Tekken 3D Prime Edition
Score: 62% ESRB: Teen Publisher: BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Inc. Developer: Arika Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Fighting/ Online
Graphics & Sound: Visually, Tekken 3D Prime Edition is a stone-cold stunner. At this point, it's destined to be the graphical standard against which all other portable fighting games should be judged. Imagine Tekken 6 on the PSP successfully making the jump to glasses-less 3D, and you've got a very good idea of what to expect from this release. Namco's fighting franchises have always animated well, and Tekken is such a proven series in this regard that it's almost redundant to say it looks good. The framerate is silk, there are no sync problems, and the 3D looks fantastic. Perhaps most impressive is how amazingly short the load times are. From a sound standpoint, 3D Prime Edition is Tekken 6 as heard through the Nintendo 3DS's naturally weak speakers. The music and sound effects are here, but the hardware simply can't handle it. I recommend using headphones when playing this game -- and really, any other time you play with your 3DS.
Gameplay: So far, so good, right? Why the low score at the top of the screen? It's not because the game plays any different. It doesn't. In fact, the fighting is pretty much as good as it's ever been. The biggest problem with this game has more to do with its value. Tekken 3D Prime Edition is so unbelievably light on features that I'm really wondering what they were on when they slapped the $39.99 price on it. 3D Prime Edition features two (count 'em: one, two) single-player modes. Starting at the top, we have Special Survival. In this mode, you select a character and progress through a set number of battles. There's a catch: you must complete the chain of battles using the same health bar. Granted, it replenishes itself a bit between fights. You're rewarded for performing well in this mode, but I'll explain in specifics a bit later. The second of the game's two single-player modes is the not-so-aptly-named Quick Battle. This is essentially Arcade Mode without the personalized cutscenes. It's just the standard series of fights that fighting games have been including since the inception of the genre. You'll probably get more enjoyment out of the multiplayer. Tekken 3D Prime Edition allows you to take on another person in local or online combat. I haven't had a chance to play someone locally, but I've spent some time with the online. It's functional, but there are unavoidable lag issues. This coming from someone with a pretty good connection, at least as far as gaming goes. The last of the features is a blatantly transparent effort to fatten the release up a bit. It's Tekken: Blood Vengeance, an animated feature film along the lines of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. By that, I mean its story is as idiotic as its visuals are striking. And let's be clear: it's a gorgeous movie. The eye candy has no chance of fooling anyone into believing it's even remotely interesting or well-written.
Difficulty: The Nintendo 3DS hardware isn't an ideal fit for a game like Tekken 3D Prime Edition. The D-pad isn't very stable as far as three-dimensional fighting games go, and the Circle Pad is no analog stick. Furthermore, the face buttons are small and very close together, making the complex combinations very difficult to pull off. However, if you have small thumbs (like I do), you shouldn't have too much trouble with attack, provided you're inputting the correct commands. Regardless, you'll miss the controller or joystick, but such is the cost of portability. Tekken 3D Prime Edition has five difficulty levels, three of which are variants on "Hard." If you're not used to three-dimensional fighters, Medium is probably what you're going to want to choose. And it's just as well; it's the default setting. Save for the odd spike here and there (especially towards the end of each stretch), it's not too difficult.
Game Mechanics: Have you played any iteration of Tekken 6? If so, there isn't anything new to learn here, as it's just a stripped-down version of the same game. Button placement and combos are unchanged, so if you've played a Tekken game before, you should be able to waltz right in and kick a little ass. As mentioned in the previous section, the 3DS doesn't feature an optimal control setup for a three-dimensional fighter. So a concession has been made: one that looks suspiciously similar (read: identical) to the one introduced in Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. Four programmed moves are mapped to the touch screen, and you can execute any of them with a touch of your thumb. This takes all of the challenge out of performing some of those moves, but it's still a decent system. There are a few goodies here, emphasis on the word "few." Tekken Cards are the main reward for performing well in Special Survival. These still shots of characters vary pretty wildly in terms of quality, and though the 3D effects look good, the cards themselves feel pretty useless. You can trade them with other people via StreetPass or unlock them on StreetPass using an in-game currency, but the cards aren't interesting enough to be considered anything more than a complete waste of time. Regardless of how big a fan you are, Tekken 3D Prime Edition is difficult to recommend. It could have been a must-own. Indeed, the pieces are in place: the game looks and sounds great and plays well enough to be considered a functional port. However, that's really all that can be said about it. There's not nearly enough content in this package to make it worth even half the asking price.
-FenixDown, GameVortex Communications AKA Jon Carlos
Related Links: Official Website of Tekken 3D Prime Edition Buy Tekken 3D Prime Edition on Amazon
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