Tekken Special

Tekken 3 Special
Tekken 3 Special's title screen
Console	Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
Date	1996 or 1997
Engine	Mega Drive Fighting Engine
Alternate names/hacks	Tekken 3, Tekken Special

Tekken 3 Special is a pirated fighting game based off Tekken 2, created for the Mega Drive by an unknown company.

Overview

The graphics are taken from the original game and simplified, with the characters being original hand drawn 2D sprites made to roughly resemble a the 3D models used in the original arcade board. The backgrounds are simple and not animated, often being mirrored horizontally like many other pirates on the Mega Drive in order to conserve ROM space. Many of the backgrounds appear to utilize poorly digitized elements. The music appears to be original. The ending is a simple "Congratulations" screen.

The title screen and character icons are taken from the original Tekken 2 and reduced in color. These seem to be the only elements lifted directly from the arcade source.

Gameplay / Presentation

The following characters are playable:

Tekken 3 Special's Gameplay. Note the fireball attack, which wasn't in Tekken 2.

1. Kazuya Mishima
2. Lee Chaolan
3. Paul Phoenix
4. Jun Kazama
5. Yoshimitsu
6. Heihachi Mishima
7. Nina Williams
8. Marshall Law

The controls are very limited, with the game lacking support for the Mega Drive's 6-button controller. In this game, the A button blocks, the B button punches and the C button kicks. The blocking is rather broken due to it not working at all if you hold block simultaneously with a direction on the D-pad. Blocking in the SNES version was changed and accomplished by simply holding back or down/back similar to the Street Fighter series. Unlike the original game, it seems to be possible to pull off projectile attacks, but the movements to pull these off are unknown. Awkwardly, to jump kick, the player has to press the C button at a specific spot when they're about to jump, which is a common flaw on the Mega Drive fighting engine it was based on.

Many of the stages in Tekken 3 Special were Sub-Boss stages in the arcade version of Tekken 2:

1. Kazuya Mishima uses Jun Kazama's stage from Tekken 2
2. Lee Chaolan uses Paul Phoenix's stage from Tekken 2
3. Paul Phoenix uses (ironically) Lee Chaolan's stage from Tekken 2
4. Jun Kazama uses Prototype Jack's stage from Tekken 2
5. Yoshimitsu uses Baek Doo San's stage from Tekken 2
6. Heihachi Mishima uses Kunimitsu's stage from Tekken 2
7. Nina Williams uses Ganryu's stage from Tekken 2
8. Marshall Law uses Kuma's stage from Tekken 2
9. Wang Jinrei's stage is also found in the ROM but unused otherwise

The game exists on an entirely 2D plane with no line-sway or dodge moves available, as were included in the SNES version of Soul Blade.

Connections / Trivia

• Due to it being one of the first original pirated fighters for the Mega Drive, it contains custom player sprites that were suprisingly not recycled in any additional games, apart from it's SNES version. None of of the sprites for the Tekken characters are borrowed from V.R Fighter VS Taken 2.
• An additional background is present in the ROM but cannot be accessed in normal gameplay.
• Although the music appears to be original, it is unknown if it was used in the SNES version as well, or any other other pirate games.
• The cartridge size for Tekken 3 Special is the same as the SNES version, yet that version has only 6 characters.
• The backgrounds loop like in many other pirated games being made at the time.

Gallery

Box and Cartridge

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