So I've been an avid SF fan as far back as I can remember. For years I've wanted to play any of the SFIII games and I finally bought the SF anniversary collection on the PS2. This features every version of SFII and SFIII - Third Strike.
Maybe it's just me, but it seems like III doesn't have much popularity among fighting games. Third Strike is definitely one of the best fighting games I've ever played, if not the best. I think one thing that might have turned people of from this game is the characters. They're all really, really weird. With the exception of II characters Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, and Akuma, this game has a very bizarre cast. There are 20 characters in this game, and with the exception of Urien, I think they're all amazing.
Side note: I just can't stand Urien. I don't mind his fighting style but he's just this...WTF? He walks out wearing a business suit and when battle commences he angrily tears it off revealing nothing but a bit of loin cloth. I just couldn't get into this guy.
There's Dudley, a complete badass gentleman boxer extraordinaire with an amazing British accent. Oro, some kind of old hermit, has completely yellow skin and ties one arm in his shirt to be fair so he doesn't kill his opponent. Sean, Ken's Brazilian apprentice who loves basketball. There are some strange humans that have been experimented on by the bad guys and now have stretchy limbs and can shapshift (Necro and Twelve). Elena is a Kenyan princess who has all kicking attacks. Yun and Yang are two brothers from Hong Kong who kick ass while rollerblading and skateboarding. Third Strike is full of really fun characters that you wouldn't see in normal fighting games.
Moving on, the first thing that I liked about this game right away was the music. Most of the soundtrack is composed of jazz/hip hop. How awesome is that? Seriously.
^ This song is played during the character select screen. It fits the game PERFECTLY.
The game graphics made for CPSIII hardware which was a step up from Alpha's CPSII graphics. All the animation is fluid and gorgeous. Third Strike offers interesting diversity in arcade mode, giving the player the option to choose who they fight each round out of two different characters. After three rounds in arcade mode, you get to play the classic mini game of beating up an car until it's junk. A few rounds later you play a mini game involving the character Sean tossing basketballs at you to be parried. With each character, you can choose one of three special attacks to use. You have a bar at the bottom of the screen and when that fills up you can do the combination and use your special.
One complaint I do have with this game is the final boss, Gill. Obviously, I don't want the final boss to be a walk in the park but Gill is a fucking BEAST. He uses fire and water based attacks and one of his special moves (this one is my favorite) is a full heal. Basically you're attacking him, sweating bullets, your fingers are numb, and somehow you manage to defeat him. YES!! I DID IT! Oh, wait...Gill gets back up of the ground you watch his health bar fill all the way back up. It's still round one. Then he kicks your ass. Nevertheless, I've been able to defeat Gill ONCE with Akuma. I don't know how I did it. Since then it's been all failures.
If you're big SF fan, you might already know that Super Street Fighter IV has been announced and three of the new characters are from SFIII! Those being Dudley, Ibuki, and Makoto! YAY SFIII is being acknowledged! I'm guessing that in the future a SFIV Turbo will be made and hopefully they'll keep incorporating more III characters into the batch!
In a nutshell, this game is amazing. It was a complete surprise to me when I first played it and every now and then I pop it into the PS2 and go to town. I highly suggest it to anyone who enjoys fighting games. Or enjoys jazz/hip hop.
Street Fighter III - Third Strike gets 9/10.
"Let's fight...like gentlemen" - Dudley
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