Tekken 3 Review

Tekken 3 is where 3D fighting stopped being a gimmick. The addition of a genuine sidestep turned the arena's depth axis into real strategy, letting matches revolve around movement and whiff punishment rather than a flat exchange of pokes. The new generation of the roster, Jin Kazama, Hwoarang, Ling Xiaoyu, was so instantly charismatic that it carried the franchise for decades, and each character's move list runs deep enough to be a course of study, with ten-string combos, throws, and stance play layered over the series' limb-mapped controls.

Namco's PlayStation conversion was a technical marvel, keeping arcade fluidity at a slightly reduced resolution while adding Tekken Force's beat-em-up mode and the volleyball absurdity of Tekken Ball, a generosity of content home fighters rarely attempted. The story is anime-tournament nonsense told through gloriously cheap FMV endings, but the animation quality and match pacing remain the era's gold standard.