Tekken 5 Review - Heihachi went out like a Jack and a bomb

Release(s):                  
                 February 24, 2005 (North America)                 
                 March 31, 2005 (Japan)                 
                 June 24, 2005 (Europe)
Platform(s): Arcade, PlayStation 2
Genre(s): Fighting
Developer(s): Namco
Publisher(s):                     
                  Namco (Worldwide)                     
                  Sony Computer Entertainment (Europe)
Player(s): 1-2 

Overview

Though the glory days of Tekken 2 and 3 are well behinds us by this point that hasn't stopped the franchise from still going strong. After the non-canonical fun of Tekken Tag Tournament and the innovative (yet controversial) Tekken 4, fans were hungry for more especially with the franchise's 10th anniversary on the way and that's where Tekken 5 comes in being released on arcades of late 2004. Does it make for a sufficient anniversary gift? Let's find out.. 

Gameplay

Most of the mechanics introduced from Tekken 4 have made a return for this title but Tekken 5 brings the 3D combat system a bit closer to it's roots so the control scheme is back to what it once was. Position Change has been removed pretty much entirely from the game meaning the secondary grab attack move is back to it's original command input and the stages are no longer have uneven terrains like in Tekken 4, but at least there's no pesky obstacles to get in the way of combat. You can still use the walls to your advantage and there are even some "infinite" stages like the ones in pre-Tekken 4 games.

Another thing about Tekken 5 is that it goes through all the stops to make characters as balanced and unique as possible (thus removing any hyper-similarities they once had). In fact, the only characters that can be seen as OP are Nina Williams and Steve Fox but not nearly as OP as Jin Kazama in Tekken 4 (where he's just broken). Speaking of Jin, players now actually have to play their cards right as he lost his overpowered moves. The new characters are a nice addition like the Canadian Ninja Raven who probably could give Yoshimitsu a run for his money, the tomboyish Asuka Kazama (Jin's younger cousin) who uses the Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts but with her own little twist to things, and the psychotic Chinese Kempo master Feng Wei. Old-school characters who haven't been in any Tekken since after Tekken Tag like Ganryu, Bruce Irvin, and Baek Doo Son have made a return with revamped movesets     

Content

The game modes you expect to return are back in this game. Story Battle is mostly the same as it was in Tekken 4 only there's 9 stages in total and the final boss is... Jinpachi Mishima (the father of Heihachi Mishima), who's arguably the cheapest character in Tekken history but good thing he's not playable. The hidden characters are also unlocked through here once again entirely on how many characters you complete it with and all of them are unlocked this way except Devil Jin (who unlocked after fighting 200 times in Arcade Battle or completing Tekken: Devil Within). 

It also seems Tekken has taken a page out of Virtua Fighter's book by having you play through Arcade Battle as long as you want and choose whoever to fight next just like VF4: Evolution's Quest mode. There's also a new ranking system just like the Quest mode where you can go from Beginner to 5th Dan to Tekken Lord. This ranking system determines how tough your opponents are and the amount of G (multiplied by the occasional bonus) you earn after winning each match as well as your chances of being promoted while fighting against tougher opponents. Be careful not to lose too many matches or you may get demoted as well.

Now, you're probably wondering what purpose does G (an obvious abbreviation for Gold) serve in this game? Well they can be used within the Customize mode to modify a character's appearance with different color schemes, additional gear or different clothing, and even a new super expensive costume... but these accessories are purely cosmetic so they don't have any real purpose unless you want your character look cool. You can also earn G from Story Battle (which gives you 100,000 after completing it with a character), Time Attack, Survival, and Devil Within (which gives you 2,000,000 after completing it) but Arcade Battle provides faster and more consistent results.

One thing I've neglected to mention in my Tekken 4 Review (since that game was the first to make that change) is that you can now pause during gameplay in Time Attack and Survival. Another thing I've neglected to mention is within the Attack Replay option of Practice is you can make the computer repeat any move from their Command List with varying input speed instead of just replaying their 10-hit combo moves (which is a good thing because not every character had a 10-hit combo move... they do now, though)... but the Training mode has been removed.

As celebration of the series' 10th anniversary to gracing Playstation with it's ports, Tekken 5 comes with the arcade versions of the first three Tekken games plus another arcade classic by Namco called Starblade (which is unlocked after completing Story Battle with every character or completing Devil Within) in Arcade History. Despite including four extra games into one disc the transition are done to perfection with no signs of slow-down or graphical errors (like distorted character models or misplaced colors).

Lastly, we come to Tekken: Devil Within which is the action-platformer spiritual successor to the Tekken Force mini-game only it uses it's own mechanics instead of using the game's core gameplay as a base. In Devil Within you take control of Jin Kazama as you go around various corridors and fight off generic monks to discover a way to rid himself of the Devil gene and find his missing mother with a boss waiting at the end of each stage. This most likely takes place shortly after (or during... I dunno) Tekken 3 as Jin fights using his old mix-pot style with a very simplified combo system and you can even turn into the devil form (at the cost of gradually losing health) with the lasers and whatnot... if your red gauge is high enough. Admittedly, this sounds great on paper but the whole experience is bogged down by repetition and a bogus difficulty curve which saps out much of the fun had rather quickly.

Graphics

With 3 years of development under it's belt there is definitely a graphical improved and this game is easily the best-looking Tekken has ever gotten on PS2. No matter how you slice it, Tekken 5 is a gorgeous game- everything is just so crisp and detailed. This game may be one of the best-looking to ever be released on PS2. The animation on both the characters and especially stages have been improved as well making the whole thing very lively. You can even cause damage to the floors and walls of most stages.

Sound

Most of the voice clips are recycled from Tekken 4 but some returning characters have reprise their roles so now all the voice actors/actresses sound perfectly good. The SFX now sound crunchier and are overall much more viscerally satisfying than before. As expected the music is quite good... in fact, I'd say this game has the best soundtrack in the series aside from Tekken 2. It's very diverse with each stage having music that's atmospheric/region-specific.

Aesthetics

Much like Tekken 4 most of the story in Tekken 5 is told through text-based prologues and epilogues (though there aren't as many epilogues in this game) on top of an ending movie for each character to set things off. We also now get a few interludes for each character.

The main story of Tekken 5 is shortly after Jin had defeated his father and grandfather respectively, Homaru is under attack by a bunch of JACK models but suddenly during fighting off the JACKs, Kazuya had left Heihachi for dead and one of the JACKs went kamikaze thus killing Heihachi... or does it? This explosion destroyed the Homaru building which allowed Jinpachi, who was trapped under the building and starved to death, to break free and take back the Mishima Zaibatsu (which was founded by him) from his crocked son. 2 months later... Jinpachi had started the 5th Iron Fist Tournament so he can find an opponent strong enough to beat before the demon possessing him (which awoken from the very presence of Jin's devil form in Homaru) takes full control and destroys all of mankind. Now this point in Tekken is where I believe is where the story started to become wack whatnot from the needless retcons of Tekken 2 and 3's great storylines to turning once respectable characters into just comic relief (including my fave Paul Phoenix).

On the other hand, the look and feel of the menus continue to get better and better but this also seems to imply to characters' intro and winning sequences during battles including more dynamic camera angles and subtitles so you can understand the foreign characters. 

Overall

Despite the increasing niche of the fighting game genre and the dying arcade scene outside Japan, Namco still managed to pull out yet another great game for this franchise... but how long can Tekken keep up this momentum before it hits the wall like the Virtua Fighter series? Only time will tell...

Overall, I give this game a 9.5 out of 10.

Tekken 4 Review - Step into the next millenium

Release(s):

March 28, 2002 (Japan)
September 13, 2002 (Europe)
September 23, 2002 (North America)

Platform(s): Arcade, PlayStation 2
Genre(s): Fighting
Developer(s): Namco
Publisher(s): 

Namco (Worldwide)
Sony Computer Entertainment (Europe)

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

With three games and one non-canonical title under it's belt, Tekken has proven time and time again it can hang with the big boys of the fighting game genre. The true fourth installment was also in the makings and was set to be released in 2001 for arcades... to make way for a new era of fighting in the 21st century. Just how far does it take this re-revolutionary movement with 3D fighters? Let's find out...

Gameplay

Once again the award-winning 3D fighting from previous Tekken games have return so that's good but there are a couple fundamental changes that makes this game stand out. For one you can't jump backwards or vertically... you can only jump forward which isn't a big loss but it's something you'll notice when it's gone. A new grab move which allows you to shift your opponent to a more favorable position and it's done by pressing LP + LK of which the secondary attack grab is supposed to be. A couple other control schemes have been made but the biggest change Tekken 4 makes of the combat system is that for the first time ever, Tekken takes full advantage of the 3D fighting concept by actually having you fight on a 3D plane instead of an illusion of one. You can use the environments to your advantage by slamming your opponents to walls or trapping them into stage obstacles on uneven terrain stages forcing a slower and more strategic approach to combat. Now, I understand why Namco would make such changes and a couple of these concepts are quite good but at the same time they are alienating to long-time fans.

The new fighting styles are also a mixed bag. For example, Jin Kazama no longer fights with a mix of the Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts and Mishima-ryu in favor of traditional karate which makes him his own character now but he is really OP in the game notably due to his Laser Scraper move. Tekken 4 brings in new characters with completely unique movesets like the Vale Tudo fighter Craig Marduk who uses a grappler style not quite like no other (especially with his tackle) but his moveset just feels... incomplete. Though on the positive there's also the british boxer Steve Fox who, instead of using his additional punch attacks for his kick buttons like most fighting games would for boxing character, uses he left and right sway dodges for the LK and RK buttons which makes him an especially fun character to master. Lastely there's Combot... an ever-so-pointless replacement for Mokujin who instead of switching to a different character's fighting style each round he does it after an entire match. 

Content

All the game modes from Tekken 3 have returned for Tekken 4 but one in new game mode this game introduces which also becomes a staple in the Tekken series from then on is Story Battle. Story Battle is just like Arcade (Arcade Battle) only it actually goes out of it's way to tell the story of Tekken (which honestly makes Arcade rather redundant). You will fight 6 randomized characters then a possibly character-specific sub-boss and Heihachi Mishima as the final boss... though some character's stories may play out differently and will unlock a specific character (if they aren't already). Another player can't attempt to challenge you so they can take over like Arcade Battle.

The Tekken Force mode in Tekken 4 has received something of an upgrade from Tekken 3 as it takes full advantage of the whole interactive environment mechanics within the game's combat. You can also lock-on manually to an enemy instead of automatically locking onto the closest enemy and losing no longer means a game over (though you lose your total score from previous stages... not that it means much in the end) but the actual difficulty has increase with enemies potentially attacking you at every corner even during his boss fights. Speaking of boss fights... they are no longer character-specific... every character in the end of each stage will face Combot, Kuma/Panda, Kazuya, then Heihachi. 

Aside from that stuff there's a mode called Training which determines how fast you can input each character's bread-and-butter moves, and you can record a battle by pressing the select button at the end of the match and it can be viewed within the Theater mode. You can now pause in Time Attack mode and Survival mode.

Graphics

At a glance there's not much of a difference graphically between the Playstation 2 port of Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken 4 but Tekken Tag was already a great-looking so it's not really to be taken as an insult. I suppose Tekken 4 looks sharper is especially evident with the stages naturally as they're now part of the gameplay experience and there's no sign of slowdown like what happens with Tekken Tag sometimes. There are no longer any character-specific stages however...

Sound

Almost all of the voice actors/actress have once again reprise their roles for Tekken 4 and they sound better than ever before. What's even cooler is that for the first time ever in a Tekken game the characters finally have actual dialogue instead of just making battle grunts and occasional laughs. Some voices are questionable like Marduk's battle grunts which are like weird animal growls but overall they do a good job. The soundtrack for this game also shows quite a drastic change in style to reflect with the changing with the times. The synthesized music is now largely downplayed in favor of a techno/rock mix and there are no character-specific themes for the stages. The soundtrack also isn't remixed for the console port like previous games but that aside... the soundtrack is still head-bobbingly good nonetheless. 

Aesthetics 

Like I said earlier Tekken 4 actually goes out of it's way to tell the story through the Story Battle mode including text-based prologues and epilogues so you aren't just left guessing what happens. Each character still has their ideal endings after completing Story Battle but also like I said earlier this game features dialogue and the endings themselves have much more relevance to the main story so most of them actually feel like they're telling a legit story instead of basically being slideshows. As for the story itself... Kazuya Mishima has mysteriously came back from the deadwhich is bullshit thanks to G Corporation and is out for revenge against Heihachi for foiling his plans while Jin Kazama, who now has a deep hatred for anything related to the Mishima bloodline after Heihachi's betrayal (including his lineage, his fighting style, and the Devil Gene within him), is out for the same thing so Heihachi had announced the 4th Iron Fist Tournament to lure both of them out so he can claim the Devil Gene for himself. There are some other cool twists to the story as well like the once respected and feared Vale Tudo fighter Craig Marduk being responsible for the death of Armor King (King's mentor) which lead to him getting an invitation to the Iron Fist Tournament despite being charged with manslaughter, Steve Fox trying to discover his real parents while ducking the Mafia (whom may not be quite what they seem), and Ling Xiayou getting involved in the complicated history of the Mishamas to reunited with her schoolmate Jin and discover the truth to Heihachi's intentions.

The game's interface is significantly improved from previous games like each game mode in the main menu given a description and a mini screenshot to give you an idea of what it's about, and the screen transitions have actual flare to them rather than them simply going to the next screen. This is also a clear move to the next millennium.

Another thing I must add is that the character also speak their native language (like the Mishimas and Jin speaking Japanese, Hwoarang speaking Korean, etc.)... though some characters (like the replacement Capoeira fighter Christie Monteiro and Nina Williams) who are foreign don't even have a discernible accent when they should... but that's no big deal.

Overall

What can I say about Tekken 4? It's a black sheep alright and it's a damn good one at that! It may not be the best in terms of gameplay (even though it has some REALLY good and even revolutionary ideas) but you can't deny it's done a lot of good in terms of aesthetics and content.

Overall I give this game an 8.6 out of 10.

Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 Review - The hero is you... once again!

Release(s):

October 25, 2016 (North America)
October 28, 2016 (Europe)
November 2, 2016 (Japan)

Platform(s): Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Genre(s): Fighting

Developer(s): Dimps

Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Entertainment

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

The past several years have not been kind to Dragon Ball Z games. Developers all just took one interesting concept and ran with it hoping it'd land but as a result the games did poorly... then came Dragon Ball: Xenoverse which does borrow the created character RPG concept from Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi and the super authentic co-op fighting from Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z but it brings them back to their roots from the fan favorite Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi (Sparking! in Japan) series'. A lot was riding on the game as not only did the combat have 360° movement as fans have gotten used to and there was an RPG action-adventure element that would serve as a crux for the game but the developer behind was Dimps, who not only have pedigree among the Dragon Ball franchise for creating the Budokai series they also developed various other popular games such as The Rumble Fish, Sonic Advanced, and even worked on the Street Fighter series since Street Fighter IV in collaboration with Capcom. For the most parts, Xenoverse lived up to the hype and became easily the most successful DBZ game since Budokai Tenkaichi 3.

Now a sequel has been announced on short notice and a lot of new things noticed along the way, good things were to be expected... but does it keep up with the momentum that Xenoverse had already established?

Gameplay

This game returns the fast-paced, 360° movement fighting mechanics from the first game along with the same simplified control scheme where all the basic moves are mapped to the face buttons (you have a light physical attack button, a heavy physical attack button which can be charged, a button for ki blasts which also now can be charged, and a jump/ascending button) while guarding and more advanced moves either involve multi-button inputs or the shoulder buttons. Xenoverse 2 also introduces a bunch of techniques to give a visceral experience closer to the show such as the Homing Dash which allows you to automatically dash towards your targeted opponent by pressing the light attack + jump/ascension buttons at the same time while doing an Aura Dash at the cost of one stamina bar and press the light attack + jump/ascension buttons again to circle around the opponent. Charge attacks can also be used to break your opponent's stamina while they are in a guarding state and there are even physical attacks that are specifically used to break an opponent's stamina by pressing the light or smash attack button in junction of a tilt movement. Stuff like Step Vanish have been fully implemented into the game (even being encouraged in the tutorials) and they can used either in the middle of a light attack (at the cost of one stamina bar) or a Dash Step by tapping the jump/ascend button at the right time like you would a Snap Vanish.

Other mechanics have been refined from the first game. Aside from the stamina breaking technique I mentioned earlier, the way Super Saiyan for example works in this game is revamped to where you can no longer spam super/ultimate attacks as you have ki but it does increase stats (depending on what level you transform into) and it allows you to warp towards a locked opponent if performing a light attack or charged attack. Not only that but all races of created characters now have their own transformations that have their own unique attributes. 

It's still far from being a balanced gameplay experience (nor is it terribly deep), whatnot with characters still being blatantly better than others or certain characters being completely useless to others, but it's at least much less frustrating to play than the first game (you can even see the computer's full HUD). It's pretty solid overall.

Content

Xenoverse 2 follows the same concept as the first game where you created a character who acts a time patroller who's mission is to restoring time to it's natural order from the wicked witch Towa but it's a new patroller this time taking place of the old one... of which you can choose between a pre-made character or if you still have a saved data from the first game you can have a created character from that save data as the legend. Other characters may help out but for the larger parts it's a one-man mission and while most events are linearly available, some require you to explore the rest of the game doing side quests in the hub world (which also serves as the game's main menu) called Conton City. It's several times larger than Toki Toki City from the first game but here you can learn of hover board, flight (which functions just how it does in combat), and the Flying Nimbus that serve as quicker means of transportation making exploring  the hub world far less tedious than better.

Stuff like Parallel Quests, where you and a party of either AI-controlled characters or online players go to fight a select set of enemies and some cases, collecting Dragon Balls while each quest will reward you in the end, have returned. One thing that's change is the drops isn't nearly as reliant on RNG and is based more on you fulfilling the requirements. New types of side-quests have been added to the game such as protecting Guru's House along with Nail by collecting dragon balls all the while fending off Freeza's men who may want it, completing various challenges given by Mr. Satan, exchanging items between other characters, race-specific training (like training under Vegeta to learn Super Saiyan), and the most challenging of them... generically named Expert Missions. In these missions you and a party of 5 (online players or AI-controlled) will fight against a possessed, more powerful version of enemies from the main story who have the ability to brainwash you or any of your partners into fighting against the rest of crew. If you get captured then you would have to fight yourself and win to escape but if you lose then mission failed. You can also train under most characters in the game to learn their super moves (with a few exceptions) like in the first game only now you don't have to accept any of them as an instructor (though it's still an option) in order to do so. No characters from the fairly new anime TV show Dragon Ball Super, sadly (unless you pay for DLC).

Unfortunately, there's still no difficulty setting so what ever challenge this game gives you is what you get but Dimps have at least addressed the No Training Mode issue in the first game by adding a Training section within the Offline Battle Mode. The Training section in Xenoverse 2 allows you to use the computer as a training dummy who either acts as a punching bag, guards constantly, guards when being attacked, performs Just Guards, performs super moves or ultimate moves on patternly, an opponent of varying difficulty levels, or even controlled by another player... but if that's not enough you can set you or the computer's gauges to either be normal, dangerously low, or infinite and you can set the damage ratio and/or commands to be displayed. It's not as great as the training modes in other fighting games (maybe not even as great as Budokai's) but it still does the job well enough. The Multiplayer section of Offline Battle Mode now allows for other stages outside the World Tournament arena to fight at and the tutorial is not only available at all times (unlike the first game's which only was available at the start) but it's greatly extended even teaching players of more advanced moves.

Graphics

The graphics engine is the same for Xenoverse 2 compared to the first game including animations only things have been tweaked. Lighting has been subdued giving character models less of a glossy thus easier to look at, though it makes things appear somewhat dark. Environments and particle effects are significantly more detailed... but that's not the best part of all. It's now the home consoles versions are capped 60 fps instead of 30 fps like the first game though PC users can set it to even higher than 60 fps (even as far as 120 fps). Still not the best-looking game out there but it's very pretty and flashy fanservice for fans.

Sound

Xenoverse 2 uses much of the same voice clips from the last but new ones recording for new moves, cutscenes, and of course... new characters which I don't mind because FUNimation do a great job like they always do. The problem I can't get past is the lip-syncing especially during cutscenes.... it's sloppy at best and horrendous at worst. Fortunately there's still the option of the Japanese voices if the issue really bothers you. SFX can also be on the annoying side as well, namely when heavier attacks and super moves are involved.

The music on the other I have no serious complains with (aside from a new annoying tracks during the Conton City hub world). It's fairly good stuff and is fitting to each situation even though a lot of tracks are recycled from the first game. It's not particularly memorable though.

Aesthetics

Like I said earlier, the story behind Xenoverse 2 follows the same concept as the first game where you take control of a Time Patroller who's mission is to restore time to it's natural order from the wicked witch Towa but this game takes more advantage of the concept and as result we get much greater character development, a more fleshed-out story, and some actually interesting plot points. Aside from story there's pieces of humorous lines and various nods to the actual series.

Tons of moves from the actual series have also been recreated even more obscure ones like the spinning escape Goku during his fight with Tien in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament and they all presented extremely well, even though they're all real-time and not one is cinematic like with the PS2 games. The destructive ability on environments is still lacking you can only cause real damage to smaller objects while the damage in others are mysteriously undone.

Overall 

While it's not a massive overhaul over it's predecessor it does what it should as a sequel and more. The story and universe are more fleshed out, it looks better, and it plays better too. It's a slow, but certain step in the right direction for the Dragon Ball video game franchise under years of failed games due to badly realized concepts.

Overall this game gets a 7.8 out of 10.

Tekken 3 Review - A Year Later... A Few Months After

Release(s):

March 26, 1998 (Japan)
April 29, 1998 (North America)
September 12, 1996 (Europe)

Platform(s): Arcade, PlayStation 
Genre(s): Fighting
Developer(s): Namco
Publisher(s): 

Namco (Worldwide)
Sony Computer Entertainment (Europe)

Player(s): 1-2

Overview

As I've said in my review of Tekken 2, that game turned out to be an even bigger critical and commercial success than it's predecessor. Not only did the Playstation port sell over twice the amount that the first game did, Tekken 2 was given several accolades from major video game journalists as among the best video game ever and was the #1 most-played arcade game for several months straight (considering how big arcades were at the time, this was saying a lot). This officially established Tekken as a household name among other big-name fighters such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. The most logical step for Namco to take would be another sequel leaving players waiting as they shit their pants in anticipation for how far Namco can take their new hit series.

Gameplay

Once again Tekken 3 returns with the award-winning 3D combat system from the first games and just when people thought Namco couldn't take things even further, they did. One thing is that the sidestepping mechanic has been fully implemented for every character and they also have several moves that are tied to it including a powerful, inescapable throw from either the opponent's left or right just you can do from their backs. Characters now jump at realistic heights rather than 30 feet like they do in the first two games making aerial more easily controllable. Recovery time when down is now instantaneous keeping the flow of combat constant. The controls are even more tight and fluid, there's more ways counter, and there's even more diverse fighting styles.

Speaking of styles.... most characters from the first two games have been removed so defamiliarization of those games is a must for this game especially since while several characters may share likeness to the one they've replaced notably Jin Kazama (the bastard son of Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama), who is like mixed pot between the Advanced Mishima Style Karate and Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts, they have enough of their own moves to set them apart.

The AI has been toned down considerably from the first two games now providing a reasonable challenge for newcomers and there is no instances of cheap difficulty 
spikes... well, it actually does get harder as you go along but it never feels overwhelming. One could argue Namco may have made it too easy but in any case, it's at least much more adjustable.

Content

All of the game modes from Tekken 2 have returned but the Arcade Mode has a different method for unlocking characters. Instead of playing through it with a specific starting character to unlock a specific hidden character, it's now determined by how many characters you've completed Arcade Mode with and the last character you will unlock is the of course, the final boss... Ogre and then it's transformed state True Ogre. The options for Practice Mode was been extending massively from the last game.

Everything you can do in Practice Mode from Tekken 2 is here but you can make the computer dummy perform various actions such as crouch, guard in standing and/or crouching positions, perform a quick roll while laying on the floor, or even have another player take control. You can also have the computer act as a fighting opponent of varying difficulty (deja vu) and all these are sectioned to three modes called "1P Freestyle" where you can basically do whatever (evident from the title), "VS CPU" where you fight the dummy as if it were an opponent, and "Combo Training" where the game helps you perform more complicated combos. There's a few options encompass the whole Practice Mode such as the "Hit Analysis" which makes the characters green but blinks red whenever they are completely vulnerable and the "Attack Data" like in Tekken 2 only in 3 you can see the total amount of damage both characters have dealt to each other throughout the whole session. Unfortunately, the replay feature is just as unreliable as in Tekken 2 but at least now the game doesn't boot you back to the main menu for keeping it idle.

Tekken 3 introduces a mini-game called Tekken Force Mode of which you select a character and fight your way through a bunch of generic mooks beat 'em up style but with Tekken controls. There's a total of four stages each one ending with a boss depending on the character till the last stage where you fight Heihachi Mishima (except Mokujin). This mode is hella fun and if you manage to beat it three times you will get a chance to fight Doctor Bosconovitch then unlocking him if you win but be careful, because if you lose then it's gameover. You can also gain points based on well you do but they're completely inconsequential.

There's also another a mini-game called Tekken Ball Mode only this is unlocked through completing Arcade Mode with all the starting characters. In this mode you select a character then play against another player or the computer in a game of volleyball but with Tekken controls as well and your goal is to dwindle down your opponent's health by either sending the ball to their side of the court or hitting them with the ball directly. You have the choice of three beach balls (two of which are unlockable)... a beginner ball which can do up to 40% damage, an expert ball which can do up to 60% damage, and a grand master ball which can do maximum damage... the amount of damage that the ball can do is represent through a parameter that builds up from landing successive hits. This only works for certain attacks, however... surprisingly this mode works as well.

For the first time in non-Japanese versions, a mode called Theater Mode will also appear after you've completed Arcade Mode with all the starting characters. Here you watch opening sequences for the game and the endings for the characters you've completed Arcade mode with. If you get all of them, you gain the option to listen to the game's soundtrack (both arcade and remixed) in the music section or load the endings/music of the first two games in the disc section.

Graphics

The graphics just keep getting better and better. The character models and animation are significantly detailed than they were in the first two games plus the backgrounds don't clash so much with them along with the environments like they used to. Unfortunately, there isn't nearly as many unique stages for each character as there are in Tekken 2. With the exception of Heihachi, Ogre, Bosconovitch, and Gon (who is unlocked through Tekken Ball Mode after beating him) all the hidden characters have stages shared with the starting characters.

Sound

The voice work has been given a major overhaul from the first two games with several familiar voices thrown into the mix notably the late Daisuke Gōri as Heihachi Mishima (who voices him from the anime adaptation to Tekken 6 before his passing, rest in peace... champ). They still only make battle grunts (with a few exceptions) but at least now they doesn't awkward as they did previously. The soundtrack however doesn't hold a candle to the one in Tekken 2 but it's still got the great classic arcade synthesized feel to it.... though personally I prefer the arcade tracks over the rearranged tracks here for the most parts.

Aesthetics

The lore behind Tekken 3 isn't as strong as the one in Tekken 2 either but there's still plenty of interest within it. 19 years have past since the 2nd Iron Fist Tournament and Heihachi had reclaimed his throne from his (literally) demonic son Kazuya, who he threw into an erupting volcano (no way that sucker's making it out ali... shit), but something strange has happened. Many of the world's greatest fighters are gone with most of the absences being linked to the ancient being from Mexico named Ogre, who robs fighters of their abilities by attacking them, and Heihachi announces the 3rd Iron Fist Iron Fist Tournament to lore him out (best expect there'd be an ulterior motive behind it). Some of the fighters from the previous tournament have returned (like Nina Willaims who was cryogenically frozen for 19 years and is in search for her lost memories) but a bunch of new faces like the young and innocent Ling Xiaoyu who wants to build the perfect amusement park in China, the loner Jin Kazama who takes over as the main protagonist and wants to get revenge against Ogre for presumably killing his mother, the street punk Hwoarang who wants to settle the score with Jin, and the Brazillian button-mashing capoeira fighter Eddy Gordo who wants to piece together the murder of his father and seek retribution.

Just like the first two games the fighting styles for each character in Tekken 3 is based off real-life fighting styles so real-life martial artists would certainly appreciate the attention to detail. For authenticity sake, Eddy Gordo's animation is notably done using motion capture from a real-life capoeira fighter.

Overall 

While Tekken 3 may not be as aesthetically pleasing as Tekken 2 it's still a substantial improvement where it comes over an already amazing game. Many say this is the pinnacle of the series (it even did the best both commercial and critically) and I can definitely why. The combat is done to near-perfection but even if you're not a huge fighting game nut there's still plenty of other shit to do and it gets just about every single aspect.

Overall, I gave this game a 9.8/10.