Brehs What Was It Like When Tekken 3 Dropped?

[O.Red]

for good? what year are you posting from?

Im referring to Capcom's intentions

Yoshihiro Ono begged Capcom for years to make a new Street Fighter game because after SF3 underperformed, Capcom had 0 intentions of ever making another one. Keep in mind that a decade passed between the release of 3rd Strike and SF4. It was a dead franchise

Nikkas don't know how much the stars aligned for SF4 to be made

 

[boriquaking]

Spent mad time playing the arcade at the bodega

 

[Khalil's_Black_Excellence]

People had drifted away from Street Fighter by the late 90s yea but also Street Fighter 3 games, which started coming out in 96, weren't even available in the US until 99 with the Dreamcast releases of SF3:New Generation/2nd Impact bundle and 3rd Strike

There were no US arcade releases for SF3 unless you lived in NY or Cali, and Capcom was in the beginning stages of killing off the Street Fighter franchise for good

I didn't live in either of those areas (lived in PG County Maryland at that time) and there was a cabinet for the original SF3 during that timeframe in my local arcade. I remember that pretty vividly because I beat the game with Ryu in the arcade while I was in high school. They later got Double Impact when it released as well. I went to high school from 95-99 and it definitely wasn't in my senior year when I did this. I remember even seeing a third strike machine years later, I believe at a local movie theater of all places, cuz by this time, I think my local arcade had shutdown by third strike's release. That may have been senior year for that instance tho.

 

[The Mad Titan]

1994-2002 was peak gaming for me.


I basically went from a young kid/teen hanging out with the wrong crowds about to get caught up, to a straight up mall rat and arcade junkie and hardcore gamer.


During that time street fighter was on the back burner pretty much. It had moved on to more of a console phenomenon. The arcade SF2 crazy domination was before my time

But on console Street fighter was dominating forever off SF2 and all the versions. Then MK dropped like a year later and gave it some comp people enjoyed both for a long time.

Once Tekken 3 dropped it was basically the defacto 3d fighter. I'm really not into Tekken but it is what it is.

Capcom was going crazy though, the street fighter games basically turned into vs games. No one was really trying to go back to standard street fighter.

Plus Capcom was dropping multiple heat packs, back to back like 3-6 months apart from it other from like 95 till 2001 when arcades basically started to die


Tekken 3 was popular but it was Tekken tag (which is basically just Tekken 3 tag) that basically made a lot of die hard fans out the series.

The Arcade was one of the goated eras, especially because of tech worked. Even if There was a arcade resurgence for some reason it wouldn't be close to the same experience.

 

[Red Shield]

Tekken 3


Pretty much cemented Tekken as THE 3d fighter. I liked Soul Edge and Toshinden was my shyt but T3 was on another level.

Remember I got the poster of Jin and ended up leaving it at the damn airport



Hell I played way more fighters back in the late 90s then I have other the last 23 years :skip

 

[darealvelle]

Yeah Tekken 3 was able to take advantage of the fall off of Mortal Kombat franchise when they dropped 4 and Street Fighter became more of a console fighter in the late 90s.

 

[feelosofer]

Tekken was def popular with 1 and 2 and well received. But 3 was just a runaway success. It had loads of characters. The fighting styles were varied and it was just a great game especially in the arcade but on PS as well.

 

[O.Red]

I didn't live in either of those areas (lived in PG County Maryland at that time) and there was a cabinet for the original SF3 during that timeframe in my local arcade. I remember that pretty vividly because I beat the game with Ryu in the arcade while I was in high school. They later got Double Impact when it released as well. I went to high school from 95-99 and it definitely wasn't in my senior year when I did this. I remember even seeing a third strike machine years later, I believe at a local movie theater of all places, cuz by this time, I think my local arcade had shutdown by third strike's release. That may have been senior year for that instance tho.

SF3 was still so rare that I consider cases like yours negligible SF3 cabinets in the US were RARE, especially when compared to SF2

Even Alpha 2 cabinets were relatively prominent but a SF3 cab was some stars aligning luck of the draw shyt

 

[Khalil's_Black_Excellence]

SF3 was still so rare that I consider cases like yours negligible SF3 cabinets in the US were RARE, especially when compared to SF2

Even Alpha 2 cabinets were relatively prominent but a SF3 cab was some stars aligning luck of the draw shyt

I hear you. I didn't discount its rarity, lol. My arcade was ran by some serious FG gamers, old heads. So them having it wasn't at all coincidental. I was the youngest, consistent player there (was there near weekly from like 12 years old to 15). I was really surprised third strike was at that movie theater of all places tho.

Speaking of Alphas, we had all of those as well. All the Tekkens at the time. Each vs. Game that existed at the time. All the SamShows. It was primarily a fighters arcade. shyt was glorious.

Funny at the time, they were a lot heavier into SNK fighters, particularly the KOFs and Real Bout Fatal Fury games, even over all Capcom games. Those was my roots. Speaking of Tekken 3, at the time there, it was more for casuals there, unfortunately. Those heads there hadn't quite converted to 3D games yet. I was loving Tekken since the first game tho, so I played it plenty there regardless of lack of competition. I had more comp from it when it came to consoles and we'd have meet ups and random bouts at friends houses and shyt.

 

[drifter]

When you think about it T3 was super risky, T2 too but not as much

Name another game that flipped the main protag from the 1st game to the main antagonist in the 2nd then completley removed him in the 3rd lol. SF just got their hero replacement mid cycle last gen and idk if people have come around to him yet, Tekken didn't miss a beat swapping Kazuya for Jin

Then only 7 characters carried over to 3, 9 if you include King/Law but it's a new King and Forest instead of Marshall. Everybody else you've never seen before or a Panda skin for Kuma

I'm younger too so I won't remember it like some of yall pushing 40 but going to the skating rink and looking at the cabinets, it looked like alien technology vs MVC and other fighters. A lot of fighters couldn't make that transition to 3D, they had 3D down so good they had Heihachi shoot Jin only for to become Devil Jin and send him flying out a temple. Amazing soundtrack, most important title in Tekken history especially since they were on the ropes at the time allegedly

 

[CarltonJunior]

When you think about it T3 was super risky, T2 too but not as much

Name another game that flipped the main protag from the 1st game to the main antagonist in the 2nd then completley removed him in the 3rd lol. SF just got their hero replacement mid cycle last gen and idk if people have come around to him yet, Tekken didn't miss a beat swapping Kazuya for Jin

Then only 7 characters carried over to 3, 9 if you include King/Law but it's a new King and Forest instead of Marshall. Everybody else you've never seen before or a Panda skin for Kuma

I'm younger too so I won't remember it like some of yall pushing 40 but going to the skating rink and looking at the cabinets, it looked like alien technology vs MVC and other fighters. A lot of fighters couldn't make that transition to 3D, they had 3D down so good they had Heihachi shoot Jin only for to become Devil Jin and send him flying out a temple. Amazing soundtrack, most important title in Tekken history especially since they were on the ropes at the time allegedly

Eh

SF3's main char was supposed to be Alex and SFA's Charlie

Tekken was always due to get that nudge because it was 3D instead of 2D, and started when 3D wasn't good yet, as the technology improved, naturally so would the series.

It wasn't until T4 and up where they started feeling the effects of removing characters, but even then the compromise was TTT, which a lot of people preferred to the main game anyway

 

[O.Red]

When you think about it T3 was super risky, T2 too but not as much


I'm younger too so I won't remember it like some of yall pushing 40 but going to the skating rink and looking at the cabinets, it looked like alien technology vs MVC and other fighters. A lot of fighters couldn't make that transition to 3D, they had 3D down so good they had Heihachi shoot Jin only for to become Devil Jin and send him flying out a temple. Amazing soundtrack, most important title in Tekken history especially since they were on the ropes at the time allegedly

This is the huge point

Tekken 3 had the impact that it did because it looked and sounded cool. There were plenty of other 3D fighters out at the time but Tekken 3's aesthetic stood out above them all

When you look at the lightning, the music, the design (game design and character fashion), it serves as a time capsule for where the late 90s/early 2000s was headed visually

 

[O.Red]