Tekken 3 was released for the arcade in the summer of 1997. A Japanese release followed in March of 1998 with the US release a month after in April of 1998 and the European release in September of 1998. Tekken 3 continued the quality of past Tekken home conversions with new modes and characters. Although unlike past Tekkens, Tekken 3 was not arcade perfect on the Playstation. This is due to the arcade version running on NAMCO's System 22 instead of System 11. The drop in quality was not too bad, characters remained faithful while the backgrounds went flat. The new modes added to the home version were a "Final Fight" type of beat 'em up called Tekken Force Mode that has you running from side to side beating up Heihachi's henchmen through 4 levels with a boss at the end of each level. The other new mode, Tekken ball mode, has characters hitting a ball back and forth allowing it to carry the damage of the attack they dealt. The new characters were Doctor Bosconovitch and a dinosaur from the pages of Japanese Manga called Gon. Also added were a brand new rendered intro and rendered endings for all characters. The endings in Tekken 3 are regarded as the best in the Tekken series with stunning life like characters.
