Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

"Best SF Conversion EVER!!!!!!"

Okay, after FINALLY finding SF III: TS in mid August so I could finally buy the game and give my review in all eagerness, and after having read all the reviews already written here on the game, I want to add my own two bits about this game, but before I give my opinion about the separate scores for each category of the game that is important, I would like to compare this game to the SF Alpha series.

I was a HUGE fan of the Alpha series and still am, BUT I would like to say that if you want to know whether the SF III series is as good a series to play and buy, I would say that as far as the THIRD installment of the series goes, YES!!!!!!!

I understand the perspective of the Alpha reviewers as well, and although I consider that game (I played the one on Playstation) excellent, this game, TS, is even BETTER. SF III: TS has the BEST CPU opponents ever. The last boss of this game, Gill, is super cheap, but even besides him, you will be hard-pressed to find a tougher challenge when playing ANY Street Fighter game by yourself, and that adds to HUGE replay value in my book.

Now, on to the scores.

Graphics: 10/10. I was almost tempted, you might say, to give this game a 9, but the animation is AWESOME and the graphics look as good as arcade quality, for once!, if not better. You can even seen the characters' mouths move during a win pose after a match as they talk (e.g., Makoto, Remy).

Music/Sound: 8/10. Alert: the key to reviewing a game is to make sure your feelings about a game are somewhat stable over time, if possible. I first thought that most of the music in this game was crap, except for the cool remix music for Alex's stage, and a couple others, but the music grew on me. I even like Yun & Yang's music now, and hey, there are THREE different versions of each music track in the game: one version for each of the three rounds you can fight. Elena's stage is still hard to listen to, for me anyway.
The sound effects are EXCELLENT: as some people say, attacks like Remy's ''flash kick'' sound like 'lightning hitting a tree'. The sounds are stunning and exciting, to say the least. I also actually like the voices, such as for Ken, though some of the reviewers prefer the SF III: Double Impact voices overall. Sound rules over the music here.

Control: 9/10. I want to get my only gripe out of the way: Sega controllers tend to be very loose/sensitive and so sometimes you may jump by accident when trying to do certain special attacks, but buying a 6-button controller might help immensely to avoid use of the horrible shoulder buttons. Otherwise, I can't remember Capcom's controls for a SF game being so PERFECT! Trying to two-in-one a super (e.g., a standing punch into a super art) is VERY easy to do now, for most characters. (Is it me or is less skill required now to do this?)

Gameplay: 9/10. Now HERE is the issue that divides hardcore SF fans between liking and disliking this game. To begin with, Parry system requires a lot of skill but expert parriers can bring a game to a stand-still in which less-skilled players are afraid to attack at all for fear of being countered every time!! As long as you don't play against someone who is a Parrying god, this game is fun. What's more, the system direction menu in this game lets you disable parrying if you really hate it.
Also, the timing for jumping to start a combo on your opponent is different than from the Alpha series, and the game seems ''slower'' to some players, so this may require a lot of practice.
Finally, I'm glad to say that custom combos from the Alpha series are not here because I hate them more than I hate parrying, nowadays.

Replay: 9/10. So far, replay value remains very high. The computer AI is wonderfully challenging, there are plenty of fun juggles to discover when playing, the characters tend to vary considerably in playing style, and the game options let you customize this game to make it more appealing to your own tastes: excellent job, Capcom!
What sucks about the replay? Well, some of the characters I consider weak and thus boring and difficult to learn(Twelve, Sean, Necro), while some, just plain boring to use (Makoto, Q, e.g.) and some a little of both. (I'm sure other people disagree with me and I'm not knocking anyone for their tastes: I suck with those characters.) On the other hand, you've got Remy (Guile and Charlie, ya better bow down), Elena, with her power dramatically improved since the first SF III game, Dudley, Mr. chain-combo crazy, and when has Chun-Li ever been more fun to use than now: the zillionth time Capcom has changed/altered her fighting style?

The bottom line is this: if you even REMOTELY like the arcade version of this game but didn't want to waste tons of quarters, trying to get good at this game just to see if you enjoy it, you will probably LOVE the Dreamcast version, and for $30-40, or $25 used (:P), you will DEFINITELY get your money's worth. Loving this game takes time, but the SF III series finally won me over with Capcom's best arcade-to-home translation of a Street Fighter game, EVER!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/01, Updated 08/12/01