• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike for Sega Dreamcast.

Product description ------------------- Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, Sega was the place to be for VS fighting games. Especially from Capcom. Several domestic releases were great hits at the time and still are. This is the final iteration of three versions SFIII released. .com ---- Break out your nunchaku and don your black belt: Ryu, Chun Li, and Ken are back, and they've brought with them 16 friends and a ton of new special moves to vie for the coveted championship belt in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. This latest version of the celebrated Street Fighter series is perhaps the most attractive yet, with its highly detailed backgrounds and character animations that take full advantage of the Dreamcast's power. Like many 2-D fighting games, there are two methods to playing Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike--learn to finesse the joystick and perform impressive special moves, or simply mash the buttons randomly. As such, those who are willing to devote the time to learning the game's myriad secret special moves will be able to earn Street Fighter black belts and enjoy the game to its fullest, while casual gamers who prefer the button-mashing route might find more replayability in a less complicated game. For those who have ninja fingers, Capcom has added to this new version a grading system that judges the player's performance after each match and comments on his or her skills. The game's value doesn't end when you've mastered the intricate maneuvers, either, thanks to the extreme level of customization that can be made to the fighting, which virtually allows the player to reconstruct the game's rules. --Benjamin Reese Pros: * Incredible graphics and sound * New leap attack * Highly modifiable fighting system * 4 brand-new characters; 19 total Cons:* Game can be played simply by mashing buttons * High learning curve P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review ------ Hot on the heels of Capcom's double whammy of Street Fighter III action, Double Impact, comes 3rd Strike, the third game in the Street Fighter III series. While the two releases are roughly the same, 3rd Strike delivers new characters and enough new options to make it a worthwhile product, even if you already own Double Impact. The main attraction that 3rd Strike adds over Second Impact and the original SFIII is the addition of more characters. The most notable addition is the return of Chun-Li, who has been done up in true Street Fighter III style, and she now possesses more frames of animation than she knows what to do with. Other new characters include Twelve, the alien creature; Q, the robot guy in a trench coat; and Remy, who looks like he escaped from a King of Fighters game. Aside from a few minor gameplay tweaks, it's business as usual, with selectable super arts, parrying, and Gill, the game's ultracheap boss. What really makes 3rd Strike special is the system-direction option screen. This separate screen gives you ten pages of choices that alter the gameplay, allowing you to cancel super arts into super arts, enable air blocking, turn on chain combos, and lots more. Suffice it to say that if there's something about 3rd Strike that you don't like, odds are you can alter it with the system-direction settings. Graphically, the game is smooth. The new characters are as frame-laden as the older characters, and they fit into the world rather nicely. The backgrounds occasionally look a bit flat, but they still look decent. The game's sound has been given a pretty major overhaul since Second Impact, with the addition of a new announcer, a few altered voices, and a couple of Street Fighter raps that play over the select screen. If you bought Double Impact, that may very well be all the Street Fighter III action you need. But if you skipped out on Double Impact - or if you're fanatical about your SFIII - 3rd Strike is a good, refined 2D fighter that won't disappoint.--Jeff Gerstmann--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review See more ( javascript:void(0) )