Name: Street Fighter 3 W Impact
Format: Dreamcast

When street fighter 3 was released at the arcades we were told that as the game use the CPS 3 System a home conversion was impossible. Only know due to the power of dreamcast are will able to play the next generation dreamcast. [end of dc plug] But with the excellent street fighter zero 3 [alpha 3] out does the true sequel live up to its past?

The dreamcast version of street fighter 3 includes the first to editions, Street fighter 3 new generation, and street fighter 3 2nd impact giant attack.

Excellent! two games on one gdrom, but unfortunately it is rather like the street fighter collection cd, in the area that as both games use the same graphics engine the difference is minimal. Given the choice you will really only be playing 2nd impact, as it contains more characters and the characters have more moves [ryu and ken only have their air-hurricane in 2nd impact] Also why not give us street fighter 3 third strike as that has even more new characters, but I guess capcom want to do that version later, and they are staggering the releases. Street fighter 3 is amazing, the characters ar twice the size of zero 3's and everything runs in lovely 640*480. The animation has been increased to a whopping number of frames, this is particulary obvious on elena's moves. Standard versus and training are included in both versions but unless you like sf3 in the arcades a lot :) you might as well stick to 2nd impact, as it is better.

Character wise, you are only going to recognise a few, read 3! Ryu, Ken, and Gouki return along with new characters, Yun, Yang, Hugo, Sean, Ibuki, Elena, Necro, Alex, Dudley, Oro, and Gill. These characters are different, real different. However they all posses similar skills to the original sf2 posse. Alex is a zangief crossed with guile character, whilst Yun and Yang are clones of Gen, but each one having one of his styles...follow me? Britain is represented by Dudley the boxer, who is actually a pretty tough character, but England seems to be stuck in the 17th century, but with minis! Oh well.

Sf3 returns to the ideal that super moves are tactical so you are only allowed to pick one, which is not that bad as now all the supers are pulled off with double fireball motions, kinda like the versus series. So now you don't have to do a weird motion twice [remember guile flashkick super? that was hard]. The shotokans [ryu, ken] are incredibly weak and are beaten pretty much by everyone, Gouki is the opposite he is too powerful and takes low damage, we need some balance. Another negative point is that the original sf2 storyline is not explained, who won? is bison dead etc, this is a shame as it is stuff like this that I want to know.

As in sf2 you all face the same boss, then a personal boss, if you are clever you can face you rival. Gill is stupidly hard, more to the point that he is super frustrating and cheaps you badly, however when you get in a few cheap shops yourself, he goes a bit girly and you can beat him pretty easily.

The street fighter 3 series is building up to something, something that 3rd strike will answer. I wish capcom would bring back a couple of familar characters, like cammy or rose, but if they did then the series would never evolve.

If you are a street fighter fan, then you will no doubt have already bought the game. If however you already have zero 3 [alpha 3] and you are thinking of buying sf3 then you must consider a few points.
1.] zero 3 is less tactical than sf3 and relys more on super moves over combos.
2.] sf3 is a no thrills fighting game.

Personally I own both, then again I have bought every street fighter game released. Zero 3 has lots of characters, and that is good, it also has world tour mode which is also good. However sf3 is the sequel to sf2, and unlike zero 3 you only lose if you are rubbish, zero 3 is more geered to those players who like big powerful moves over tactical game play.

In short you should get sf3 if what you have read pleases you [obviously!] but I would advise you to play both zero 3 and sf3 before you buy, to see which one fits your style. I await for street fighter 3 third strike, as it has a guile clone in it, something which I like. If I had to tell you to buy one of these games, I would say zero 3, as with all the options available you will be playing it for ages and having fun. Whilst with sf3 you will be playing for ages trying to get good, and relying on skill rather than special moves. It is a tough decision, but zero 3 does have lots of characters which is a huge draw, whilst sf3 has 3 familar characters and a load of new characters which we have not seen before.

Sf3 is scart compatible but does not support the analogue pad. SF3 plays well, but its sequel plays better. I prefer the less cluttered portrait [under energy bar] version of SF3, but apart from that the sequel has more characters, a better balance and the great rival system and the ability to challenge Akuma and Shin Akuma. As a collection it is amazing, and as it is only available on dreamcast you should better purchase this piece of sf history.