PlayStation’s 25th Anniversary: Five best PS1 games of all-time

Tekken 3 – Namco

Many developers like Konami and Capcom found success developing both arcade and home console titles, which enabled them to port their arcade hits as faithfully as possible. However, Namco continued to mainly focus on arcade titles until the PS1 came into existence.

It seized the opportunity by not only pledging its full support to Sony, but it also developed the Namco System 11 arcade board by basing it directly on the console’s hardware. This brilliant decision allowed Namco to easy port to the PS1 any arcade hit that used the System 11 board. Tekken, a fighting game inspired by Sega’s Virtua Fighter, was the first System 11 game Namco ported to the PS1.

Tekken 3 was first released as an arcade title that used the Namco System 12 board, an upgrade from the PS1-based System 11 architecture. Using the experience it gained from the System 11 ports, Namco released one of the best arcade conversions seen on home consoles at the time.

Tekken 3 was incredibly successful during its run, as it sold over 8 million units worldwide. The title had several unlockable characters and modes that increased its replayability, but perhaps Tekken 3‘s greatest asset was the game’s simple-yet-flawless controls. The late 90s produced many fighting games, but Tekken 3 still reigns as one of the best pure fighting games out there thanks to its precise controls and near-infinite replayability.