Fighting Games for 3rd Strike Burnouts
(Alternate Title: “God I hate Guess-Parrying so much.”)
Every year around the same time, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike lands back on my plate. Cooperation Cup, a yearly Japanese Team-Tournament, makes 3rd Strike fans out of everybody in the Fighting Game Community.
The most fascinating thing about “3s” isn’t its system or roster, but how a passionate community has continued to evolve the game for twenty years. Regardless of my personal biases, 3rd Strike fits every definition of timeless. But timeless, as you’ll find, doesn’t mean perfect. If you find yourself getting more frustrated with 3rd Strike than not, this article is for you.
If the top brass at Capcom were asked how they perceived 3rd Strike, many of them might see the game as a complete failure. Every revision of Street Fighter III feels like an apology for the last. You could even hypothesize that Street Fighter Alpha 3, which released between SF3: 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike, was the biggest “I’m sorry” of all. For 3rd Strike- Chun Li’s early dominance turned away much of the FGC, and some players still refuse to return to the game out of spite for the character.
The parry, toned down from its earliest appearance in Street Fighter III: New Generation, still bleeds into every moment of 3rd Strike’s neutral. The emergent gameplay that surrounds parrying makes 3s a brutally hard game to learn, and it’s the only Street Fighter where you can be punished for doing the “right” thing.
Simpler playstyles are gutted by parrying, and good buttons are no longer a sign of a good character. The best offense is smothering and unpredictable, and that’s reflected on 3rd Strike’s tier list. The only outlier here is Chun, who is seen as quite a weak character without meter. Perhaps the biggest sin 3s commits is how heavily it curbs fireballs. Conditioning or pestering your opponent with a projectile is reserved almost exclusively for Akuma or Urien, who don’t use them for zoning, but as a component of their rushdown. This will become a theme.
I won’t claim that picking Old Sagat is a sign of higher-than-average intelligence, but in my opinion the fireball game is a core tenant of good fighting game design. Being able to meaningfully do battle from mid-screen and further is a skill, and it doesn’t exist in 3rd Strike. The pitiful projectiles and how most setups are countered by one parry make you play closer to your opponent on average. Perhaps because of this range restriction, very few archetypes from previous Street Fighters make an appearance in 3rd Strike. Claw and Dictator are gone! Even the Shotos, which traditionally have been very adaptable and flexible with their space control, are best played explosively.
For the wrong player, 3rd Strike can be an infuriating meritocracy where valid criticism of the game’s crippling problems gets ignored. When Iron Galaxy was contracted to remaster 3rd Strike for seventh gen consoles, they approached the community and pitched a balance patch. Initially suggested in this patch were nerfs to meter gain and bar lengths. The reception was almost entirely negative. I’d surmise that many of the loudest voices didn’t actually play any version of Street Fighter III, and now pride dooms 3rd Strike to be barely playable for thousands of fighting game appreciators.
For the orthodox fighting game player who feels left behind by Street Fighter III’s system, here’s a short list of other games with well implemented and intuitive defensive mechanics, some even inspired by Street Fighter III:
Yatagarasu — Parries have a 22 Frame cooldown, and cause a counter hit state if you’re tagged during the recovery.
Vampire Savior — This game has infinite guard cancels that don’t cost meter, yet they’re easy to bait and take excellent execution to perform out of blockstun. There are other worthwhile defensive options as well.
Akatsuki Blitzkampf — Reflector is a parry with a whiff animation; Parry Option Selects are dead! Since it’s considered a normal, air reflector also sacrifices trip guard. This keeps the anti-air game as complex as 3s, but further ups risk for the jumper.
Breakers Revenge — Dashes, Normals, and Specials can cancel the tail-end of blockstun and hitstun. Strings and combos become a mindgame, which buffs resets and synergizes with the game’s high damage throws.
The Rumble Fish 2 — An entire meter is dedicated to rewarding players who block, and you earn even more meter if you intentionally stand-block attacks. You can spend your defensive meter to cut down on your opponent’s frame advantage during a blockstring, or burst from an air combo. Characters even have Super Moves specifically tied to this meter.
If you don’t like 3rd Strike, you shouldn’t feel strong-armed into playing it. Don’t let the title’s legacy and scope pressure you into wasting time on a game that doesn’t meet your preference. If 3rd Strike’s close ranged gameplay isn’t to your liking, or you see the good in 3s but feel the system would work much better with simple tweaks- Check out the games I’ve listed. Bigger player counts and better documentation don’t matter if the fun isn’t there, so go have fun instead.
Next Up: The Toyota Yaris?
-X
