Tekken 3!
Best Fighthing Game of the Year
( Only for PlayStation )
The story so far is this: Jun Kizama,
the ribbon-haired ass-kicker from Tekken 2, now has a son named Jin, who
wants to kick butt just like mama. He soon gets his chance when Heihachi,
who's leading an excavation team into the jungles of Central America, unearths
the mysterious God of Fight, who eats the souls of B martial artists. High
in fiber, I guess. Anyway, Heihachi knows good competition when he sees
it, and he decides to throw a tournament to lure the god into battle. Meanwhile,
the God of Fight battles Jun, and since Jin is too young to fight him,
he escapes and trains with Heihachi in order to avenge his dear old ma.
With that storyline in our belts, we headed to Namco
to see the 60% cabinet version of the game ourselves, and get a little
play time in. The graphics were already top-notch, although we were told
that they were going to get even better. The crisp, clean polygons moved
as smoothly and as efficiently as they did in Tekken 2, and some new moves,
like Lei's Crane and DrunkenMaster moves, were a joy to behold.
The game played a lot like Tekken 2, with multi-hit button
tap combos. But even the old characters, like King and Paul, have a vast
array of new moves, like King's groin-separating throw. The three new characters
we saw (Jin, Xiaoyu, and Hwoarang) all sported new moves and countermoves
that are going to make the game a huge success.
There isn't much to report on sound and music, since
the cabinet volume was so low, but the backgrounds looked spectacular.
There's kind of a 3D-ish look to them, somewhat similar to VF3's, but not
as polished or multi-leveled (remember in VF3 that you could move from
level to level in the background when walking up steps or sand dunes?).
The three new fighters looked great (none of the sub-bosses were in yet).
The female, Xiaoyu, had some cool moves that were executed from a low swooping
stance. One of the other characters, Hwoarang, played a lot like Baek from
Tekken 2, with kicks being his primary offense. He had some great juggles
using just his feet. Jin played a lot like Kazuya, but was a lot faster,
and his hits were more lethal. That's all I can tell you for now.
