It's back with a vengeance! The King of Iron Fist Tournament has had a makeover, new characters added, a greater variety of moves and a couple of new game modes installed. Fancy yourself as a black belt then eh? Enter the Tekken!
As with Tekken 2 the intro is superb showing excerpts from each main characters story supplemented by a pumping techno track to get you in the mood to kick serious ass. The game options are the same initially as T2 including Arcade, Vs and Survival modes but more will be unlocked as you progress. A few of the main characters have been retained, mainly Nina Williams fresh from her cryogenic coffin, Paul Phoenix, Yoshimitsu and Lei Wu Long. New characters in the shape of Xiayou, a petite little Japanese girl, Hwoarrang, a pupil of the now deceased Baek, Forest Law, son of Marshall Law, Jin Kazama, son of the mudered Jun and Kayuza, King 2 who took on his predecessor's famous mask and the unique dancing fighting style of the dreadlocked Brazilian Eddy Gordo grace our screens in this tournament with other original and new characters available as you progress.
As you progress through the stages in arcade mode ending with Heihachi, Ogre and then True Ogre, you are treated to the FMV ending for your chosen character and as with T2 you will then receive a bonus character when you re-start. At certain points you will also unlock two new game modes. Tekken Ball mode is a sort of martial arts beach volleyball where you will unlock the cute little dinosaur charater Gon. The tougher Tekken Force mode sends your chosen character through four stages of side scrolling action combating against Mishima ninjas and four level bosses. Once you complete Tekken Force mode four times you will have to overcome one last hurdle to unlock the secret character. There are also secret costumes available as you play particular characters a certain number of times the best being the Eddy Gordo alter ego "Tiger" complete with afro hair, shades, orange shirt and flared trousers who's ending is also very neat.
It was generally thought that the PSX limits had been stretched with the visuals on Tekken 2, but they must have found some extra nooks and crannies to fill with data for the sequel. The characters look alot smoother, the backgrounds nicer and attention to detail is just as precise. The animation is also superb and the way the the camera angle swings round as you execute that bone crunching throw. The graphics on Tekken 3 have surpassed my expectations and I think you will be hard pushed to find better until a new console comes along. (I think I said that about Tekken 2 though!)
The music has been given a sort of dance re-mix for Tekken 3 and it works quite well with the tempo of the game. The spot effect do their job without going over the top and the voice over guy has been given a smooth american accent as opposed to the sharp oriental tongue from Tekken 2.
Tekken 3 has amazingly surpassed Tekken 2 in all departments much to most peoples disbelief and it remains king of the fighting games and probably will do so until Tekken 4 is released. Some people say that if you already have Tekken 2 then don't bother with Tekken 3 , but all I say is that if you have and are a big fan of T2 then first of all rent T3 and compare them. Then you will probably be at the bank, to the game store and back home again qucker than you can say "Heihachi Mishima!"
