Quick question re: Street Fighter III on the Dreamcast

[greg]

OK, so this should be worth only a real quick answer, I imagine. I am a newcomer to Street Fighter III. I recently picked up W Impact and 3rd Strike for the DC (well, within the past few months, but I don't play games so much anymore these days, so they're practically recent purchases for me). I bought these without really knowing which is which. So apparently W Impact has the original SF3 (10 characters) and 2nd Strike (13 characters)in one game, while 3rd Impact is the real deal with the most amount of characters totalling 19 (including Chun Li). So for a casual Street Fighter gamer, 3rd Strike seems to be the only one really worth owning, am I right? I've always been more of a KOF guy, since each of those games has something different to offer, more or less. Is there any benefit to owning W Impact? If not, would anyone be interested buying it off me for dirt cheap? It has the spine card.

[Pretas]

3rd Strike has the complete roster and balancing, but W Impact has a completely different set of stage backgrounds and music (though recycled from New Generation), and is still worth playing in a non-competitive aspect. It also has a mechanic that didn't make it into 3rd Strike, the aerial bounce parry.

The PS2 version of 3S is the one to get if you're not interested in online play, though. The DC version has noticeable input lag.

[Skykid]

2nd Impact is awesome. There are elements to it I prefer to 3rd Strike.

[Ganelon]

Endings are also completely different in 3S compared to earlier.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

I like New Generation the most, but I don't even claim to play SF3 seriously. I guess W Impact is nice to have from a singple player fun point of view, even if 3S is your thing.

[greg]

Thanks, guys. I did notice that the end of the fights in W showed my character standing over his opponent all beaten up 'n stuff, and vice versa when I lost. I'll have to look up what this "aerial bounce parry" thing is.

[Marble]

3rd Strike has the complete roster and balancing, but W Impact has a completely different set of stage backgrounds and music (though recycled from New Generation), and is still worth playing in a non-competitive aspect. It also has a mechanic that didn't make it into 3rd Strike, the aerial bounce parry.

The PS2 version of 3S is the one to get if you're not interested in online play, though. The DC version has noticeable input lag.

W Impact is just the Jap name for Double Impact - a compilation that contains New Generation and 2nd Impact. Sorry if you knew this, but your wording makes it sound like some weird mash-up game.

Every port of 3S ever has problems btw and they go far beyond input lag. DC doesn't have unblockables and has that weird skipping on Yang's stage, PS2 has strange intentional changes (Gouki towards + strong now throwable, Yang EX slashes doing less stun etc), every single port has slightly different timing (When IG was working on the 3S:OE patch they realized that in the CPS3 game, timing changes depending on what stage is being played and they found this really hard to replicate accurately). Most 3S players would probably agree with me that 3S:OE (with patch) played on a CRT feels the closest to arcade in timing. But I wouldn't refer to any port of 3S as 'the one to get.'

[Marc]

So how does the 360 version stack up? Don't play competitively, just curious.

[brokenhalo]

So how does the 360 version stack up? Don't play competitively, just curious.

it's the best you can get, short of owning the cps-3 board.

[Pretas]

Not quite. 3SO doesn't have settings for a non-stretched display on HDTVs without the horribly annoying achievement sidebars. It also has ugly redesigned HUD elements and awful menus.

Iron Galaxy greatly improved the quality of their Capcom ports for MvC Origins and Vampire Resurrection, though. Both let you disable the achievement bars without stretching the display over them. D&D Mystara Collection is also a good set of ports, but it's inferior to the Japan-exclusive PS3 version that was developed in-house.

[quash]

Dreamcast version can be ran at native resolution if you have a VGA box. But, it lags like crazy.

PS2 version runs at a wonky speed, but that just makes Genei Jin combos more fun to watch.

OE is probably the best overall, but I hope you aren't that much of a visual purist.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

Even though I'm not an advocate for emulation, this seems like a situation where MAME is the most obvious solution.

[CMoon]

Voice of reason: for casual play, all the versions are quite good. If you practice fighting games every day and are looking to get into SF3 on a tournament level, then yes, these points are all really important. I just don't want Greg to think he's wasted his money buying those DC ports...if you like the DC and have a good controller, go enjoy those titles; they are still really damn good.

[BrianC]

It sounds like the first two SFIII games got better ports for DC than Third Strike, though. Not to mention that, as far as I know, New Generation and Second Impact haven't been officially ported anywhere else.

[Despatche]

i don't care much for 3rd strike's style (though i respect it) and i hate the huge drop in raw audio/visual quality (unforgiveable)

the best street fighter iii is a fusion of all two-point-five versions, something that doesn't exist and will never be done the way it needs to be

[Skykid]

3rd Strike is a drop in audio quality?

Surely one of the most aurally stirring FG OST's of all time. Scarring Gill's DNA to dirty DnB breaks is utterly inspired.

[Damocles]

I bought then sold the DC version of 3S out of disgust, then later bought the X-Box comp and was quite happy.

I was under the impression that there was a parry delay in the DC version that made it practically unplayable. Lord knows I could never even parry the friggin basketballs that douche Sean threw during training. No such issue on the X-Box version. Could just be me.

Also, holy shit that audio. If you removed the announcer the music would be quite nice.

*it's just you*

[Strider77]

Yeah the whole hip hop "yo yo yo" thing was amazingly lame and came across a little desperate. I'm surprised the CD case didn't come with a addidas tag still attached to it.

[Despatche]

i actually respect the 3s style (announcer, music, interface, etc) a lot, but i like the one from ng/2i better. actually, ng moreso; it has a lot of that early-to-mid-'90s "energy" that feels so right, while 2i's changes make for a sort of "preview" to 3s.

3rd Strike is a drop in audio quality?

Surely one of the most aurally stirring FG OST's of all time. Scarring Gill's DNA to dirty DnB breaks is utterly inspired.

oh no, not the soundtrack itself, but the raw audio output. the dreamcast version actually fixed this but the arcade version sounds like everything is a 128kbps mp3, a huge drop compared to ng and 2i.

the backgrounds in all versions also seem to be lower raw quality than the ones from ng/2i, but it seems like some parts were scanned so i wouldn't be surprised.

edit: 192? derp. i mean 128.

[Skykid]

3rd Strike is a drop in audio quality?

Surely one of the most aurally stirring FG OST's of all time. Scarring Gill's DNA to dirty DnB breaks is utterly inspired.

oh no, not the soundtrack itself, but the raw audio output. the dreamcast version actually fixed this but the arcade version sounds like everything is a 192kbps mp3, a huge drop compared to ng and 2i.

Ah I see. When I played in the arcade it was always too noisy to hear anything, so the DC was where I spent most of my time back in the day. It's a shame they did such an impeccable OST such a disservice!

As an aside, I also struggled with parries on the DC version as Damocles noted. Thought it was just me messing it up, but getting the timing for the bonus stages seemed impossible.

[hanasu]

Yeah the whole hip hop "yo yo yo" thing was amazingly lame and came across a little desperate. I'm surprised the CD case didn't come with a addidas tag still attached to it.

I've never understood this argument. The game is called "Street Fighter." Why do people complain that it has an urban soundtrack? The anime SSF4 intro garbage is what people should really be upset about.

[greg]

I just don't want Greg to think he's wasted his money buying those DC ports...if you like the DC and have a good controller, go enjoy those titles; they are still really damn good.

Oh, not by a mile. I bought both of these DC games at Otakara here in Fuji, where they sell Dreamcast, Saturn, Super Famicom, Famicom, and Game Boy games for 3 for 500 yen. So basically, not even two dollars each, and they're in great condition!

Yeah the whole hip hop "yo yo yo" thing was amazingly lame and came across a little desperate. I'm surprised the CD case didn't come with a addidas tag still attached to it.

I'm with you. I hate hip hop.

[Skykid]

Yeah the whole hip hop "yo yo yo" thing was amazingly lame and came across a little desperate. I'm surprised the CD case didn't come with a addidas tag still attached to it.

I'm with you. I hate hip hop.

You guys are complaining about the options screen and intro 'rap'? Really?

3rd Strike has barely any actual Hip Hop in it, bar that timid example. It's mostly jazzy break beats and DnB, blending Hong Kong James Bond themes with grinding tech (Remy) forboding bass (Hugo round 2) and wind pipes (Gouki).

It's a seminal ST imo.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

I like most of the tracks in 3rd Strike (Gouki's and Urien's are my favourites), but I absolutely can't stand the intro or the character select stuff. That is like retard level rap.

[Ganelon]

It's puzzling that a lot of people seem to remember the 3S soundtrack solely by the 2 hip hop pieces, even more so than folks remembering the MVC2 soundtrack by the 2 R&B pieces.

[greg]

Yo, comin' atcha, know what I'm sayin'? Check it out. Rap sucks. Pandering rap sucks mo', yo.

Yeah, it sucks. But the rest of the music was pretty good, as with standard Capcom stuff.

EDIT:
Enjoy.

[Pretas]

I've heard that some of Third Strike's music was based off preloaded beats on Akai sequencing software.

Note that the rap on the arranged version of the Bonus Stage 2 BGM contains the word "fucking." Somehow Capcom got away with that.

[Skykid]

EDIT:
Enjoy.

Ha ha, that's brilliant.

[D]

EDIT:
Enjoy.

Ha ha, that's brilliant.

A blast from the past. Looking back it seems he has a profound dislike of 2pac music videos it seems.
Nowadays you'll hear rap in supermarkets and such. How times have changed.

[Skykid]

EDIT:
Enjoy.

Ha ha, that's brilliant.

A blast from the past. Looking back it seems he has a profound dislike of 2pac music videos it seems.
Nowadays you'll hear rap in supermarkets and such. How times have changed.

I thought it was ridiculing the vapid nature of R&B?