Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition (E3 2011)

In 1999 Third Strike was a craze in Japanese arcades but many new games have been created since then. Is it still near perfect twelve years later?  Third Strike is a classic, a scientific work

of genius. It has won over dozens of fighters. Its revolutionary ideas and procedures, namely the Parry system and EX Moves, became the foundation for many games in the genre up to the present. As an example, Mortal Kombat uses a super meter system similar to Street Fighter 4, an improvement on Third Strike‘s “Super Art” mechanics.

Due to changing times, the arcades for which the game was designed have been replaced by online games. Third Strike‘s online implementation leads the way of other fighters. In every scheme, evading is faultless without detectable delay. However, fights freeze briefly at times due to connection issues. Neither frame rate drops nor “faltering” effects occur, which plague other online fighters. The game’s mechanical reliability is whole throughout each competition.

The online multiplayer modes Ranked, Player and Tournament are designed with dangerous, spirited play in mind. Player matches can be programmed to say, best two out of three rounds or possibly best four out of seven matches, each match composed of four out of seven rounds. Particular characters can be barred from the lobby. The only weakness of the Player match implementation is its inability to save replays if more than two players are in a room.

Tournament mode has the same personalized fight options as in Player matches without character bans. Four to eight players are arbitrarily grouped in twos and split into brackets. Winners press forward, losers are free to leave or stay to observe the combats.

Unfortunately, Tournament mode’s matches happen successively, rather than simultaneously. The player in the fourth bracket can fight only after the first three fights are done. This is time consuming as players would rather fight than watch others fight. On the other hand, the single player experience has ample bells and whistles to keep series veterans amused, while showing new contenders the oh-so-technical ropes.

Capcom should be praised for designing an unbelievable full-featured matchmaking system despite the minor defects.