Street Fighter EX3

"Vegita trys the 'long and tedious' angle. Now he can see why it's more of a curve than an angle..."

The Street Fighter name has endured lots of games, never seeming to reach the fabled number of 4. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that there was a new Street Fighter series that once again failed Elementary Counting, and demonstrated that Capcom, while somewhat creative at points, still does just enough to push out a sequel without going to any great lengths to make a new, inventive game. The game I'm referring to is Street Fighter EX 3, a game series right from the start got a bad reputation. So, does the game live up to the Capcom system of ''upgrade, not improve'' or does it break the mold? Let's find out.

The Premise.
At this point, I'm pretty sure Capcom had given up on plotlines for this game. Therefore, the ''plot'' is simple - various people, in groups and by themselves, entire yet another Street Fighter tournament. As with the Street Fighter II series (it's sad that you can say that), the final enemy you face off against is Vega (M. Bison in the US). The cast includes the usual (Ryu & Ken), the occasional frequents (Guile, Dhalsim, Blanka, Chun-Li, Zangief), the bad guys (Sagat, Vega, Balrog), and a bevy of new players. Ok, they're not entirely new - you've seen these guys in the previous EX games...but that's not the point, the point is diversity is a good thing! When you have just as many new players as old, it's a good thing - you have the favorites to bring back past fans, plus new people to intrigue.

The Gameplay, Part 1.
The meat of this game is, obviously, the gameplay. It should be noted that aside from the Versus games (X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, etc) and Street Fighter Alpha 3, this is the only game where you can have multiple people on your team. This makes for interesting gameplay. Allow me to explain: in your standard fighting game, you pick your character and duel against another player's character (or the CPU). In this one, you can have as many as 4 people on your team, facing off against another (although this only happens against Vega). This makes for some wild and varied action, and it should be noted that this actually comes off flawlessly - the solo player targets one of the 3 and faces whatever direction they are from him/her/it, but can also hurt the other players (should they be in the way of one of his attacks). The full list of modes of play are:
The standard one-on-one matches,
2-on-1 matches (where 2 controlled players face off against another, simultaneously),
1-2 on 1-2 matches,
3-on-1 matches, and
The final match against Vega (Up to 4 people, you and your teammates, face off in a series of one-on-one matches until Vega loses).

Now, in case I didn't expound well enough on each mode, allow me to do so here. The one-on-one matches are simple enough, as are the 2 and 3-on-1 matches. The 1-2 vs. 1-2 matches act like normal 1-on-1 matches, except that if you have a teammate, you can switch out to that player and allow him to recharge some of his lost health. Now, there's a lot more in the way of gameplay to speak of, which I shall do now.

The Gameplay, Part 2.
Building off of the Alpha series' meter play, your character can build up a power bar beneath their health bar, which allows them to perform a variety of Special super moves and super abilities. Each character has a number of Super Moves which take 1 full bar of Meter to use (you are given 3 bars to work with). If you character builds 3 bars of meter, then they can initiate a Super Hyper Move, which usually takes off a VERY large amount of life from their opponent. However, that's not the end of it - your character can cancel from one Hyper Move to the next, increasing the damage done. Nice, eh? Well then, how about this - if you and your tag-team partner have 2 bars each, you can initiate a brief period of time where you both are on screen (both controlled by the player who initiated it), and you have unlimited Super Moves. This can be a REAL pain if you pincer your opponent between two good beamers (Sakura + Ryu = Hadouken Hell). Still not enough for you? Ok then - certain combinations of players yield Specialty Duo Hyper Moves. These attacks, while requiring 3 bars of meter for the person who initiates it, do an extreme amount of damage (roughly equivalent to a Super Hyper Move) and have BOTH players join up on a dual attack (this also leaves the second player, not the one who initiated it, left to fight, so if you need to remove a player for health reasons, go for it!).

Now, that's just the Hyper Moves. What about the rest of the game? This is where the game takes on a Street Fighter 3-style of play. To throw someone, you must press the Weak Punch and Weak Kick buttons together. Your character, just like in SF3, will make a grabbing motion (and the throw changes depending on if you're holding Left, Right, or simply leave it Neutral). If you press the Medium Punch and Medium Kick buttons, your character will perform an attack that glows - this is called the ''Guard Break'' and if it connects on an opponent that is blocking low, it will cause them to falter, giving you a free opportunity to trash your opponent. While the SF3 equivalent of this move - the Hop Attack - doesn't yield as much, it is a MUCH faster-paced game, so I think it's reasonable. Hitting High Punch/Kick will cause you to switch teammates.

Now, we get to the game itself. As I said, it's your standard 2D fighting game at its core, with lots of little tweaks here and there to make it play differently. You fight, dodge, combo, etc., to build meter, so you can use your special moves and make the round end quicker. The first person to eliminate all the players on the other team wins the match. Now, what about those tweaks? Well, for starters some special moves either act and react differently than before (such as Ryu's Tatsumaki Shinpuu Kyaku), while others have a different motion to them (Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick).

The Gameplay, Part 3.
Now, for your more advanced player, you can start to learn how to interweave moves, specials, and supers into massive combos. One way of doing so is the inclusion of the ''Cancel'' special ability - right as your character connects with a special move, you can press either HP or HK and, if your timing is right, you'll automatically launch into another special move. Of course, each special will always chain into a certain other, so there's no infinite work there. However, you CAN link into a Super/Hyper Move, which allows you to tack on the damage more and more. Whew, that's a lot of gameplay!

However, in my opinion the most striking part of the game is the Character Edit Mode. You might laugh and think ''Why would THAT be so special?'' But the reason is actually quite simple - this is quite possibly the MOST comprehensive practice mode you'll ever see in a fighting game. From the most basic of moves (Hit your opponent! Block your opponent! Throw your opponent!) to the most advanced (Juggle your opponent for 99 seconds! Perform 3 Shoryuken's in a row!), this list has it all. Old classic works (Flash Kick cancelled into the Super Flash Combo) to new works (DO the Galaxy!), this list is sure to test your limits as a Street Fighter and make you a better player.

Throughout the Build-up mode, you play as the character ''Ace'', whom starts off small and gets better as you progress. How does he get better? As you accomplish each training section, you earn points with which you can spend on new moves. You can customize Ace any way you want with these moves, and he has a very large selection of moves to work with. Ace can be saved to your memory card and loaded into versus matches (or the main game), where you can duke it out with your customized player. That's not the half of it, though - when in the main game (or versus matches), if you successfully use one of his moves a certain amount of times, that move will get a ''Star''. Certain moves, when gaining 3 stars (aka a ''Perfect'' rating), they will gain new abilities - the Hadouken can be used in mid-air, the Shoryuken can successfully juggle people over and over, and the Fairy Gift can be started while in Air. Practice with the man and you'll become even better!

Enough Gameplay! Cover something else!
Ok. Now, what kind of a Playstation 2 game would this be if it didn't have great graphics? Sure, the characters aren't the most realistic looking, but they have a certain style to them that flows well, is animated extremely well, and never looks like it was under-prepared. Ryu and Ken, while retaining their original styled moves, are drawn and animated in the old Street Fighter II look. Everyone else stays true to their character stylings, and the entire project looks and plays wonderfully. For examples as to how good the graphics look, notice how Chun-Li's lips move when she says her win phrase and even match what she says (not to mention the fact that she FINALLY looks Chinese), watch Pullum's hair when she moves back and forth, or simply view the introduction movie. The graphics are so outstandingly good that I really don't have much to say...while not perfect, the 3D animations are definitely a step above most anything we've seen before. Take a look at the game before passing judgement, and if the graphics don't sell you, try the gameplay.

The Sound.
Normally, the sound and the music in a fighting game aren't as important as the graphics or gameplay. Suffice to say, they aren't here, either; however, they are worth mentioning because, once again, they are definitely above the average. The music, while not retaining any of the original tracks for each character, instead have new pieces, ranging from Orchestrated to Jazz to Latin. They are generally pleasing to listen to, even when you're not in the middle of pounding on Kairi for being a complete psychopath. The sound effects are, for the most part, quite good as well. You have your explosions for ''Ex-plosion'', your standard ''wet sock to the groin'' sounds when you hit someone, and your special sounds for special moves. However, the best part of the sound for this game is the voicework. Each character has a surprising amount of emotion to their phrases, grunts, and shouts. The only bad voicework I can think of would be the Female Announcer, whom just seems a little bland (this can be remedied by having Sakura do the announcing, though). The Male Announcer (whom is heard in the Character Edit Mode) is just fine; his quiet approval is just fine.

So what's the downside?
What might be BAD about this game? As I said, the game is, at its core, a standard 2D fighter. Therefore, fans thinking that they might actually have a 3D Street Fighter are sorely mistaken (this isn't Plasma Sword, friends). Another bad point - the main game mode really doesn't have much replay to it. Sure, you can replay each section to try and win all the medals (accomplished by performing certain feats in the fight), but the endings are stagnant, there aren't too many battles, and there is little variation in the fights you DO take part in. This make the game seem that much more lackluster, despite its aesthetically pleasing traits. This game is just a standard 2D Fighter, with a lot of tweaks going for it. It's not terribly difficult, even on the highest setting (especially after you've gone through the Character Edit Mode), so there's not much in the way of challenge...and aside from the Character Build-Up, unlocking all the new players, and a few other additional games (like the continual beating of baddies during the credits), the game seems as if Capcom simply took the Arcade version and slapped together a few new items for it. This makes it seem like they didn't actually TRY to make it any better, they were just giving you more for the sake of not getting complaints.

The End.
The game plays, looks, and sounds great, but once you get past that, there really isn't much to speak of. Sure, there are a few parts of the game that will keep you coming back, but once you've finished those, what do you have left? Without the myriad of side games/attributes of SFA3, or the multitude of characters/colors/backgrounds of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, this game seems a little stale after you've finished it. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game - something tells me it could have been so much MORE.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/01, Updated 10/03/01