Genuinely blown away and beyond happy with how much this holds up. For years I’ve talked about how much I love this game and it warms my heart to know I can go back to it and it’s still a masterclass in gaming.
The gameplay here is immaculate. The side steps, ducks, parries, and even the realistic movement of each character. Which is expertly crafted within each character to make them all unique in their gameplay! Including things like the height of the characters and reach. This made characters like Gon really tough and annoying to fight. The entire 3D aspect here is used really well. I was blown away by a sequence where I ran towards my opponent for a takedown and they performed a sidestep sprawl basically to cut the angle and that’s impressive as fuck!
It’s honestly jarring playing Tekken 8 recently then touching back on this to see how similar it really is. I know people like Tekken 1 and 2 a lot, but this here really is where Tekken (in my opinion) really exploded.
Some characters like King, Kuma, Heihachi, and Nina I had some learning curves with whereas Hwoarang, Eddy, Julia, Bryan, and Jin was like riding a bike. I slipped right in and felt at home with them. Fighters I had a real hard time with were Law, Gon, and Xiaoyu.
Tekken Force Mode… this side scrolling beat em up mode is a fun inclusion, but it is frustrating. In order to unlock the last character, you have to beat this 4 times. 1 play through is roughly 8-10 mins and if you die the whole thing starts over. This was my biggest hurdle in my playthrough to unlock all the fighters. I was sweating hard on the 4th playthrough because it added Dr. B as the boss and it was neck and neck until I snagged the victory.
The graphics are obviously rugged, but the cinematics are super impressive and some of the best for the hardware. A lot of the arcade endings are pretty cryptic for the games lore, and some are quite funny. Yoshimitu’s being one of my favs. Also while Yoshimitsu is the most intimidating looking fighter, he’s prob the funniest. I love fighting the guy and he’ll audibly express “ow!” When hit. It’s great.
Tekken 3 is one of the best fighting games I’ve ever experienced. It has a tone that bleeds the 90s with its soundtrack and character designs, all while having an incredible cast of characters that play great to allow for some incredible fights for players.
The gameplay here is immaculate. The side steps, ducks, parries, and even the realistic movement of each character. Which is expertly crafted within each character to make them all unique in their gameplay! Including things like the height of the characters and reach. This made characters like Gon really tough and annoying to fight. The entire 3D aspect here is used really well. I was blown away by a sequence where I ran towards my opponent for a takedown and they performed a sidestep sprawl basically to cut the angle and that’s impressive as fuck!
It’s honestly jarring playing Tekken 8 recently then touching back on this to see how similar it really is. I know people like Tekken 1 and 2 a lot, but this here really is where Tekken (in my opinion) really exploded.
Some characters like King, Kuma, Heihachi, and Nina I had some learning curves with whereas Hwoarang, Eddy, Julia, Bryan, and Jin was like riding a bike. I slipped right in and felt at home with them. Fighters I had a real hard time with were Law, Gon, and Xiaoyu.
Tekken Force Mode… this side scrolling beat em up mode is a fun inclusion, but it is frustrating. In order to unlock the last character, you have to beat this 4 times. 1 play through is roughly 8-10 mins and if you die the whole thing starts over. This was my biggest hurdle in my playthrough to unlock all the fighters. I was sweating hard on the 4th playthrough because it added Dr. B as the boss and it was neck and neck until I snagged the victory.
The graphics are obviously rugged, but the cinematics are super impressive and some of the best for the hardware. A lot of the arcade endings are pretty cryptic for the games lore, and some are quite funny. Yoshimitu’s being one of my favs. Also while Yoshimitsu is the most intimidating looking fighter, he’s prob the funniest. I love fighting the guy and he’ll audibly express “ow!” When hit. It’s great.
Tekken 3 is one of the best fighting games I’ve ever experienced. It has a tone that bleeds the 90s with its soundtrack and character designs, all while having an incredible cast of characters that play great to allow for some incredible fights for players.