"Two CPSIII masterpieces captured perfectly on one GD-Rom"

New Generation was to be the first real sequel to the immensely popular Street Fighter II. 6 years after the second game, New Generation made it's appearance in arcades to a somewhat lukewarm response given the small character roster and lack of characters from the previous game.

2nd Impact was released a year later to rectify some of the complaints of the previous game, and while it was a good remix it still didn't gain a big following. Then of course Third Strike rolled around and became a hit, most probably to the return of 2 popular characters from SFII.

With the advent of the Dreamcast, Capcom sought to port over some of it's CPSIII games given that the PlayStation and Saturn were not up to the task. The result is this compilation disc of the first two outings of Street Fighter III, which I am reviewing.

Story - 7/10
While the game doesn't go too much into detail, SFIII takes place a several years after Street Fighter II, where Vega has been defeated, and a New Generation of fighters has come of age, while the rest of the cast turn to retirement (Save Ken and Ryu who are kept in to keep players familiar).

A man with the powers of fire and ice known as Gill threatens to conquer the planet by fulfilling some biblical prophecy, and he proclaims a new Street Fighter tournament.

It's practically the same story in both games, but from what I've heard, New Generation has been 'retconned' from the series storyline simply because 2ND Impact is a retelling of it.

Graphics/Presentation - 7/10
Upon loading the game, you are given a selection of which version you want to play, represented by a spinning disc image that resembles the artwork on the CPSIII version Cd's. The initial load is a few seconds, and after that there are no loading breaks, just like the arcade versions.

As for the game presentations, New Generation's intro is a montage of sketchy artwork and text, while 2nd Impact shows a scene leading to a rooftop of a fight between Alex and Hugo. They aren't mindblowing but they do a good gob for what they are.

The in game graphics are a treat - each character is hand drawn with extremely fluid animation that perfectly matches the faster gameplay. The backgrounds in both games are well drawn and have vibrant shades of coloring, although not all the fights take place on a 'street', as the game's title would suggest. There are some nice artwork sketches for the character portraits, and the after match images show how badly the loser has been beaten (with the winner standing tall without a scratch). There's nothing I can complain about here except for the flickering transparency effect of the antique shop fish tank in New Generation.

Gameplay - 9/10
Street Fighter III features motion and speed that's a lot faster than previous SF games, and it may take some time to master. As usual, it's a 3 round fight to knock the other guy out until you face the final showdown with Gill himself. There aren't a great number of characters to choose from, but they all feature their own set of martial arts abilities, many of which tone down the projectile aspects of SFII. Many of SFII fans dislike the change of cast which has virtually dumped all existing characters, save Ken and Ryu. Gill's brother Urien, Akuma and Hugo the wrestler from Final Fight are the new added cast for 2nd Impact.

New twists in SFIII include the Super Arts - you can only pick one super attack combo to perform here, so choose you favourite. Also added is the parrying technique - instead of blocking, you can defend by pressing the joystick forward on the moment of impact when hit, and you can stun your enemies and counter attack. When parrying projectiles, you won't lose a small amount of health as with blocking. In 2nd Impact, a taunt option has been added that gives your gauge a boost, and you can sacrifice some of your super gauge to perform a special with a few extra hits added.

The difficulty level is adjustable to your liking for both games, and it is easy for the first few rounds before the cpu characters start to get tough. THe final enemy Gill is a real nutcracker to defeat. Just when you think you've beaten him, he can bring himself back to full health if his super meter is full when Ko'd. Not only is he cheap, but this move will put you off if you don't stop him regaining full health. In 2nd Impact, he can call a meteor storm instead at any time and it will do a great deal of damage if you don't avoid or block it.

Multiplayer - 7/10
VS fighting is your only option here, it's an arcade game. Most players these days prefer to play 3rd strike which is the most popular SFIII incarnation You'll probably get more out of playing 2nd Impact in multiplayer.

Control - 8/10
No real complaints here, although the DC pad was a bit fidgety to use at first. Thankfully the game is compatible with the DC arcade stick.

Soundtrack/Audio - 8/10
New Generation features a somewhat odd mix soundtrack that doesn't somewhat sound at home for a fighting game. Some if it is some contemporary techno, while other stages feature a jazzy selection. You might hate it as I first did, but I found that the soundtrack grew on me after a while, especially Dudley's theme "Leave Alone. I couldn't help but notice that the main stage themes, while they were different, sounded like the same song but remixed to fit the location.

2nd Impact's sound offerings are a remix of New Generation, but with a more relaxed and slower paced beat such as the "Cave Man" theme of Oro's stage.

The voice acting is pretty good. Unlike the previous SF, the Japanese characters are portrayed by Japanese actors, and the English characters are done by English voice actors. I'd like to point out that the announcer has to be the best sounding of any fighter I've played.

The sound effects aren't anything to complain about, decent kick, punch and pounding sounds. The creaking door sound when your super gauge goes up is quite funny though, makes me chuckle.

Replayability - 7/10
You'll either keep playing until you beat Gill, or give up in frustration, or maybe you just want to learn to perfect parrying. I get the feeling that most players wold spend more time on 2nd Impact as the endings are the same and there are more characters. The bonus parrying game is now selectable as a stand alone playable game.

Overall - 8/10
No doubt most hardcore Street Fighters would shun away from these games given that they weren't a big success in the arcades, but I find myself playing this more than Third Strike, and it's one of the few good games that makes me hold on to my Dreamcast.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/05