This week, I’m going to cover another game that I have been playing for a long time but only started to play it competitively and that is Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
I first discovered this game in the UK Official Dreamcast Magazine when some of the editors went to E3 and I noticed this sequel to Street Fighter II and thought, “This looks crappy” Those words however I took back and regreted even saying that as I finally got to play it about a year later when the first home version arrived on Dreamcast. I then checked it out and as to my shock, I couldn’t believe how good it was! The animation was jaw dropping but fluid at the same time and I had no idea about the technical depth this game had so I then five minutes later bought it and learnt a valuable lesson,
“Never judge a book by it’s cover”
or in this case, Never judge a computer game by a screenshot. Street Fighter III wasn’t as popular as Street Fighter II because 3D fighters had appeared which gave the game trouble and 2D gaming was on a decline outside Japan. However, the sheer depth of game play in Street Fighter III makes it one of the most popular fighting games of today which is still played often and also in tournaments. Nearly ten years after it’s release and many people are still playing it which you can’t say about most games.
The original Street Fighter III, New Generation came out in Arcades in 1997 and Capcom discarded most of the Street Fighter II roster apart from Ryu and Ken hence the “New Generation” title for the game. It started off with 10 characters [11 if you add Yang who was identical to Yun in NG]. Those who were used to the Alpha series with multiple super combos were rescricted to one in SFIII but it was renamed to Super Art which is a better name and being able to only choose one Super Art made the fight more challenging. Whilst this version of SFIII was good, it didn’t feel complete and towards the end of 1997, 2nd Impact was released and it introduced more characters and new moves such as EX moves which were stronger versions of special moves, Personal Action which allowed the player to improve some attributes when taunting and Grab Defense which involves two fighters attempting to throw at the same time but it is negated into a Grab Defense which separates the two fighters.
2nd Impact saw the return of Gouki [Akuma outside Japan], Urien, Hugo and Yang was given a new movelist different to Yun’s. However, 1999 was to be the year of which the final and the best Street Fighter III revision was to be released and that revision is called Third Strike: Fight for the Future. This revision brought four new characters into the fray and also brought back a Street Fighter II favorite, Chun Li. 3rd Strike allowed the player to choose who they fought and also introduced a grading system which awarded the player a grade for their fighting skills in 3rd Strike and introduced leaping attacks which were executed by pressing the medium punch and kick. Despite all these technical features which were added into Street Fighter III, there was one technical addition which really made Street Fighter III quite the game it is and that is Parrying.
Parrying [known as blocking in the Japanese Version] allowed gamers to counter moves with a block which wouldn’t cost anything on your stun bar. When using Parrying, it allows the player who parried to counter back quickly against the other opponent giving way for some epic battles. Many professionals at Street Fighter III can do some insane parrying and it is that insane because it is one of the main reasons why parrying wasn’t implemented in Street Fighter IV. The boss fight in 3rd Strike is a lot harder than M.Bison in Street Fighter II because the boss in Street Fighter III is very powerful, so powerful he is banned in tournaments and is a pain in the ass to defeat.
Gill = Asshole
Gill is the boss in Street Fighter III and persues in the SNK path of stupidly powerful boss fights. Gill is Urien only a hell lot faster and broken. He does a lot of damage and has very powerful Super Arts and just when you think you’ve won the fight, check his Super Art Bar at the bottom and make sure it isn’t full. Gill can resurrect and regain his health which is a pisstake considering how powerful he is. Saying all of that, Gill IS Beatable, he is playable in the home version once you complete the game with all characters!
Street Fighter III: Third Strike is one of my favorite games because of the sheer effort Capcom put into developing this game. It’s balanced, looks fantastic, plays very well, has a technical fighting system and is fun to play! I’ve started to play competitively now and I’ve made the transisition from DualShock 2 to Arcade Stick and the transistion isn’t going too well! I am play like an absolute n00b on an Arcade Stick and just to prove it, I got my ass kicked by Justin Wong who simply disposed of me easily!
Fight 1
Fight 2
Street Fighter III made it’s way onto Dreamcast. First with Double Impact which has the first two Street Fighter III revisions and then Third Strike. It then a few years later made it’s way onto the PlayStation 2 and Xbox as part of the Street Fighter Anniversary Edition which enabled Street Fighter III to be played on Xbox Live. Street Fighter III can also be played online via GGPO and 2DF Freeplay with minimal lag provided you have an internet connection and the 3rd Strike ROM. I recommend you do check this game out, despite the graphics being ten years old, it is a fun game and worth checking out! Capcom finally announced a sequel to the series, Street Fighter IV.
Street Fighter IV has gone back to the roots of Street Fighter II and added the EX Moves of SFIII and replaced the Parrying System with the Saving System. SFIV has many of the original SFII characters with 9 new characters [home version]. It plays like Super Turbo despite the 3D graphic engine and is due for release on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC next year.
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