Street Fighter III: Third Strike

Dreamcast

Capcom - 2002

      This is one of the best games ever made. It is the best 2-D fighter around and probably the best fighting game. I have been playing since it was released in the arcade and I still learn new stuff. It is tremendously deep yet as simple to play as Street Fighter II. That being said, I must admit, it is amazingly well-made. . . What I meant to say is it's great, fantabulous, damn it. I don't think I can say anything bad about this game.

HA!

      Of course I can say bad things about it, after all, I do hate it. Some, nay, many of the characters are extremely cheap. A few are so cheap I don't even acknowledge their existence. Gill, the boss, is super-duper cheap. Cheap-kuma and Ken are even cheaper, and don't even get me started on Un-Fun-Li, who is making her not so glorious re-appearance in this game.

      If you've played 2nd Impact or Double Impact, you know what this game is all about. Priorities have been tinkered with and a few moves are gone, most notably Dudley's drill move, but that's what one expects from a sequel. Otherwise, the only difference is Chun-Li.

      For those new to the series, here's how it plays out. It follows the ideals of Super Turbo: slower, more strategic gameplay. The moves are all still the same, dragon punches and fireballs with a couple of charge characters. Only Ryu, Ken, Chun-li and Akuma remain from the older Street Fighters. The other characters, though not all successful, are quite interesting, with the exception of Sean, the new Dan. There is only one major change from the previous Street Fighters: parrying. A sort of tweaked Alpha-Counter, parrying allows one to stop an attack, taking no damage, and allows the parry-er a moment to counter-attack, if desired. Parries are performed by hitting towards the opponent right when an attack hits, successful parries are high-lighted by a flash of blue. There is also the elusive red-parry. Which follows the same idea of a parry, but is done after blocking part of a combo. Red-parrying is very difficult and generally reserved for the last resort, to avoid taking chip damage with low life.

      As for extras, 3rd Strike has a training mode and parry training, which allows one to chose moves to practice parrying. There is also a "system direction" option which serves as a debug mode, allowing you to have extra supers, turn of parries, and other weird stuff. New colors are unlockable as well as GIll, the boss.

      As far as the comparison to arcade, the only difference is that the DC version has "fixed" the unblockables, so they are blockable. Which sucks for Urien players.

What I liked: It furthers the series while holding on to what made Street Fighter great. There's none of that infinite combo silliness and this game requires real skill and quick thinking. The variety of characters is also pretty good.

What I disliked: Though the characters are more balanced, there is still a clear division of strength. Characters like Chun-Li and Twelve can't help but fight dirty while Sean still doesn't have a hope in the world, unless you fight Ari or haunts.

What to expect: The continuation of the original Street Fighter series, not that re-donkulus Vs. series. 3rd Strike holds onto the less flashy, more functional combos set in place by Super Turbo.

What not to expect: Street Fighter II. While most of the characters are still there, in some form, and it is in the same vein, 3rd Strike plays differently. This doesn't mean old-school fans will be lost, but, at first, the new characters and faster gameplay will seem overwhelming.

What sets it apart from the genre: Not much. It's a Street Fighter game: it made the genre. However, this is the nth installment so it is pretty much perfected.

Ratings on:

Controls: 9 - Anyone can learn these controls, yet they allow for very complex combos. I took off one point for Hugo's double-circle super, that's asking a lot.

Graphics: 9 - It is hard to rate sprites, but these are about the best I've ever seen. Hair flows, clothes sway, all that good stuff. On top of that, the game moves very fast with smooth animation. I just wish Capcom would go to hi-res.

Sound: 5 - The Hadokens and stuff are still there, along with other voice clips. The other sounds are average. The music is both good and bad, except the rap. That thing is terrible.

Style: 4 - Great presentation helps cancel the fact that this is the billionth Street Fighter. That being said, they have tweaked this game to near perfection, even changing things from 2nd Impact. Top that off with the revival of Chun-Li, and you've got a pretty fresh game. Also, Street Fighter will always have style.

1st hour: 7 - Wow, it feels like Street Fighter Three, but the old combos don't all work.

10th hour: 8 - Oh, they got rid of the cheap stuff.

1st week: 7 - Oh, they added some cheap stuff.

1st year: 9 - Wait, Ryu and Ken aren't the best characters in the game?

2nd year: 10 - Really learning some characters, this game just keeps getting deeper.

#1 thing I hate about this game: Fun-Li, the best character you'll hate yourself for using.

      by Sundu is a proud member of "Team One Win."