And once more we return to the franchise fighter, this time in the guise of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, or Street Fighter II 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future, if you're that way inclined. The third game of the third game, 3rd Strike sees refinements and additions and polish to the foundations that have been progressively laid down in place since the series' origins, and like the last time out, I'm only going to be happy if I land a super duper flashy move...
But first, a flashy intro.
Get hype.
Fun Times
Unable to play the arcade release, I'm sticking with the Dreamcast port, and what a lovely looking thing it is too. The graphic design of this game is already something to take notice of, and the character artwork is top notch too.
I don't know who the hell the vast majority of them are, though. I can name six or so of the roster, and two of those are only because I know that Hugo is the Sylvester Stallone looking hulk, and Dudley can somehow drink a cup of tea while wearing boxing gloves.
Returning from an absence is Chun-Li, who seems to be my go-to when it comes to Street Fighter entries in the 1001 list. I've no idea why, really. It's not like I have an understanding of the mechanics at play, or any underlying stats and attributes. I suppose it's as simple as the 'stupidly threatening feet, probably want to focus on kicking people' character design that she has.
Anyway, let's get fighting.
You have a choice of opponents on your path to the top (or whatever the plot is, if there is one), and once I'd finished ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the graphic design, I chose to announce myself to the 3rd Strike stage by fighting with a Frenchman in the form of Remy. I've no idea who he is.
Look at that. If 3rd Strike isn't a sight to behold, I'd have to call you blind. Are there better sprites and backgrounds in gaming? Yeah, of course. Am I going to care when these look so good in the heat of the battle? Not at all.
Fluid flurries of kicks, punches, grabs, throws and goodness knows what else goes on in a round of combat is emphasised by combos, and by deftly chaining one set of moves into the next.
I was, naturally, hopeless at this, instead managing to pull off swish moves by accident, if anything. But an awful lot of the characters movesets just look good by default. Chun-Li's kicks are animated with huge sweeping sprites that absolutely show off the power and precision she would be expected to have (when controlled by a competent player).
Yeah, ok, the Spinning Bird Kick isn't exactly realistic, but it looks like it could be with the way everything else is drawn.
Light, medium and heavy kicks and punches combine into devastating combos and special moves (so I'm told), once you've mixed them with all kinds of stick waggling directional inputs designed, I'm sure, to be a balance of simplicity and skill. Simple to see in the theory; takes skill to do in practice.
I'm not going to be put off though. Super duper special move is the goal, and I'll be trying my damndest each round to get there.
What?! Grade E+?! As in, not D, C, B, A, or presumably S, but all the way down at E flippin +? Right. I've got a lot to learn then. Who shall teach me?
Frustrations
My second ever 3rd Strike match doesn't go quite to plan. This game is, sadly, already starting to look a little too similar to the previous Street Fighter entries, in that I'm about to say "it looks so bloody good, but Christ does it need to be this hard?"
Yes, controllers versus arcade sticks. Yes, get gud scrub. Yes, Rome wasn't built in a day. But you're introducing newcomers to the series all the time, and your default difficulty puts gamers on their arse this early on?
While I somehow got a round back to tie it at one apiece, the decider would end in a way that I wanted to see, but not coming from Alex.
There it is. A super move in all its glory. Will I ever pull one of them off? All I know for sure is I'm about to be scolded for my piss-poor performance.
Grade G?! Are you out of your fffffeckin mind!?
Further Fun Times
I dropped the difficulty from 3/10 to 1/10 - no, really, it started on 3 - and checked out another comfortable character, Ryu. Big arms, probably punches. Got legs to kick with too. All-rounder. I'm getting better at this character design lark.
His opponent is Twelve, and all I know about Twelve is that the animators must have enjoyed working on him, and it comes after the number eleven.
He's just a shapeshifting menace who you just can't quite read. Am I out of range? Nope, his arm's a giant axe. Can I just edge up towar- nope, he's now a spinning ball that's slapping the shit out of me. I'll just chuck a Hadouken (found that input at least) and watch him phase into invisibility. Of course.
Still, you don't see Twelve on all the covers for Street Fighter titles, and he was eventually swept aside for my next opponent, Makoto.
A more traditional fight, I found this one rather back and forth, with no clear advantage between the two of us. As a game designer, that's probably what you want players to feel - like every match is nail-biting and a single hit could decide it - but as the second fight in a series that should make me feel like a champion at the end of it... eh... I'd like to see a hill, not a brick wall.
But what did I see instead? A Goddamn Thingymajig.
I had done it. I had waggled my way into a super move. Fuelled by lightning I struck Makoto with the power of a thousand Hadoukens, sending her flying across the autumnal stage where we set our fight. She immediately stood up and won the round.
However, I was now confident in my ability to input the quarter-circle, quarter-circle punch combo that lead me to this point in time, and could now somewhat reliably pull it off, stupid though my timing with it may have been.
They're quite blockable, you see. Just ask Daigo...
With victory in hand, and on the easiest of easy difficulties, it was onto the third battle.
Further Frustrations
Where, once again, things swiftly go downhill. Ibuki was threatening to get a round win without even being hit, such was the difficulty I was facing. Nothing worked. She was dodging this, blocking that, pulling off move after move to which I had no reply.
There's an entirely new parry system in this game, but I've not got a snowball's chance in hell of knowing what it looks like at this rate.
Gah, that graphic design though...
Final Word
My quest to find a Street Fighter title I don't suck at continues. I would say that it's weird how I can get reasonably well acquainted with Tekken games but utterly fumble through Street Fighter, despite them both being fighting games, but clearly, there are so many differences between competing game series' that it's a silly thing to say.
I'm familiar with Tekken and how it handles because I grew up with it. I didn't grow up with Street Fighter and I think, twenty years later, that has cost me.
It's cost me not only because these games look incredible, and the vast rosters of characters allow plenty of favourites to be found, but because there are decades of great stuff here locked away behind a door that says 'you must be this good to continue', and I'm just not.
If I could just get to grips with Street Fighter, somewhere along is many historical lines, then I might have an 'in' to the wider series. I'm not expecting to turn pro, God no. I just want to not have to put it on 1/10 difficulty and then still get my arse kicked, and be 'rewarded' with a G+.
Bit by bit, thanks to this 1001 list, I've seen Street Fighter evolve and adapt and get better and better, but unless it gets friendlier to newcomers, I think I'd have to go back to start and get a lot of practice in to really appreciate the series - and it should be appreciated.
Would multiplayer change my views? Possibly, sure, but two button mashing, stick wiggling players who are doing everything by accident isn't exactly the best way to show off a game, is it?
I continue to admire Street Fighter from afar, never being able to get close enough to whisper in its ear words to the effect of 'just how the hell am I supposed to do these moves?'
Doesn't count. Training mode against a static opponent. Still. Maybe next time...
Fun Facts
The Japanese PlayStation 2 release of the game saw it bundled will all kinds of goodies, including a strategy DVD. That's how in-depth these games are.
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, developed by Capcom, first released in 1999.
Version played: Dreamcast, 2000, via emulation.