[img width=511 height=448]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-071/bf/U-071-S-02250-A.jpg[/img]
I've talked kind of a lot about Street Fighter II on this blog. And with good reason. As I've stated (probably numerous times), Street Fighter II tends to be the fighting game by which I hold all other games in comparison. Or at least Super Street Fighter II Turbo is. However, as time has gone on I've realized that while I tend to think of the second game in the series as the most important one to me, it's perhaps not actually my favorite. Truthfully I feel almost dirty writing that. I feel it almost wrong to proclaim that I actually put another entry in the series above Street Fighter II. But I'm just being honest. Maybe.
[img width=552 height=445]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/vgnews/071800/sf3rdstrike/sf3_screen001.jpg[/img] [img width=558 height=447]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/dc/StreetFighterIII3rdStrike/StreetFighter3ThirdStrike_b2_screen006.jpg[/img]
Okay, okay maybe I'm getting carried away here. Maybe I don't have to actually choose one over the other. So why don't I just say that Street Fighter III is at least
as good as Street Fighter II. Just in a different way.
I recently acquired a nice Ascii fightpad for my Dreamcast, which went great with the copy of 3rd Strike I found under the Christmas tree with my name on it. Though I've played 3rd Strike on both PS2 and PSN in the past, I was more than thrilled to add this one to my Dreamcast collection. As I've said, I'm a really big fan.
For those that aren't familiar, 3rd Strike is the third version of Street Fighter III (sort of like the 'Super,' 'Hyper,' 'Turbo,' 'Championship,' etc versions of Street Fighter II). The first two versions of the game were also released on Dreamcast, compiled onto a single disc called Double Threat. But 3rd Strike is where the game was revised into perfection.
[img width=558 height=447]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/dc/StreetFighterIII3rdStrike/StreetFighter3ThirdStrike_b2_screen014.jpg[/img]
Street Fighter III is certainly my favorite looking of the series. It embraces its anime influences far more than the second game, but still retained the beautiful 2D sprites that the fourth game would abandon. The animations are fluid and amazing and perhaps nod a bit to the insane level of detail found in SNK games like Mark Of The Wolves. And these smooth animations owe a lot to what makes the game so playable. Every move feels so graceful and high-energy like watching a wonderfully choreographed Kung Fu flick in a slightly super-human speed.
The real brilliance of Street Fighter III however lies in the roster. Though a fair share of these faces are now familiar to the current gen fighters thanks to appearances in the likes of Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter X Tekken, it's actually incredible to think that Capcom followed up the immensely popular Street Fighter II by effectively trashing the entire roster and starting from scratch. Only a handful of characters are returning, with both Ken and Ryu in all three editions, Akuma in the second version and Chun-Li being added only in 3rd Strike. And from there it was up to Capcom to shape an entirely new roster.
[img width=580 height=435]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/dc/StreetFighterIII3rdStrike/StreetFighterIII3rdStrike_screen006.jpg[/img] [img width=390 height=300]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/9/913699/sf3third_screen002.jpg[/img]
The unique roster is the biggest draw of this game as far as I'm concerned. Indeed this game holds some of the most unique characters in the series. A few have gone on to appear in further games. For instance Hugo (who actually originates from the Final Fight series), Ibuki and Dudley have all continued on as mainstays. But Third Strike is so interesting because of the bulk of its oddball cast. Take for instance Twelve, a shapeshifter who resembles an alien being. Or how about 140-year-old hermit Oro who arrives in a sack and fights one-handed. And then there's Necro, a Russian exile whose moves are controlled by a computer. Sure, it may be the weirdest roster in a Street Fighter game, but it's also one of the most fun.
