Tekken 3 — BrandWiki

Tekken 3

title	Tekken 3
developer	Namco
publisher	Namco PlayStation NA: Namco Hometek EU: Sony Computer Entertainment
director	Masahiro Kimoto Masamichi Abe Yutaka Kounoe Katsuhiro Harada
producer	Hajime Nakatani
designer	Masahiro Kimoto Katsuhiro Harada
artist	Yoshinari Mizushima
programmer	Masanori Yamada
composer	Nobuyoshi Sano Keiichi Okabe
series	Tekken
platforms	Arcade PlayStation
released	Arcade JP/NA: March 1997‡R1R‡ PlayStation JP: 26 March 1998‡R2R‡ NA: 1 May 1998‡R3R‡‡R4R‡ EU: 12 September 1998‡R5R‡
genre	Fighting, beat 'em up
modes	Single-player, multiplayer
arcade system	Namco System 12

Tekken 3 (鉄拳3) is a 1997 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It is the third installment in the Tekken series and the first game built on the Namco System 12 arcade hardware. The game takes place nineteen years after Tekken 2 (1995) and features a largely new cast of characters, including the debut of several staple characters such as Jin Kazama, Ling Xiaoyu and Bryan Fury, and adds a sidestepping ability to every character. Tekken 3 was ported to the PlayStation in 1998 with additional content, including a beat 'em up mode called Tekken Force.

The game was a major hit for both arcades and consoles, selling 35,000 arcade units and 8.36 million PlayStation copies worldwide, making Tekken 3 the fifth best-selling PlayStation game. Since its release, Tekken 3 has been cited as one of the greatest games of all time. It was followed by Tekken Tag Tournament (1999) and its direct sequel, Tekken 4 (2001). Later, Tekken 3 's arcade version was included within Tekken 5 on PlayStation 2, while the console port was re-released as part of Sony's PlayStation Classic

Characters

The arcade version features a total of 22 playable fighters. Because the game takes place 19 years after Tekken 2, only seven fighters from the previous installment return, with the rest being new.

The console version adds two new characters, Dr. Bosconovitch and Gon, and also makes Anna Williams, a palette swap of Nina Williams in the arcade version, into a distinct character with her own moveset, voice clip, and ending. There are also several unplayable enemies faced only during the Tekken Force minigame. The console version only features 10 characters available by default, with the rest being unlocked by fulfilling various conditions.

New characters

Bryan Fury : An undead cyborg kickboxer sent by mad scientist Dr. Abel to kidnap his rival scientist Dr. Bosconovitch. He also has an ill-fated history with Lei Wulong, who had been investigating Bryan's illegal activities when the cyborg was once a human.
Crow : A code name and member of the Tekken Force. Crow has the lowest rank.
Dr. Bosconovitch : The silly, elderly genius scientist who is Yoshimitsu's friend and a prisoner of the Mishima Zaibatsu.
Eddy Gordo: A framed Capoeira prodigy seeking revenge against the Mishima Zaibatsu for having assassinated his parents and ruined his family's business.
Forest Law: The son of Marshall Law (whom he heavily resembles and fights like), now competing to earn money to help him out.
Gon : A special guest character from the manga of the same name.
Gun Jack : The third model of the JACK series sent by his creator, Jane, to retrieve JACK-2's memory data.
Hwoarang: A Tae Kwon Do student of Baek Doo San wanting to take revenge against Ogre for apparently murdering his teacher.
Jin Kazama: The grandson of Heihachi Mishima and son of Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama practicing both his parents' martial arts who seeks revenge against Ogre for having supposedly killed his mother.
Julia Chang : The adopted daughter of Michelle Chang sets out to rescue her kidnapped mother from the Mishima Zaibatsu.
King II: The successor of the original King who participates to save his predecessor's orphanage after the original is killed by Ogre, under tutelage of the original King's friend, Armor King.
Kuma II : The son of the original Kuma also serving as Heihachi's loyal pet and bodyguard.
Ling Xiaoyu: A Chinese teenager practicing Baguazhang and Piguaquan who wants to build her own amusement park by winning the tournament.
Mokujin : A 2,000-year-old wooden dummy who comes to life as a result of Ogre's awakening and is able to switch between every other fighters' fighting styles.
Ogre : A mysterious immortal bioweapon alien known as the God of Fighting. Ogre is the main antagonist and final boss, responsible for the disappearances of numerous martial artists and other fighters. Ogre has two separate playable forms to distinguish their fighting styles and move sets, the initial green-colored humanoid form known as Ancient Ogre, and the final dark-colored monster form known as True Ogre.
Panda : Xiaoyu's pet and bodyguard; to her dismay, the current Kuma has a crush on her.
Tiger Jackson : A disco man with an afro.

Returning characters

Unlockable character

Unplayable enemy in Tekken Force mode

Skin/palette swap

Only playable in console version

Only skin/palette swap in arcade cabinet

Anna Williams
Heihachi Mishima
JACK-2
Lei Wulong
Nina Williams
Paul Phoenix
Yoshimitsu

Plot

15 years after the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2, Heihachi Mishima has established the Tekken Force: a paramilitary organization dedicated to the protection of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Using the company's influence, Heihachi is responsible for many events that have ultimately led to world peace. One day, a squadron of Tekken Force soldiers searched an ancient temple located in Mexico under the premise of an excavation project. Soon after arriving there, Heihachi learns that they were obliterated by a mysterious and malevolent creature known as Ogre. Having captured a brief glimpse of Ogre before his immediate disappearance, Heihachi seeks to capture Ogre in the hopes of harnessing his immense fighting power for his own personal gain. Soon after, Nina Williams was awakened from Dr. Bosconovitch's cold-sleep machine. Various known martial artists end up dead, attacked, or missing from all over the world, with Ogre behind all of it.

Jun Kazama has been living a quiet life in Yakushima with her young son, Jin Kazama, fathered during the events of the previous tournament by Heihachi's son, Kazuya Mishima. However, their peaceful life is disrupted when Jun begins to sense Ogre's encroaching presence, and knowing she is now a target, Jin is instructed to seek Heihachi if anything happens. Sometime after Jin's 15th birthday, Ogre attacks. Against Jun's wishes, Jin valiantly tries to fight Ogre off, but Ogre knocks him unconscious. When Jin awakens, he finds that the ground surrounding his house has been burnt and his mother is missing and most likely dead. Driven by revenge, Jin is confronted by the Devil, which brands Jin's left arm and possesses him. Jin goes to his grandfather, Heihachi, and explains his situation to him, begging him for training to become strong enough to face Ogre. Heihachi accepts and takes Jin under his wing, as well as sending him to Mishima High School where Jin meets a classmate named Ling Xiaoyu and her pet Panda. He also met Hwoarang during a street fight in which they fought to a draw, leading to a persistent rivalry.

4 years later, Jin masters the Mishima karate style. On Jin's 19th birthday, Heihachi announces the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3, and Jin himself prepares for his upcoming battle, having no idea that his grandfather is secretly using him, Xiaoyu, Hwoarang, and the rest of the competitors as bait to lure Ogre out into the open. When Nina Williams was awakened from Dr. Bosconovitch's cold-sleep machine, she suffered amnesia. Now controlled by Ogre, Nina acts robotically, with the command to assassinate Jin.

During the tournament, Jin managed to bring Nina back to her senses by defeating her, allowing her to break free from Ogre's control. Jin went on to narrowly defeat Hwoarang after an hours-long fight, very reminiscent to the fight between his father, Kazuya, and his rival Paul Phoenix, in the first King of Iron Fist Tournament. Near the end of the tournament, Paul makes it to the finals after defeating the other competitors, including Kuma and Jin in the previous rounds. Paul enters a large temple, defeats Ogre in a fierce battle, and walks away from the tournament, thinking he is victorious. However, unbeknownst to Paul, Ogre morphs into his 2nd, monstrous form known as "True Ogre" after absorbing Heihachi's fighting force when the latter had tried to capture him while he was unconscious.

Because of this, the tournament continued as a result, with the tournament officials reinstating Jin and allowing him to replace Paul in the finals. From there, Jin confronts True Ogre in an intense fight and manages to defeat him as True Ogre completely dissolves, thus Jin succeeded in avenging his mother's death and winning the tournament. Despite his hard-fought victory, Jin is suddenly gunned down by a squadron of the Tekken Force led by Heihachi, who no longer needs him, personally firing a final and fatal shot into his grandson's head. However, Jin is unexpectedly resurrected by Devil, now carrying half of his spirit within him after being nearly killed by Heihachi 15 years ago after The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2. Jin, reawakened and now controlled by Devil, uses him to dispatch the soldiers, and smash Heihachi through the temple wall as revenge for throwing him into the volcano. Jin then sprouts black, feathery wings and flies off into the night as Heihachi, who survived the fall, looks on from the ground in despair, realizing that Jin, has inherited the Devil Gene from his father Kazuya.

Development and release

Tekken 3 is the first game to have been released on Namco System 12 hardware,[9] after the original two Tekken games on System 11. The animation for the combatants was created using motion capture.[6][8]

The sub-bosses of the previous two Tekken games were dropped in Tekken 3, since the developers felt it would make for a deeper and more well-rounded game if they focused on the move sets and playability of the core characters rather than on adding bosses.[10]

The music for Tekken 3 was composed by Nobuyoshi Sano and Keiichi Okabe. Sano, who served as the sound director, took a big beat approach to the music with a slower tempo than the music found in previous games,[11] as this genre had not previously been utilized in games.[12] Game director Katsuhiro Harada initially did not understand the big beat direction, but Sano convinced him that it would work well in the series.[13] During development, a tester criticized the music and wanted the music to resemble Sega's Virtua Fighter; this angered Sano, although the report was dismissed. Okabe also became ill during the music's production.[14]

The game had a limited Japanese release on 28 November 1996.[15] It was followed by a wide international release in March 1997, releasing in North America on 18 March 1997.[16]

PlayStation

The conversion to the PlayStation took eight months, significantly longer than the conversions of Tekken and Tekken 2, due to Tekken 3 being designed for Namco System 12, making it a much more difficult conversion than the previous two games, which were designed for the PlayStation-based Namco System 11.[10] The conversion team was, aside from a few personnel changes, the same group which created both the PlayStation and arcade versions of Tekken and Tekken 2.[10]

The original port of Tekken 3 to the PlayStation features two new hidden characters: Gon and Dr. Boskonovitch. Boskonovitch was a late addition; in early 1998 Namco said that Gon would be in the PlayStation version but Boskonovitch's inclusion was still not certain.[8] Anna was made into her own separate character, and given her own character select spot, voice, unique attacks, and ending. The PlayStation version features new "Tekken Force" and "Tekken Ball" modes, as well as all modes present in Tekken 2. Due to the PlayStation's hardware limitations of less video RAM and lower clock speed, the visual quality was downgraded. The backgrounds were re-made into 2D panoramic images, the number of polygons used for each character were slightly reduced, sound effects played at a high pitch, and the game runs at lower overall resolution. Namco representatives had in fact originally stated that they did not think it was possible to convert Tekken 3 to the PlayStation.

Reception

Commercial

The arcade game was a major hit. In Japan, the 15 April 1997 issue of Game Machine listed Tekken 3 as the most-successful arcade game of the month.[42] It went on to be the highest-grossing arcade printed circuit board (PCB) game of 1997 in Japan,[43] and second highest-grossing overall arcade video game below Sega's rival Virtua Fighter 3 (1996).[44] Tekken 3 sold 35,000 arcade units worldwide in 1997, including 15,000 in Japan and 20,000 overseas. While Virtua Fighter 3 was more successful in Japan at the time, Tekken 3 was more successful worldwide.[43] Tekken 3 later became the overall highest-grossing arcade game of 1998 in Japan, above Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle.[45][46]

The PlayStation version was also a major hit. In Japan, the game sold over 1 million copies on its first day of release.[47] In May 1998, Sony awarded Tekken 3 a "Platinum Prize" for sales above 1 million units in Japan.[48] According to Weekly Famitsu, Japan bought 1.13 million units of Tekken 3 during the first half of 1998, which made it the country's third-best-selling game for the period.[49] PC Data, which tracked sales in the United States, reported that Tekken 3 sold 1.11 million copies and earned US$48,500,000 1998 in revenue during 1998 alone. This made it the third-best-selling PlayStation release of the year in the United States.[50]

In Germany, it received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) in November 1998 for sales above 100,000 units,[51] with the VUD later raising it to "Platinum" status indicating over 200,000 sales by August 1999.[52] At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes, it took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €36 million or US$,000,000 1998 in the European Union during 1998.[53] Tekken 3 grossed a further €57,209,778 or US$ 1999 in Europe during 1999,[54] adding up to over €0 or US$ 1998 grossed in Europe by 1999, and more than US$ 1998 across Europe and the United States by 1999.

According to Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken 3 sold 8.36 million copies during its initial release on the original PlayStation, including 1.4 million in Japan and 6.96 million overseas.[55]

Critical

According to Metacritic, the game has a score of 96 out of 100, indicating universal acclaim,[23] and is ranked number 2 on its list of greatest PlayStation games.[56] As of April 2011, the game is listed as the twelfth-highest-rated game of all time on the review compiling site GameRankings with an average rating of 96%.[22]

Next Generation reviewed the arcade version, and stated that "Tekken 3 isn't quite the artful masterpiece that [Virtua Fighter 3] is, but is still awesome in its own right, and has moved the series even further form its 'me too' roots. The fighting system has evolved nicely, resulting in some wild and effective moves and new characters, a faster responsiveness, and an impressive 3D fighting experience."[57] GamePro gave it a 4.5 out of 5 for graphics and sound and a 5.0 for control and funfactor. While noting that it was visually not up with its competitor Virtua Fighter 3, the reviewer said it was stunning in its own right and features phenomenally responsive and easy controls.[58]