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 unanimated, 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. It is currently unknown how many backgrounds appear or if they are the same as the SNES version. The music appears to be original. The ending is a simple Congratulations screen.
The title screen and character headshots are taken from the original Tekken 2 screens and reduced in color. These seem to be the only elements lifted directly from the arcade source. There is a crude win/lose screen after a match showing what appears to be a blocky rendition of the victorious character.
Gameplay / Presentation
The following characters are playable:
- Kazuya Mishima
- Lee Chaolan
- Paul Phoenix
- Jun Kazama
- Yoshimitsu
- Heihachi Mishima
- Nina Williams
- 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 C button kicks. The blocking is rather broken due to it not working at all if you hold block simultaniously with a direction on the D-pad. Additionaly, blocking in the SNES version was 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 movenents to pull these off are known. Awkwardly, to jumpkick, 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.
The game exists on an entirely 3D plane with no line-sway or dodge moves available, as were included in the SNES version of Soul Blade. Although there are no ring outs, the wide playing area does eventually lead to an undefined boarder where no further scrolling is possible.
Connections / Trivia
Due to it being one of the first original pirated fighters for the Mega Drive, it contains custom player sprites that were suprizingly 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.
It is currently unknown how many backgrounds are used in the game, or if any unused backgrounds are hidden within the ROM.
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 has fewer characters.
Gallery
Game's box and Rom Cartridge
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