Revisiting: Street Fighter 3rd Strike
In my lifetime, my most favorite game is Street Fighter 3: 3rd strike. A little background first, SF3:3rd strike was released on May 1999 as the third and final installment. 3rd strike brought back the Fan Favorite Chun-Li, along with four new characters Makoto, Remy, Q and Twelve, increasing the roster to 20 characters with Akuma now as a regular character. All of the returning characters were given new stages, endings and even voice
actors, continuing the overall storyline from where the first two games left off. The commands
for Air Parries, Throws and other attacks were changed. Additionally, the player can perform a "Guard/Red Parry" or a Parry during a Guard Stun if the timing is right. The game also introducesa grade-based "Judgement System", which determines your grade based on your
playstyle.
I've always been a huge fan of the SF Series, SF was the first
game that I kept on playing because of the diversity of the characters, level of skill needed to play the game and the competition it provided.
Although SF3 3rd strike was released in 1999, I was only able to play the
game around 2004 because I went on a gaming hiatus (Hmm, new article right
there.hehe) for awhile and I only noticed the game at our local arcade
because no one was playing it. 3rd strike was a beautiful game, both from
an artistic and fighting game nerd standpoint. 3rd strike had meticulously
hand drawn graphics that made the characters look mature and vibrant(Ryu
looked so old in this game.) the gameplay was unique because of the parry
system and the intelligently corner and target combo system, even though it
made some of the characters so imbalanced like *cough* Yun, *cough* Urien.
(Ironically, I also played Yun :).)
My love for SF3rd strike also introduced me to the awesome world of
competitive fighting gaming and to godlike players, like Justin Wong, Ricky
Ortiz and the Beast himself, Daigo Umehara. I could never forget "Evo
Moment #37" (look it up at youtube) it had to be one of the most awesome
things I have ever seen in my life. Street Fighter 3rd strike was an
awesome game but if I remember correctly, many people didn't like 3rd
strike or the SF3 series itself. Many complained of the parry system and
the difficulty of the game. Nevertheless, this didn't stop me from playing
the game up till now.
Street Fighter 3rd Strike was one of the best fighting games in my opinion
and one of the reasons I started to play serious with fighting games.
A few months from now, SF3rd strike will be re-released for the PS3 and
the Xbox360 with Online Gameplay. I hope that many
people will look at 3rd strike with a different point of view and begin to
see how awesome this Capcom Masterpiece is. As for me,hehe, "GENEI JIN!"
Peace Out.
