(Originally posted in August,2016)
(1997, Arcade/1999, Dreamcast)
I was privileged to experience the Street Fighter 2 phenomenon which cemented the 1-on-1 fighter and gave rise to the last major hurrah of American arcades. The series was one of the hottest titles anywhere in the early 90s, then gradually lost relevance after a few too many small updates while plenty of other companies, even Capcom themselves, were taking the genre much further. By 1997, I almost forgot about seeing a "real" sequel to SF2. Somehow missing the news that Street Fighter 3 was indeed on the way (I'll blame my new N64), one day I visited the mall and noticed a new game in the middle of the arcade, placed in a deluxe style cabinet and surrounded by a small crowd. With a giant THREE written on the marquee and the words "Street Fighter" in tiny print, my immediate reaction was that this had to be yet another shameless ripoff by a competitor. Once I recognized Ryu in an unbelievably colorful and smooth 2D glory that wouldn't be surpassed for years, I knew one of the most anticipated sequels of the 90s, Street Fighter 3: New Generation had finally arrived. A quality game that found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time...everything from arcade operators rejecting expensive new hardware, difficulty in porting the game to home consoles, rushed development, the drastically changed cast and more meant it would take years until the trilogy of Street Fighter 3 games got their deserved recognition...
Here you're only able to use one of three selectable Super Arts (super moves) per match, fights are slower and have an overall simpler gameplay system than the concurrently running Street Fighter Alpha/Zero series. New Generation still clicked better with me thanks to the heavy, tangible feel of the smoothly animating characters, more of an emphasis on wits than combos and the possibility of parrying almost any attack by tapping towards it at exactly the right moment. Sensing the opposing player's intent and pulling off a parry to instantly change the dynamics of the fight is as satisfying as anything else in gaming. 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike went on to introduce more characters and gameplay features, so why bother with the first? Bare bones as it is, is still has a collection of some of the most beautiful stages and accompanying music within a single fighting game....
- The fight is set in a cave dwelling that blasts mysterious yet highly charged music. There lives the ancient Senjutsu master Oro, who is kept in good company by all his cats, birds and a laid back slobber dog. He roughly plays like a Guile/Charlie style charge character; his small, sinewy frame balanced by a moveset that's tricky for opponents to negotiate. Though a hermit who looks like he has one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel...by surrounding oneself with so many animals, beautiful stalactites, underground waterfalls and being so skilled that he can use magic to an extent, life doesn't seem bad at all.
- My very first memory of the game in action, Elena's stage starts off on a dizzyingly high mountain bridge offering views of entire rivers, forests and fields. After the first round, the earth shakes, a falcon comes straight at you like Bowser in Super Mario World and the bridge collapses to bring the fight hundreds of feet below. The scenery is rich with a smoothly animating waterfall, all sorts of African wildlife and spectators that include a fat villager comically always about to fall over and a masked, wild haired bongo player...I think that might even be Adon fighting on a log bridge! The feeling of blunt force when connecting Elena's mallet smash special is still one of the most satisfying moves in any fighting game.
- The music to Yun and Yang's stage is rather abrasive, but the backgrounds make up for it. The outdoor market is colorful, packed with details and bustling with energy. Back in the 90s, when anime was a fleeting thing seen in magazines and late night TV, me and many others wondered if that was infact Master Roshi making a cameo. The rest of the fight takes place in a beautiful, multi tiered art gallery decorated with a fish tank, delicate excavated statues and inviting architecture. The horrified shop keeper appears to be the same character who appears in Street Fighter V's Hong Kong stage.
- The character of Ibuki herself is almost drowned out by some of the most commanding music in the game that's deeply relaxing despite the powerful drums, funky keyboard solos and a persistent Japanese flute. One of those stages you'd just love to step into and fully explore, the lush ninja village transitions from day>dusk>night and is filled with all sorts of interesting characters that I wish made it to the main cast. You have a stoic watchman modeled after Benkei, a studious scientist type, Genki of the original Street Fighter and even a young monk who looks an awful lot like Krillin. Back to the character herself, throwing ninja stars down from the air and replicating a shoryuken with her heel makes Ibuki one of the more interesting characters to learn.
- Perhaps fatefully missing each other by minutes, Ryu and Ken share the entrance and inner quarters of an onsen. The music is paradoxical in how deliberately laid back it sounds while conjuring up the sense of deep, otherworldly focus and energy found in the endorphin rush of an all day training session. The outside of the onsen sits atop a hill that overlooks Mount Fuji and a small town full of visitors, yet low key. The green trees, pink sakura, blue sky, and straw colored buildings blend together beautifully and you haven't yet even entered the springs...
The outdoor onsen knocks it out of the park as one of the most beautiful sets within all of Street Fighter. You fight on the wooden planks leading into a natural hot spring, established right in front of the quiet, powerful beauty of the forests and mountains. Women, sumo and pro-wrestlers share the multi-level paradise with a troop of monkeys, a few of whom seem to be on staff. Moss and carefully placed fixtures further decorate one of the impressive takes on nature you can get out of a videogame. Easy to miss, hidden on the far left is the curious beginning of a tranquil river. I'm enjoying everything so much, I don't question the enormous 20 foot bear.
- One of the Street Fighter 3's fan favorites, Dudley emphasizes speed and agility over Balrog's power and reach. The music's tempo changes not only reflect the change from an intense late night rain to a pleasant morning between rounds, but also a skilled boxer's ability to effortlessly switch between powerful ferocity and a resourceful calm.
- Looking more like Darkstalkers than Street Fighter, Necro's train is a scene of spooky fun as it rushes through the endless, dark mountains. Not able to wait until reaching their destination, a scientist is already performing experiments on what appears to be a corpse while another amuses herself with electrical prods. Until it's finally time to get off, the gazes of the relatively normal octopus and squid provide moral support.
- Alex and Sean both have completely different takes on New York City. Alex grapples in a cramped and trashed alleyway that looks like a guaranteed mugging, yet still manages to seem inviting with inspired graffiti and energetic, cheery jazz music in the background. I never really dug the the xylophone until Capcom went nuts with it in the mid 90s; this stage being a prime example. Ken's disciple Sean fights in a more open and cheery Christmas themed plaza, which is reflected in his remix of Alex's theme. All the intense pink and purple shades work with the fish eye lens warping of the buildings to make the least outrageous of stages otherworldly nonetheless.
- The fight against (the still mysterious in 2016) Gill takes place dangerously close to an ocean of violent lava, dinosaur bones and the ruins of an ancient civilization. With the drums faster than ever, the music is formidable yet sometimes cools down with confident, smooth horns that briefly reveal the paradise Gill promises the world. He's tough and very annoying, but vulnerable to lots of low poking attacks.
Odd as it sounds, something about New Generation that especially struck me is the very slight sense of unease that quietly lurks beneath the gorgeous presentation. In the pre-match, fights are preceded by a short tune that instantly goes from overly energetic to a cold, abrupt end as lightning blasts though a neon-armageddon sky. The almost gluttonously beautiful animation, color and scenery makes the transfer to the post match scene all the more brutal, with the losers looking far more beat up and pained than in the Street Fighter 2 days. Most alarmingly, aside from Ryu and Ken, the iconic duo who barely made it in the game, all the other favorites you grew up have been mysteriously wiped out with no explanation. Despite not getting popular into the mid-2000's, Street Fighter 3 fit just perfectly with the decadent late 90's American pop culture of Monday Night Wrestling, Marilyn Manson, Jerry Springer, Alien Autopsy, anime, the blossoming of personal computers, the internet, Y2K and even the possible End of the World. In the middle of all these things that felt overly indulgent and even frightening, there also was the richly illustrated yet unsettling Street Fighter 3.
As for the port quality, on the Dreamcast it looks and loads more or less identical to the arcade, but extensive time with both reveal the colors are slightly washed out and the sprites have a slight distortion after being rescaled, but it's nothing to fuss too much over. New Generation was never the hottest or most relevant fighter, but with the simplest game system in the trilogy, it's a good place to get started with the SF3 series. You'll more likely be hooked by the important features, sizable cast, complex mechanics and relative balance and popularity of 3rd Strike: Online. But by playing it long enough, however stylish it is, the cold, barren subways, construction zones, swamps and graves may drive you to seek respite in the slightly unnerving but lush, lively worlds of New Generation and it's big brother, Second Impact...
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