Over to something far more cerebrally-challenging, and a genre that until Mortal Kombat X was revealed in-full at this year's E3, was starting to feel like it was coming down with something. Yes, fighting games - or beat 'em ups as they're also known - have run the gamut from Einsteinian-levels of command-prompt knowledge with the likes of the Virtua Fighter series, to the chest-bouncing funbag-fury of the Dead or Alive games, and even the overblown tabloid press-infuriating Mortal Kombat series; but it's Tekken's third major instalment that takes the battered cake every time. Featuring a roster that's yet to be beat in terms of sheer variety, you've everything from old school stalwarts like the iron-fisted Paul Phoenix and father-son carryovers Jin Kazama and Forest Law who take on their predecessors fighting styles, as well as the unpronounceable Xiaoyu and the heel-flicking ferocity of Hwoarang (it's h'wa'rang) to round everything out. With a handful of bonus modes that include a daft volleyball game that was way more fun than it had any right to be, along with the isometric Tekken Force mode that would foreshadow Namco's brawling smash-fest Urban Reign, Tekken 3 was arcade fighting perfected.
