Some time ago, I wrote about playing Tekken for the first time, twenty years later, having only started the series with Tekken 2 in my childhood. I liked that I could, more or less, slot right back into the way I played, and while there were some differences and some difficulty spikes, it was Tekken through at through. No matter what it looked like, no matter how lacking I was in the skills department, playing Tekken was fun.
So imagine my merriment when Tekken 3 shows up in the 1001 list...
I've still got my copy of Tekken 3 because it's just that good, but I haven't played it for so long now that I'm almost ashamed. I say almost only because being ashamed to have not played something in a while is silly. We not-play things all the time, it's called Life, it happens. But here, now, Tekken 3 happens, and it happens with muh boy Lei Wulong.
Fun Times
Tekken 3 is everything you like about Tekken, but more of it - so much more of it that there's even some stuff that you won't like about it thrown in too. We'll get to that.
Having been released in the Arcades before the PlayStation port I know and love, it's only fitting to start with Arcade mode and see how far I get. There are a bunch of characters to choose from, including familiar faces and welcome newcomers. We've all got our favourites, and back in the day, I went for Chinese cop Lei Wulong.
According to his biography, he's 45, his hobbies include movies and napping, he dislikes crime and criminals, and he entered this tournament 'to investigate the cause behind the disappearing martial arts masters.', which is too plot to give a damn about, frankly. I'm here to kick arse, I don't need an excuse.
Arcade mode sees you go through bout after bout of progressively harder opponents until - if memory serves - you fight some demonic beast called Ogre. And I say if memory serves because these days/on this difficulty, I don't have what it takes...
The fighting on show continues to be based on your limbs, with directional buttons modifying the height of your attack or your stance. Thwacking your opponents around the head still results in the most satisfying of sounds and dazzling light displays, but you can't rely on simple punches and kicks against the experts.
You'll need to use signature moves, inputted with short but not necessarily easy button combinations, along with the masterful use of the new and improved dodging that takes place in these fights.
Combatants can, either as a result of a move or the nudge of the d-pad, find themselves facing their opponent at a different angle, allowing for an uncontested hit to their flanks, should your timing be top notch.
In screenshots, it can look bizarre, but in motion, when you pull off a perfectly timed sidestep in order to avoid an attack and deliver a crushing blow to your opponent, Tekken 3 makes you look the dogs' bollocks.
That previous sentence doesn't necessarily correspond to that video...
Frustrations
Tekken 3 has refined the gameplay of the previous titles and is even more faithful to the fighting than it was before. Gone are the huge leaps into the air, replaced by... being kicked high into the air and juggled in an impossible fashion...
The flighty physics have been toned down into a deep and rewarding fighter, is what I'm trying to say, and by that, I also mean that I've not gone into it deep enough to get through it these days.
There are signature moves I could pull off, but never in the right situation, and there are things I'd do that would leave me so exposed that I should have been arrested for it. Fight's can be drawn out, but they can equally be finished in a few seconds, so any mistake you make is likely to see the contest swing in your opponent's favour.
Blocking and dodging are all well and good if you know the tells as to what's getting thrown at you, but I simply don't know the game well enough to know that now. Back in the day, I probably didn't either, but I remember doing a lot better.
Frustration with the game? No. Just with me getting older.
Tekken 3 does have it's failures, though, and chief amongst them is the Tekken Force Mode, which has to be seen to be believed.
What was Namco thinking when this was cooked up?
It's a minigame that isn't the core of the Tekken 3 experience, sure, but it's awful. Even Paul is questioning my decision to check it out again.
You go through this sidescrolling beat 'em up not seeing who you're up against, with limited movement around the screen, and get cheekily mocked when you dare to walk into some health restoring chicken. Which is huge, but still easily missable.
You end the stage with a boss fight against one of the fighters not named after a bird, which plays about as well as it looks, and you try to make it as far through four stages as you can. Which in my case wasn't very far at all.
Couldn't you have had a sidescrolling minigame and then switched over to a normal Tekken fight? Thankfully, that's not the meat of the game. If it were and still managed to make the 1001 list, someone had better explain themselves.
So, aside from weird game modes and characters locked away waiting to be earned through hard work and effort, the only real gripe I have with Tekken 3 is that I'm not good enough anymore. Just look at my poor performance in the Team Battle.
Final Word
It's bloody brilliant though, isn't it? P2 and I had a quick two-player contest. After having serious words regarding the spirit of the game and good sportsmanship (i.e., don't button mash), I found myself having a match with all the available characters and loving every minute of it, win or lose.
Some of the moves are incredible, especially when they come out of nowhere, connecting with a face, unleashing those flashes of light and thunderous impact sounds. It's unreal. It's otherworldly. It's awesome.
Loads to unlock, modes to play around in, fun times to be had by one and all... Tekken 3 is perfect, and you should be playing it right now.
Fun Facts
If you're wondering why the moves look so damn good, maybe it's because they were motion captured. For some reason, I never thought that would be the case.
Tekken 3, developed by Namco, first released in 1997.
Version played: PlayStation, 1998, also via childhood memories and emulation.