

Sega's Virtua Fighter franchise, while renowned for its realism and deep fighting engine, never quite caught on with casual audiences - especially given Sega's botching of the first few games' console releases. Other 3D fighters existed at the time, but none had the popularity or acclaim of Tekken Tag Tournament or the Tekken series in general. Thus, Tekken taking the concept and running with it in Tekken Tag Tournament not only put tag battles in 3D, but essentially cemented Tekken as the king of 3D fighting games. While these games all showcased how fun and frantic tag battles could be, they did so on a 2D plane. Series involved its popular Street Fighterfranchise and several superheroes from Marvel Comics. SNK made the playstyle a staple of its King of Fighters franchise, which mashed up teams of three comprised of original characters and classic fighters from Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury. By 2000, tag-team mechanics had become ubiquitous in several fighting game franchises.
