| | | Port of the third version of Capcom's arcade fighting game (see entry 439). This one brings the roster up from thirteen to nineteen characters, a pretty good jump, and adds a funky and sort of amusing rap theme to the game. Oh, and as you play through single-player, for each match you can pick between two opponents, which is quite a nice touch.
Otherwise, as far as my non-hardcore self is aware, aside from balance changes here and there, it plays pretty similarly to the prequel, "2nd Impact - Giant Attack" (see entry 1318). And that means it's a pretty darn fine fighting game--if highly technically demanding--that still stands up well today.
My own personal opinion is that I like the funky characteristics of SFIII--the weird characters, and fluid, sometimes floppy animation, the funky presentation and music--but, as a fighting game dilettante, I'm easily bamboozled by the demanding technical aspects of the various systems and very carefully zoned moves, and am ultimately more comfortable with something like a King of Fighters game where you can get by a little more easily with reasonably intuitive basic fighting techniques. SFIII really is one for students of the game in particular.
Also, some of the more out-there characters don't quite appeal to me--even their basic moves are pretty unintuitive--and neither do the usual band of Street Fighter fireball-uppercut bunch...so that doesn't leave all that many characters I'm overly keen on playing. Still, it's a neat game, and one to revisit (and get thrashed at) now and then. |
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| | | | The graphics have been resampled to convert from the more horizontally detailed arcade resolution, but they came out pretty well, and you wouldn't really know they weren't at native resolution unless you were really looking for the differences. |
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| | | | Correction: 3rd Strike takes the character count from fifteen (not counting DC 2nd Impact's powered-up Akuma variant, "Shin Akuma"--who is not in 3rd Strike at all) to twenty; the added characters are Chun-Li, Makoto, Remy, Q, and Twelve. |
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