Street Fighter III
On the 27th of March 1996, Capcom announced that Street Fighter III was in development during a meeting in Tokyo. Production at Capcom on the first game in the series started in 1994, and was initially planned to be a separate fighting game franchise entirely. Street Fighter II series producer Noritaka Funamizu felt fatigued with the Street Fighter franchise due to dwindling sales on home consoles. The emerging 3D fighting game market included titles such as Virtua Fighter. Capcom however insisted to stick with 2D sprites for their games. To this end they started development on the CPS-3 arcade hardware to support higher color counts for said sprites. When executives at the company pushed for a follow-up to II, Funamizu instead wanted to try and make a new game entirely. At this point, producer Tomoshi Sadamoto at the company had started work on a game titled New Generation. Capcom character designer Akira Yasuda felt that the game's roster lacked personality. He asserted the company was likely going to make the game into a Street Fighter title. He suggested pre-emptively to add that franchise's protagonist Ryu to the game's roster. He proved correct, as the game was re-christened Street Fighter III: New Generation.
The main new feature is the ability to parry an opponent's attack by deflecting any incoming attack without receiving damage. At the exact moment an opponent's attack is about to hit his or her character, the player can move the controller toward or down to parry the attack. This leaves the opponent vulnerable for a counterattack. Additionally, this allows the player to defend against Special Moves and even Super Arts without sustaining the normal minor damage that blocking normally would incur. However, parrying requires precise timing. The 1994 fighting game Samurai Shodown II is often credited with the first parry system. The other new feature introduced in Street Fighter III is Super Arts. This is a powerful special move similar to a Super Combo in Super Turbo and the Alpha games. After selecting a character, the player will be prompted to select from one of three character-specific Super Arts to use in battle. Like the Super Combo gauge in previous games, the player has a Super Art gauge which will fill up as the player performs regular and special moves against an opponent. The player can only perform a Super Art once the gauge is filled. Depending on the Super Art chosen by the player, the length of the Super Art gauge will vary. The players can now cancel a special move into a Super Art, a technique borrowed from Street Fighter EX.
Though several other characters were also initially considered for inclusion from the Street Fighter II roster, particularly Ken and Chun-Li, the development team instead chose to focus on a mostly original cast. This proved some difficulty however for Sadamoto as he felt most of the designs were not as well established as those in II. He had particular difficulty in creating female character designs. Yasuda however suggested to make the first female character a ninja, stating Ninjas are cool! While this led to the creation of Ibuki, another idea suggested was to introduce a character that was Yuki in Africa based off model Yuki Uchida. Yasuda designed the character, leading to the creation of Elena, which helped solidify the development team's vision for the rest of the game's roster. As development progressed Ken was later also added to the roster. Meanwhile when choosing a protagonist, they selected an American character, Alex, as they felt martial arts were more popular at the time in America and wanted to target that audience. The finalized cast however still proved difficult to create. Yasuda continued to work on the character designs, attempting to stay within Sadamoto's design constraints unlike previous games where he made the design choices more directly.
The game was first unveiled at the Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association show in September 1996, in the form of a few minutes of footage incorporated into Capcom's PR demo tape. In an interview shortly before this show, Capcom senior planner Shinji Mikami stated that it would be impossible to convert Street Fighter III to any of the home consoles on the market at the time. This prompted rumors that it would be ported to the then-upcoming Panasonic M2. In January 1997, IGN witnessed a demonstration of the game in development on Nintendo 64 and 64DD. IGN and its anonymous insider speculated that the game might join the launch of the upcoming 64DD peripheral in Japan, which was scheduled for late 1997. Capcom referred to the Nintendo 64 release as just a rumor, and Nintendo would coincidentally delay the launch of the 64DD peripheral until December 1999 anyway. Amending Mikami's earlier statement, in late 1997 Capcom said it might be possible to port Street Fighter III to the Sega Saturn if one of the console's RAM expansion cartridges were used. In 1999, Capcom released Street Fighter III: Double Impact for the Dreamcast, a compilation containing the original game and 2nd Impact.
The soundtrack to the first game in the series was released on CD by First Smile Entertainment in 1997. The 3rd Strike original soundtrack was released by Mars Colony Music in 2000 with an arranged version afterward. The soundtrack to 3rd Strike features three songs and announcer tracks by Canadian rapper Infinite. The themes for the games are predominantly drum and bass, with some jazz, hip-hop, house and techno elements. Yuki Iwai worked on the soundtracks for New Generation and 2nd Impact. Hideki Okugawa worked on all three games. The music direction diverged from traditional fighting game scores by incorporating complex electronic rhythms. This approach aimed to match the high-speed action and technical depth of the gameplay mechanics. Critics noted the unique blend of genres as a bold choice that set the title apart visually and sonically.
In Japan, Game Machine listed Street Fighter III as the most successful arcade game of March 1997. However, the game struggled to break even in Japan, with a high budget of 1 billion yen ($8 million), while only selling 1,000 cabinets. Worldwide arcade sales estimates range from between 1,000 and 10,000 units sold. Next Generation reviewed the arcade version of the game, rating it four stars out of five. They stated that The great mystery is why Capcom called this SFIII instead of leaving that honor for a more powerful and revolutionary 3D title. Gameplay in the SF series reached the ceiling of 2D possibilities a while ago. As good as this game admittedly is, besides the stunning graphics there's little to distinguish it from the 11 games before. GamePro similarly remarked that while the graphics are outstanding and the controls are flawless, the game lacks the innovation and series evolution that players expected it to deliver. They also said the new characters are a mix, with some of them seeming like they would be more appropriate for the Darkstalkers series. Famitsu magazine scored Street Fighter III: Double Impact, the Dreamcast version of the game, 31 out of 40.
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Common questions
When was Street Fighter III announced?
Capcom announced that Street Fighter III was in development on the 27th of March 1996 during a meeting in Tokyo. Production at Capcom on the first game in the series started in 1994.
Who developed the character designs for Street Fighter III?
Akira Yasuda served as the character designer for Street Fighter III and worked to create new roster members like Ibuki and Elena. He continued to work on the character designs throughout development while adhering to Tomoshi Sadamoto's design constraints.
What is the main new feature introduced in Street Fighter III gameplay?
The main new feature is the ability to parry an opponent's attack by deflecting any incoming attack without receiving damage. This mechanic allows players to defend against Special Moves and Super Arts without sustaining normal minor damage if timed precisely.
Which console received the Street Fighter III: Double Impact port in 1999?
Capcom released Street Fighter III: Double Impact for the Dreamcast in 1999. This compilation contained the original game and 2nd Impact.
How many arcade cabinets did Street Fighter III sell worldwide?
Worldwide arcade sales estimates for Street Fighter III range from between 1,000 and 10,000 units sold. The game struggled to break even in Japan with a high budget of 1 billion yen ($8 million) while only selling 1,000 cabinets there.