking and counter-attacks to keep veterans of the series engaged. There's also the cool addition of a completely random and wooden character named Mokujin. You'll never know what fighting style this stump is going to mimic until you throw your first combo. But the subtleties in the game do not compare to the different modes that Namco has thrown into the mix. Other than the standard Arcade, Vs., Time Attack, Team Attack and Survival modes, Namco has seen fit to add two new mini games. The first is the Tekken Ball mode. This one is kinda like a game of volleyball / medicine ball between two characters in the game. You'll need to keep the ball in the air and then try to transfer some of the stronger hit points from a move into the ball and then send it careening to the other player's side. That character will need to block the ball, reverse the process and in the act of doing so, make sure that the ball doesn't fall behind their back. It takes a little getting used to but it's very cool and highly imaginative. The second new mode is the best. Tekken Force mode is a re-creation of the Double Dragon series using the characters and moves from the fighting game. It is a superb looking side-scroller that is a great homage to a past genre. You'll move along, beating a path through Heihachi's Tekken troops and then at the end of each stage you'll have to face a full bout against one of the main characters. Usually, you won't have a full health bar to play with, so the game is quite challenging. It never fails to amaze me that Namco goes to such lengths to provide super value in each of their PlayStation discs. It doesn't matter what the game is, you always feel you getting your money's worth and then more. Overall, the graphics for Tekken 3 are not the zenith that I was expecting them to be. Soul Blade still looks better to me but perhaps that's because I enjoyed the crispness of the color and backgrounds. There isn't a lack of technology in Tekken 3, just not the strength in background design that we saw in Soul Blade. However, I challenge you not to love Lei Wulong's Hong Kong background and the best motion captured movement in the business. Tekken 3 still abounds with great looking textures and a fast, clean framerate. It may not be the best that you've ever seen but you're going to have very few complaints, if any at all. And, of course, the sound is very strong. The game still smacks and cracks as well as any other premiere title around. The tunes (both the Arcade and Remix soundtracks) are great rave / techno that keep the game pumping along to the beat of your adrenaline filled heart. I was kind of hoping for a little more variety though. I still rank Baek's Chinese percussion in Tekken 2 as some of the best level music I've ever heard in a fighting game. Nevertheless, the sonic elements of the game are well on par with all of the other excellence imbued by Tekken 3. I have a hard time giving out perfect scores. You have to do something really special to get me into the double-digits. But I'd come off as a huge hypocrite if I didn't put Tekken 3 at the top of the list. Tekken 2 was a 10, and Tekken 3 is a better game in most respects. I'm always going to have a soft spot in my heart for #2 in the series but #3 is everything that a great game should be. In the absence of Virtua Fighter 3 on a console system this year, Tekken 3 is easily the undisputed King of all fighters in the home. And so it will remain until the Katana comes along with a fighter to challenge Tekken 4 for our competitive hearts. |
