We’ve got expectations for fighting games fairly dialed in here in 2024. It’s not to say developers have perfected the art of optimizing both balance and fun, but we are most definitely standing on some basic lessons (be careful with dive kicks, infinites are bad, jabs shouldn’t be anti-airs, etc.).
Said lessons had to be learned along the way, however, and GuileWinQuote’s latest video is an entertaining watch back through some of the more surprising aspects of Street Fighter 3 Third Strike that threatened to easily tip the balance scales.
For 15 minutes straight GuileWinQuote hits us with fact after fact, supplemented with footage of the action, that stand out to us in 2024 as somewhere between surprisingly good and clearly overpowered.
Dudley can throw a rose via his taunt, for instance, which is intriguing by itself as it sees him toss a 1-damage projectile out onto the screen. Said projectile does have a hitbox and does cause hit stun, meaning that the gentlemanly boxer can use it as a tool when his opponents are waking up to lock them down and steal offense he’d otherwise not get.
What’s more, taunts in Third Strike all offer bonuses, and Dudley’s gives him a 25% damage increase on his next combo. You can begin to see how perhaps these facets of his taunt might be balanced by themselves, but add up to some brutal (and perhaps unintended or unforeseen) potential when combined.
Other basic truths, such as the fact that no move in the game is technically safe thanks to the presence of parry and red parry, strike the more modern Street Fighter player as fairly foreign and usher us to consider how playing in such an atmosphere would differ from what we’re used to today.
Give the full video a watch below as you either explore some new/old territory of franchise history or take a nostalgic look back at a time where things were notably different. Let us know what your takeaways and reactions are in the comments.