Tekken 3D Prime Edition

Genre: 3D Fighting

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Wireless, Online), StreetPass Support

.

Review:

Tekken 3D is a Fighting Game released on Nintendo 3DS in 2012, alongside the Wii U release of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. This marks one of a select few times that the Tekken series has ever graced a Nintendo platform, though developer Bandai Namco would collaborate with Nintendo later on to develop the Pokken games, which combine Tekken Fighting Game mechanics with the Pokemon world and characters.

Tekken 3D is largely based on 2007’s Tekken 6, featuring a comparable and impressively large roster of 41 characters characters, and similar gameplay. This release also comes with a bonus of sorts in the form of the full computer-animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance accessible from the game’s opening menu. The picture and sound quality of the film is good, but the film itself… well, I think only the most diehard of Tekken fans will enjoy this laughably bad plot, but I suppose the choreography of the fight scenes is decent at least.

For the game itself, the presentation here is good, combining decent 3D character models with sparse but sufficient environments with fast-paced rock tunes and Japanese voices for the characters. This game also features some silky-smooth 60FPS framerates. Overall, this is an excellent, polished presentation, though perhaps not quite on par with the likes of Dead or Alive Dimensions or Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition

As for the gameplay… look, like I said in my review of Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition, I am not a fan of the Tekken franchise. I much prefer Dead or Alive or Soulcalibur. However, for those who do enjoy the Tekken series, this game does a decent job translating the series’ gameplay to Nintendo’s handheld, also offering players four touchscreen buttons to supplement the normal buttons to make it easier to pull off moves.

The problem here is that aside from the included film, the features included here are absurdly sparse. You have a Quick Play mode that tosses you into a battle with ten random fighters of increasing difficulty, a Survival mode that keeps tossing opponents at you to see how long you can hold out, a Practice mode, a completely disposable trading card feature, and… that’s about it. There’s no tutorial to help ease in newer players, no standard Arcade mode, no Story mode… This is standard stuff, guys! What the heck!? And while the game does have multiplayer modes, the online servers for this game are abandoned, so don’t count on that to provide you much to do.

As a result, what could have been a solid translation of a beloved Fighting Game series to Nintendo 3DS feels technically sound but otherwise threadbare, with the film tossed in to try to cover the otherwise embarrassingly lacking list of features. Tekken fans with a Nintendo 3DS may still want to get Tekken 3D because… well, Tekken on Nintendo platforms is such a rare occurrence, and the core gameplay here is still good (well, if you like Tekken). However, Fighting Game fans just looking for a good experience on Nintendo 3DS have multiple better options.

tl;dr – Tekken 3D is a Fighting Game that brings a character roster and gameplay based on Tekken 6 to Nintendo 3DS. The presentation, excellent framerates, core gameplay, and selection of characters here is great, but the game modes and options here are absolutely pathetic, plus the online lobbies are deserted at this point. Oh, and this release also includes the Tekken: Blood Vengeance film, which will only really be appreciated by Tekken fans… but even those fans will likely be disappointed at how lacking in features this game is.

Grade: B-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}