Tekken 3
Review from the Net (5/2/98)


My copy of Tekken 3 just arrived in the mail today(thanks Mark Hadland
at Baysoft), and I have been playing it for the last hour and thrity
minutes.  I rarely got a chance to play Tekken 3 in the arcades,
because of school and work, but from what I remember of Tekken 3 in
the arcades the PSX version comes pretty damn close.  The PSX version
is increditable from the opening FMV to the small details of fighters
opening and closing their palms.  So far I have played all the way
through a game with Eddy Goro(he is awesome, btw), and the quality of
his closing FMV was just as great as the opening.  The presentation of
Tekken 3 is Namco's greatest work in my opinion, passing Soul Blade
even.  And whoever said Tekken 3's backgrounds are 2D bit-mapped is a
damn lie(sorry kids!!!!).  The backgrounds are 3Dand they look better
than the ones in VF2 on the Saturn(you guys at Hardcore Gaming are
wrong), I can't compare the backgrounds from Tekken 3 to Dead or Alive
on the Saturn, cause I haven't played the Saturn version yet.
Everything looks to be running in the PSX's highest resolution mode,
Tekken 3 looks better than Soul Blade IMO, but Soul Blade's
light-sourcing is still unmatched by any fighter that I have seen on
the PSX, and only the light-sourcing in ONE dethrones Soul Blade IMHO.

I should have my copy of DOA PSX in a couple of days, so I will hold
off judgement of its light-sourcing and hoe it compare to Tekken 3
graphically until its in my hands.  Tekken 3 seems to have more frames
of animation than Tekken 2, cause it doesn't look as choppy as Tekken
2 did on the PSX.  By far, Tekken 3 characters are more detailed and
they aren't blocky as the ones in Tekken 2, and as I said in the
beginning, the small details are in there.  Like on Forrest Law's
stage, check out the clouds in the background, and watch how the
camera changes angles to veiw the wall with the dragons on its as it
intersects. It is awesome.  The music in Tekken 3 is even more
awesome, its  a mixture of rave and techno music.  I did find some
problems with Tekken 3, like how easy it is to breeze through the
enemy AI.  And Tekken 3 seems a tid slower than Tekken 2, does anyone
else fell the same way?  Also, the same characters from Tekken 2 has
actually the same moves with a few variations in moves.  For example,
Law's double flip kick, he now also does a slighty pause kinda filp
kick.  I almost forgot to mention, cuae I'm not use to it yet, that
Tekken 3 does have side-stepping and you can circle your opponents.
It is God sent, becuse side-stepping just opens up all types of
stratergy to be used in fighting.  I don't want to hear Sega fans
saying VF is more deeper than Tekken now.  I also played Tekken
Force(a Final Fight- style mode), I like that Namco though of us like
that.  I liked it, you can do the same moves in this mode like you do
in regular fighting.  And unlike most 2D side-scrolling punch'em ups,
you can attack in angles, giving it a psuedo-3D feel.  

At first I was going to past on Tekken 3, because at first I thought
it wasn't going to be enought of a leap over Tekken 2 PSX.  But, I'm
glad I brought it.  And for $37, all the more better.

Wish list for Tekken 4-
*Beefed up AI
*Only returing characters should be- Eddy, Jin, Xiaoyu, Hwoarang,
King, and Lei.

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