Tekken 3 — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 42)

If you’ve ever wanted to fight a panda bear, an animated log, an alien samurai, or a wrestler in a jaguar mask, boy, do I have the game for you!

The very first thing that jumps out at you when you encounter Tekken 3 for the first time is its completely wackadoodle roster of bizarre characters, some of the tamest of which are Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee knockoffs, who both happen to be completely over-the-top caricatures of their real-life selves (and are positively bad-ass). But yeah, those are the tame ones. More typical are the likes of an ogre demon, or an infirm senior citizen scientist, or a cartoon dinosaur.

Color, in this case, is not a problem.

In fact, it’s partly the point.

But let’s be clear about this: it’s not the ENTIRE point. 

If it were, the Tekken series would have long since run out of steam.

Instead, the franchise has gotten better and better, to the point where it has become one of the premiere fighting series on the planet.

So, let’s get into a little of the how and why that happened while we dive into what is largely considered the most impactful entry in the series.

Tekken 3 at a glance:

Genre: Fighting game
Released: 1998
Platform: PlayStation
Complex’s Fourth Best Fighting Game of All Time
Continue reading Tekken 3 — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 42)