After all the Street Fighter 2s and Alphas, Capcom does the unthinkable to the fighting game juggernaut…they let it go to number 3!!!
Overview
After what seem like an eternity with the remakes of Street Fighter 2 and the spin-offs of Street Fighter Alphas starting to shape up, Capcom gives the popular series a long awaited overdue. When Street Fighter 3 was announce to the world, fans were crying tears of joy as they thought this day would never come. Did Capcom deliver a good crop with this “New Generation”?
Graphics 8/10
The fighters’ sprites and animation were definitely something that I didn’t expect. The characters look a lot hipper, smoother, and modern then their pervious incarnations. While the artwork portraits are somewhat iffy at first look, they will improve by the time you see the result screen and the entire game. The fighting environments are done beautifully and are nicely creative. I personally like the hot springs’ stage (for obvious reasons) and its great that some people have a unique way of entering their battle if it’s on their own stages, like Oro hanging on a sleeping bag or Yun skateboarding from afar. Another thing I liked is that some areas instead of fighting on one stage with the opponent, the next round, they could battle somewhere else. Elena’s stage is a prime example of that.
Gameplay/Controls 9/10
The game plays just like about any other Street Fighter, except with a few quirks. First up, after picking your fighter, you must choose one out of three supers that you can use only. While it might sound stupid, it makes the player seriously think which one will help them in the long run. The choosing of supers will result in the super meter’s size and how many bars it can have. The reason for that is because most supers could deal heavy hurting while other supers are that big a threat so the bars even out and balances everybody’s use of them. The biggest inclusion is the ‘parrying’ trick. By tap forward (or down for crouching) at the right moment of your opponent hitting you, their move gets brush off and you recover quicker, letting you get an open shot at your rival, if they are in a vulnerable state, and you receive no blocking damage. Carefully mastering and expertly timing the parry system maybe a frustrating hassle, but it’s really a blessing in disguise for those who get it down. You can do it in the air, too, but many will boggled on that situation. The new generation added on a dizzy gauge under your life bar to see how close you are from being a dazed and defenseless target. You may have to keep an eye on it mostly, but you won’t see someone dizzy as common as Street Fighter 2 had them.
The tie breaker vote is somewhat unfair when both players draw in the final round with one win apiece…it usually randomly picked the winner, sometimes no matter who did better. The controls are superb with Capcom staying with the famous six buttons of punches/kicks that been the staple of Street Fighter games since it was born. This is also Capcom’s best combo system to date. From expert to novice players, anybody could learn how to perform great chain of combining attacks in no time. The CPU makes itself a helpless baby for a second, expert nut the next, when using the regular fighters. The final boss, Gill, can be handful, but entertaining none the less. It very comical to see one who thinks they beat Gill for the first time, but he uses his “Resurrection” and the player have a shock look on their while doing nothing to stop him refilling his entire life bar.
Sound/Music 8/10
The music has been assemble and composed of some killer, but not cheesy, soundtracks. Not one track of older Street Fighter things have been brought over. Still, Capcom did a well tuned job making some very diverse music tracks that sounded current and creative. The voice acting was minimal, but done to perfection. It’s nice to hear the fighters who speak clear English as a main language sounded…you know, like clear English and none of the broken stuff. Every hit of the uppercuts, fireballs, kicking, throwing, and pushing sound bites that are in the new generation, felt fifty times painful they originally intended to be felt and that was said as a complement.
Replay Value 8/10
In typical Capcom fashion, they only bring back Ryu & Ken to take on the new crew of number three. The debuting combatants can hold well on their own with their cool moves set and style. We see that some of them have traits and moves from the cast of Street Fighter 2, but they original enough to be a different person. It’s awkward that this game is one less fighter then what the original Street Fighter 2 had. With only ten fighters, not counting the Yun/Yang thing, and one boss, you felt more could have been done. (Which, of course, they did, as we would see two updated versions of the game, but we’ll pretend they didn’t happen, yet.) The battle between two players are always excellent. I mean, this is a street fighter game, correct?
Overall 8/10
It’s been a long time coming, but Capcom did a solid job in pointing the series in a totally new direction, while not ditching most of what made the game great. Add in a hint of fantastic animation, some new rules, new systems, and you got yourself a gigantic masterpiece in the 2D fighting area.
- By Mr. Boombada
