"Arcade Perfect, but that's also the downside....."

This reveiw is of SF3 W Impact, a Dreamcast import disc which contains:
Street Fighter III
Street Fighter III:2nd Impact Giant Attack.
In every sense of the word this is a perfect arcade port of both games, but that also goes for the modes included in the games...

Graphics: 10
Perfect in every sense of the word. Every frame of animation is here. The characters are animated beautifully. These are the 2nd best graphics (Guilty Gear is still number one) ever for a fighting game.

Sound: 8
Crystal clear sound. I much prefer Third Strike's soundtrack to those of SF3 and 2I, but that's ok. The music sets the mood. The charcter voices are crystal clear, and the sound effects of hits are beautiful, especially in a surround sound system like I have. Ryu's Shin Shoryuken especially.

Control: 10 with a fighter pad/arcade stick
7 with the Dreamcast Controller
By now everyone knows that the default Dreamcast Controller is not the way to go. I beg you get an arcade stick, or get the ASCII fighter pad! I have two of those, and it's like playing with an old Saturn or Genesis 6 button. This will make the game more enjoyable, beleive me. As for how the control affects the game, it is just as good as it is in the arcade. In fact, I've found new combos that I didn't know of in the arcade. And other arcade combos work as well as they did before.

Gameplay: 9
Classic Capcom gameplay. Beautiful. No more air-block, alpha counters, but the added evil of PARRYING. That's right, a new feature. It is useful at time, but other games can turn into a parry fest, and a quest to see who can parry multi hits and such. Also new is the EX moves, a la Nightwarriors and Vampire Savior, where you sacrafice super power for a special move(EX: Ryu's fireball becomes the red fireball which hits 3 times). And my final gripe. The Shotos are overpowered. They throw the rest of the characters out of balanced, but it can be overcome. Oh well, not much more different than that.

Features: 4
Ok, this is where I said the arcade perfect part is the downside. That's all you get on both games, arcade perfect, no more modes. I think we've all been(at least I have) spoiled by SFA3 with all it's modes, especialy world tour. I score it a 4 because that's all the features there are, 4. Arcade, Vs, Training and Blocking Attack(Parry Training). Oh and options. There are some extra options, such as no life display, extra super meters, invincibility, but that's not really a feature.

Overall, I have to say IMPORT IT. This goes double for you if you are a SF3 fan. It is definantly worth it, and it is the pinnacle of SF fighting right now. Yes, the lack of modes hurt, but if you have friends to play with, it won't be too big of a deal. Now if they'd only release Third Strike soon.....

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/00, Updated 04/25/01