Players choose from one of 18 fighters and attempt to win the tournament and defeat Ogre. After defeating seven other fighters you move on to face Heihachi at the 8th stage, then Ogre himself on the final stage. All of the characters have a reason for entering. Some, like Hwoarang and Jin, want revenge against Ogre. Others, like Forest Law and Paul enter for glory.

Tekken 3 maintains the same core fighting system and concept as its predecessors. Whereas the element of depth had been largely insignificant in previous Tekken games, Tekken 3 added emphasis on the third axis, allowing all characters to sidestep in or out of the background by lightly pressing the arcade stick towards the corresponding direction. Fighters cannot jump to as extreme heights as in previous games. This made air combat more controllable, and put more use to sidestep dodges, as jumping could no longer dodge all of the ground moves.