Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: February 9, 2001

I’m quietly awaiting the day when gaming becomes such a tightly integrated part of our culture that the ancient adage is changed to: “there’s only three things in this world you can count on: Death, taxes and a new Street Fighter game every six months.” We’re to the point now where it’s not unfair to assume that, should the world be destroyed by nuclear war, there will still be cockroaches dutifully tinkering with the fighting mechanics of this perennial series. Generally, Capcom manages to avoid the trap of cosmetic changes and include some new features with each release, but one has to wonder just how much more remains to be done with the Street Fighter license in its present form. The latest answer to that question arrives under the guise of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, the second Dreamcast release for the new generation of characters.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is the follow-up to Double Impact, which included two separate ports from the arcade. Entitled New Generation and Second Impact, a loading screen let players choose which set of rules and characters would be active during their matches. The obvious choice was to work with Second Impact rules, as they represented a more refined control scheme and included a larger roster of fighters. Unlike the earlier bundle, the Dreamcast release of 3rd Strike is a stand alone port from the arcade version of the same name.

For those not conversant with the history behind the series, Street Fighter III: New Generation introduced almost entirely new fighters, with Ken and Ryu the only characters to survive the transition. In addition to the roster update, several changes were made to the combat system so that it lost its emphasis on speed and enormous combo hits. Instead, the victorious player had to master timing and tactical fighting, with the, up to that point, ubiquitous Turbo functions stripped away. For every player that lamented this change another would take up arms and cheer on the new features made possible by the alteration of the pace. The super combos, which dominated the Alpha series of Street Fighter II, were hobbled so that they could only be executed in a limited quantity — meaning players had to conserve them for guaranteed strikes. The introduction of a parrying system was equally key to the changeover; by pushing forward at exactly the moment of an enemy’s strike a player could make his character dodge or deflect the attack. This technique allowed for a far faster retaliation than blocks but required significantly more skill to execute. Regardless, once the effectiveness was realized players soon adopted the new technique lest they lose to their long-time competitors or be humbled by the AI.

Taking the shifting paradigm a step further, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike has introduced a Grade Judge system that operates much like the Groove Points score in Capcom vs. SNK: Millenium Fight 2000. Rather than tracking the points on the fly as in the earlier offering, however, the Grade Judge System assigns a ranking between F- and the illustrious A+ based on the variety of moves used, the amount of combo hits landed and so forth. The more advanced techniques are vital to those wishing a high grade, as parries, quick jump-ups and leaping attacks are heartily encouraged by this system. As one might expect, this score is also displayed in two-player games where it will surely start the most debates on fighting style, and inspire the most boasts from victorious players.