One of the Best Games Ever is Still Trapped on the PS1

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 21, 2024 4 Views 5 Min Read
One of the Best Games Ever is Still Trapped on the PS1

Summary

  • The PS1 version of Tekken 3 is effectively stuck on the console.
  • Other Tekken games are available on PS5, but Tekken 3 remains absent.
  • Fans hope for a re-release of Tekken 3 on modern platforms.

Unfortunately, Tekken 3, the critically-acclaimed fighting game that is in fact the 23rd highest-rated game of all time, is still trapped on the PS1, for all intents and purposes. Tekken 3 first hit arcades in 1997 before making its way to PlayStation 1 in 1998. The PS1 version of Tekken 3 is remembered fondly to this day, but actually playing it is a difficult prospect.

The PS1 version of Tekken 3 remains trapped on the original PlayStation and its PlayStation Classic variant. The arcade version of Tekken 3 is technically playable through Tekken 5 on PS2, but the PS1 version of the game is hard to come by unless one wants to buy the divisive PS1 Classic console or track down an old copy of the game to play on a PS1, PS2, or PS3. It would be preferable and far more convenient for Tekken 3 to be made available on modern platforms like the PS5 in some capacity, but that still hasn’t happened at the time of this writing.

Tekken 8 Jin vs Kazuya logo

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What makes the lack of Tekken 3 on modern consoles especially frustrating is that there are multiple old-school Tekken games readily available to play on PS5 right now. The PS5’s backward compatibility means that it can play the PS4 Tekken games, plus the PS3-era Tekken 6 is available through PS Plus Premium. Not only that, but Tekken 2 is on PS Plus Premium as well, and it’s even available as a standalone purchase on PS4 and PS5. The original Tekken, also highly-regarded, has not been added to PS Plus Premium yet, let alone the beloved Tekken 3. However, the original Tekken is at least available on PS3 as a PS1 Classic, as is Tekken 2, though Tekken 3 was never afforded the same courtesy.

Tekken 3 Deserves to Be Playable on Modern Consoles

It’s unclear exactly why Tekken 3 has remained trapped on the PS1, but there is at least some hope that it will eventually get the re-release it deserves. While the original Tekken game has not been added to PS Plus Premium yet, Tekken 2 has, and so one has to imagine that there has at least been some discussion about bringing the other PS1 Tekken games to the platform as well. Plus, the fact that Tekken 3 is on the PS1 Classic console does show that Bandai Namco can be convinced to do something with the classic game.

Of course, Tekken 3 isn’t the only Tekken trapped on older hardware. And with 2025 marking the 30th anniversary of the Tekken series on PlayStation consoles, it seems like the perfect opportunity for Bandai Namco to give fans the chance to play all the classic games, Tekken 3 included. Even if that doesn’t happen, though, fans can at least look forward to new content for the latest entry in the series, Tekken 8.

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