Street Fighter III 3rd Strike

by Capcom

Product Details

• ASIN: B00004XOM2
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,778 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Break out your nunchaku and don your black belt: Ryu, Chun Li, and Ken are back, and they've brought with them 16 friends and a ton of new special moves to vie for the coveted championship belt in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

This latest version of the celebrated Street Fighter series is perhaps the most attractive yet, with its highly detailed backgrounds and character animations that take full advantage of the Dreamcast's power.

Like many 2-D fighting games, there are two methods to playing Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike--learn to finesse the joystick and perform impressive special moves, or simply mash the buttons randomly. As such, those who are willing to devote the time to learning the game's myriad secret special moves will be able to earn Street Fighter black belts and enjoy the game to its fullest, while casual gamers who prefer the button-mashing route might find more replayability in a less complicated game.

For those who have ninja fingers, Capcom has added to this new version a grading system that judges the player's performance after each match and comments on his or her skills.

The game's value doesn't end when you've mastered the intricate maneuvers, either, thanks to the extreme level of customization that can be made to the fighting, which virtually allows the player to reconstruct the game's rules. --Benjamin Reese

Pros:

• Incredible graphics and sound
• New leap attack
• Highly modifiable fighting system
• 4 brand-new characters; 19 total

Cons:

• Game can be played simply by mashing buttons
• High learning curve

GameSpot Review

Hot on the heels of Capcom's double whammy of Street Fighter III action, Double Impact, comes 3rd Strike, the third game in the Street Fighter III series. While the two releases are roughly the same, 3rd Strike delivers new characters and enough new options to make it a worthwhile product, even if you already own Double Impact. The main attraction that 3rd Strike adds over Second Impact and the original SFIII is the addition of more characters. The most notable addition is the return of Chun-Li, who has been done up in true Street Fighter III style, and she now possesses more frames of animation than she knows what to do with. Other new characters include Twelve, the alien creature; Q, the robot guy in a trench coat; and Remy, who looks like he escaped from a King of Fighters game. Aside from a few minor gameplay tweaks, it's business as usual, with selectable super arts, parrying, and Gill, the game's ultracheap boss. What really makes 3rd Strike special is the system-direction option screen. This separate screen gives you ten pages of choices that alter the gameplay, allowing you to cancel super arts into super arts, enable air blocking, turn on chain combos, and lots more. Suffice it to say that if there's something about 3rd Strike that you don't like, odds are you can alter it with the system-direction settings. Graphically, the game is smooth. The new characters are as frame-laden as the older characters, and they fit into the world rather nicely. The backgrounds occasionally look a bit flat, but they still look decent. The game's sound has been given a pretty major overhaul since Second Impact, with the addition of a new announcer, a few altered voices, and a couple of Street Fighter raps that play over the select screen. If you bought Double Impact, that may very well be all the Street Fighter III action you need. But if you skipped out on Double Impact - or if you're fanatical about your SFIII - 3rd Strike is a good, refined 2D fighter that won't disappoint.--Jeff Gerstmann--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Await Your Return, Warrior..., July 17, 2001

By 

Minh Nguyen "masashikun" (Bilthoven, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (Video Game)

Finally, after over half a decade, it has arrived: the much awaited third Street Fighter game. As usual, Capcom keeps releasing updated versions to perfect their product. This is the third revision - hence the subtitle 3rd Strike. If you're not familiar with Street Figter III, you're in for a shock: Capcom axed all existing characters!!!

The only ones left are the Shotokan guys: Ryu, Ken and the powerful Akuma. Add to this another one, Sean - a young Brazillian kid who wants Ken to train him. But no worries - most of these characters resemble the old ones. Like Necro, who is a lot like Dhalsim. And Hugo could be Zangief's stronger German brother. New characters have also been added in Third Strike. You've got the Guile-esque Remy, Twelve, Q, a playable Akuma and the karate girl Makato. This game also marks the return of 32-year old Chun Li, who has been changed drastically yet again. She plays/handles different and is not as easily accessible as she used to be.

Are you tired of all the crazy VS and Alpha games lately? Capcom pressed on the reset button and started all over again with Street Fighter III. No air blocking, no alpha counters and only one super art you choose to perform in battle. This is old skool Street Fighter. It's all about skill - not flair. Anyone could go through Marvel vs Capcom 2 and win by mashing all the buttons at once. Those players don't stand a chance in this game. The key to winning here is having skill & strategy and adjusting it accordingly to your opponent's fighting style. So basically, you really have to know every timing and frame of your character. This already indicates that 3rd Strike isn't for newbies - only for the hardcore fans.

SFIII also introduced parrying - which is a new way of blocking incoming attacks. Instead of just pressing backwards and down, you time your parry right and press forward or down at the moment you are about to get hit. When you do this, you'll recover much quicker (since you parry in a fighting stance with fists ready) and freeze your opponent for a short instant to counter attack immediately. But to master this, you will have to practice A LOT!!! I've spent months of practice to perfect it. Now I can parry every Shinkuu-Hadoken or Hurricane Kick Ryu throws at me. And mastering this technique gives you the winning edge. But it's not easy - you have to sustain your timing correctly to properly perform a parry.

Other new features include; leap attacks (which punishes turtles), the return of bonus rounds (smash the SUV and parry basketballs), a grading system that gives you a grade for your fighting skills after each character you defeat, and finally, the Progressive Hit Frame System - a nifty pixel precise targeting system that determines the amount of damage your apponent receives depending on the spot you hit them (i.e. Air-kicking in the gut will detract more energy than in the shin)

The thing you'll notice right away when you load up the disc is the excellent presentation. The intro shows flashes and zooms of rough sketches of the game's characters. Add to this a Street Fighter rap tune (yes!! Rapping in Street Fighter!!) and you've got one of the most impressive intros ever done in a Street Fighter game. The character animations are incredible! They're very smooth and packed with frames of fluidity. It's like wacthing an animated Manga movie. The art also has a comic book style to it. Excellent vibrant colouring!!

The biggest change over the previous versions of Street Fighter III, is attitude. This revision is all about it. The voices have been changed; They are more aggrevise and show much more character. Another amazing aspect of the game is the music. It's a mixture of acid jazz, hiphop and techno. Like I said before, there are a few Street Fighter raps included, done by the well established Canadian hiphop artist Infinite. My favourite tunes are the ones in the NYC stage (acid jazzy) and Ibuki's, Akuma's and Necro's stage. These are all excellent drum 'n bass songs. No whole soundtrack can ever replace the memoriable tracks from Street Fighter II, but the piano tune after completing the game is really soothing. The ability to listen to all these tracks in the menu is a great addition.

So if you like 100% 2D fighting games and want to discover your true Street Fighter skills, I urge you to get yourself this wicked old skool fighting game. No Capcom/Street Fighter fan should be without it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Choose and pick the best one...", October 23, 2000

By 

C. W. Fitch (Wichita Falls, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (Video Game)

All right, all you old-school, 2-D fight fans out there...this is it. The best 2-D fighter on any home console (with Marvel vs. Capcom 2 a CLOSE second) finally arrives on the DC. Capcom may have yet to learn how to count past three (heck, it took 'em eight years to get past TWO!) but this one is absolutely the greatest of the Street Fighter series. The characters are plentiful (19 in all); their animation, just like the box ad says, seamless (if a tad pixelated). Gameplay is just like we Street Fighter fans like it; with the addition of a few new tricks (like parrying and leap attacks to confuse low-blockers). Backgrounds are beautiful as usual, and some of the items in the stages interact with the fight (like the leaves shifting on the ground when someone's head makes impact with it). The music's great too; a nice blend of jazz/fusion and cranking guitar. All that and the return of fan-favorite Chun-Li make for a wonderful fighting experience for just about anyone. You'll have some good fun with figuring out the new parrying system, the super arts, bonus stages, etc. as well. Even though the gameplay may be a little simplistic to some (especially Marvel vs. Capcom 2 fans), it's complex in its simplicity and should give you at least a few months of steady play, which is pretty good for a fighting game. The only reasons I gave it four stars is that the computer opponents are rather hard to beat, and if you're new to fighting games, that's trouble; and while the fighters move as fluidly as running water, they look a little too rough around the edges for Dreamcast standards, especially when they were hand-drawn.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best thing in fighting games since SF2, November 12, 2000

By 

Burgess Smith (Iowa City, IA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (Video Game)

Quite simply, SF3: New Generation was the game that single-handedly got me to go back to the otherwise lackluster local arcade to waste my hard-earned paycheck. The beautiful graphics and superb gameplay got me dropping quarters like I was back in the wonder years of Junior High. When SF3: Third Strike was announced for the Dreamcast, it locked in my decision to buy Sega's amazing system....

I'm astonished that people seem to be of two minds when it comes to SF3. On the one hand, people complain about the gameplay. On the other hand, they complain about the character selection. Why anybody would take issue with these elements is totally beyond me.

The gameplay in SF3 can be summed up in one word: stunning... unless you're some caffeine addicted speed freak. Games like SF Alpha 3 and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 have given rise to insanely-paced, combo-intensive, button mashing frenzy levels of competition, and while this is good in its own right, SF3 takes off in the other direction entirely. Combat is deliberate and meticulous- you have to play defensively, watch for openings, and then masterfully execute your attack, or your toast. If you're going to overpower your opponent, you have to do it through skill, planning, and attentiveness, not button-mashing aggression. This makes SF3 so much more intense than anything you've ever played before, even more strategy-minded fighters like Soul Calibur. It's a truly amazing experience.

The graphics in SF3, likewise, are amazing. While the resolution could be better, it's still as good as any other 2D fighter out there, and the animation and the pure STYLE of the graphics put any other 2D fighter to shame. It is a beautiful game to behold, and especially to play.

And the characters? Anybody who whines about the lack of the "classic" SF characters needs to get a clue. Almost all of the original characters, with the exception of a few standouts like Chun Li, Cammy, and Zangief, (and of course Ryu and Ken) were all pretty stupid. Dhalsim anybody? Honda? With only the presence of three sad body-doubles to mar its lineup (Sean, Yang, and the wildly out-of-place Akuma, who all play fine but look ridiculous) the cast of SF3: Third Strike puts that of any other fighter to shame. Every fighter, from the crusading karate-girl Makoto, to the one-armed, narcoleptic Oro, and Q, the abominable man-machine, just radiates personality and ingenious character design. Anybody who doesn't fall in love with SF3's cast is waaaaay too uptight, and needs to spend some time evaluating their spikey-haird, army fatigues fetish.

When it comes down to it, SF3: Third Strike has so much going for it in terms of style and playability, it would be a shame if you missed it. Buy a Dreamcast, and make this one of the first games you pick up.

As a final note, if you can locate an arcade stick, by all means, get one. The DC pad isn't nearly as bad for fighting games as you may have been led to believe, it just takes a bit of re-adjusting if you're used to the Playstation pad, mostly in terms of the angle at which your thumb hits the D-pad, and the squishy feel of the analog triggers (for H-punch and H-kick), but it's something you'll quickly adapt to once you get absorbed in the action on-screen. Still, an arcade stick (if it's a good one) can make any fighting game experience better.