Intensely loyal; die-hard; Stubbornly resistant to improvement or change; Extremely graphic or explicit. It's a word that most rabid video game fans toss around like midgets on St. Patrick's Day. A word that invokes a collective sigh from both the green "I know how to use Wolverine and Strider!" collection of newbies, and veteran Colecovision Zaxxon experts alike. Only one title can befit that rare sects of gamers who spend more time trying to unveil the mysteries of the Orochi Blood Riot than eating, sleeping, and relieving themselves combined. Yes friends they are the hardcore, and while they may scare the bejeezus out of the normal folk, they have been and always will be looking for their next 2D fighting sandwich. Luckily the Dreamcast has been THE system to own for a hardcore fighting game fan in the year plus since it's inception. Ever the most notably if you like your polygons flat and your backgrounds parallaxed, the 128-bit console has been a fanatic's dream. Seemingly tailor-made for two-dimensional white knuckle competitions, the Dreamcast appears to have a new slugger every other month. And that keeps old-school fan boys like myself sobbing in grand poobah thank you's to the mighty gods of hand-drawn wisdom. The biggest supporter for the die-hard so far has to be Capcom. Practically vice-president of the sales department at Sega headquarters, the kings of all things Gouki have been chugging away at that development machine nonstop. By the end of the year, our Dreamcasts will have already seen three separate Street Fighter titles, doubling to six if you want to count the line of "versus" games. That doesn't even begin to include their groups of shooters, robot simulations, quirky anime spin-off's, and a certain 2D wannabe by the name of Cannon Spike. Let's face it people, Capcom likes to make the hardcore happy. And that's exactly what they've tried to do with their latest disc, Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Aptly named because of its status as the third update to the third game in the series, this 2D fighter also happens to be the third Street Fighter game to make an appearance on Dreamcast (argh... too many threes... brain melting... need pizza). Interesting foot notes aside, the fanatical Capcom addict would have to be the only market that the mega-company had in mind when putting this port together. Good as it may be, we already saw this when it came out four months ago as Street Fighter III: Double Impact. Not that there hasn't been a healthy dose of noticeable improvements. For starters the character roster has been increased by five, adding a handful of increasingly bizarre fighters to the 19-character universe. The most famous of which happens to be the world famous Chinese cop bent on avenging the death of her father (that's Chun-Li if you're still scratching your head in chimpanzee amazement). The remaining four newbies include Twelve (an eerie shape-shifting ooze man), Makoto (an ass-blasting karate girl), Q (a mysterious metal-faced freak), and Remy (just some dude that needs anger management classes). A sordid group to be sure, the new cast members are pretty cool and can quickly test even the most experienced Street Fighter hit man. Also new are a couple of technical adjustments by way of the crack Capcom programming team. Utilizing what's called the "Progressive Hit Frame System", the accuracy of your blows to a particular collision box (those are the areas on a character where the computer can recognize whether or not a hit has been landed effectively) are microscopically accurate. While this may not seem like a big deal to many of you, just think back to those times when your Ryu jumped in with that Fierce punch a little too deep, and seemingly passed through old Kenny-boy's head without so much as a scratch. Nice addition. Other new features include the "Grade Judge System", which ranks your performance from match to match and awards you points that can later be used to unlock secrets. There's also an all new strike called the Leap Attack than can prove quite useful against defense-based opponents. And if that still isn't enough for you, Chun-Li has made her triumphant return the arena as well (Yes, I know I mentioned it already, but this is in case you missed it the first time). The most impressive new option to be added however, has to be the "System Direction" feature. With it, you can completely customize your own Street Fighter experience and later the rules of play. The powers that fuel parrying, blocking, damage, throws, super arts, combos, and more can all be altered to fit your model of perfection. A great idea for any title, I'd like to see this kind of addition in many a future Dreamcast game (you can bet that this isn't the last time Capcom will use it). So if Street Fighter III: Double Impact was so cool, and this game adds a bunch of the good stuff, why shouldn't everyone run and pick up their copy today? I'm glad you asked, just sit back down and hold your horses there Tex, let me explain. Graphically, things have been downgraded. Searching my logic banks for an explanation, I'm sorry to say that I have yet to come up with one. I mean seriously, when was the last time a follow-up was graphically inferior to the game before it? Heavily pixilated, and seemingly blander in color when compared to Double Impact, Third Strike has lost a bit of its visual edge. It's still animated rather nicely and the same great character designs from the last game are in there, but there's still something missing. Was there a RAM limitation issue with the new characters being thrown in there? A strange bit of code that made things go awry? Whatever the reason may be, I just don't get it. Another factor that pushes this one into the "fanatic's only" shelf would be its speed issues. Not that the game isn't overly slow to begin with, it's just that it's not up to the same kind of pace as the more recent releases of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Capcom vs. SNK. Apparently matched in speed with the Championship Edition of Street Fighter II, Third Strike may not be quick enough for the adrenalin-charged mainstream audience that has already had to plod through Double Impact once before. On the whole, Street Fighter III: Third Strike in truly an engaging fighter, that is easily worthy of just about anyone's private collection... that is unless you already have Double Impact. Where upon it becomes a different matter entirely. Aimed at the more vicious of gamers who need to have every version of all their favorite titles ever made, this is one of those definitive hardcore titles. If you don't have the Impact disc from a couple of months back go ahead and pick it up, but if you've already nabbed the first game however, scroll on back to the top of the page and reread that definition. You have a decision to make.
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