Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the third entry in the arcade premier fighting series. The sequel to the 2nd most successful arcade game of all time, Street Fighter 3 was released when arcades and home consoles had had embraced 3D as the main driving force. Tekken 3, Soul Edge and Virtua Fighter 3 were now considered the forerunners of the genre. Everyone expected Capcom to embrace 3D like its rival Midway had done with Mortal Kombat 4 and attempt to play catch up with the new firmly established competition. Instead, in a ballsy David and Goliath type move, Capcom went ahead and made the most advanced 2D fighting game ever made and took its competition on under its own terms.
The game pushed the envelope of the 2D fighter to new heights with huge attention to detail in animated design - in some occasions an unprecedented 1,200 individually drawn sprites per character - and gameplay which included a parry system that allowed skill and precision to turn around even the most desperate fights along with other new features such as running and throw combos. As one fan noted "The replay value in Street Fighter 3 was amazing...Even after a year of its release at my arcade, people walk right past other arcades, and go straight to Street Fighter 3."
Though the game did not generate as much as Street Fighter 2, to be expected given the time period, word of mouth had travelled wide and by the time of the home releases the game had become a massive cult hit. Arguably the Blade Runner of the series, It's big breakthrough arrived with the home market releases on Dreamcast and more notably the anniversary editions on the PS2 and Xbox.
Share your memories of Street Fighter III with us below.
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