Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is often considered one of the greatest Street Fighter games ever made and even ranks for many people as the greatest fighting game of all time. Its intense neutral game, parry mechanic, and steep learning curve make it a prime example of what a fighting game should be, and thus, it remains a legendary entry in the Street Fighter franchise.
Game developer and fighting game researcher 2Dee4ever recently took Third Strike and combined it with a tag mechanic to envision what it might look like with influence from games such as Marvel vs. Capcom and Street Fighter X Tekken. The end result actually looks incredible.
Now, what we see here takes inspiration from several different places. We see a 3v3 set up like a traditional Marvel vs. Capcom title (ala Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom 3), but we don’t see the use of assists like we would in those titles.
Instead, this re-imagining of Third Strike uses something more akin to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’s Active Tag mechanic where you start a move with a character, then tag in the next character to continue the sequence while the first fighter still performs their last move. This is also very similar to how tagging worked in a game like Street Fighter X Tekken.
The clip we see here features a team of Sean, Ibuki, and Makoto as they perform a big touch-of-death combo on Q. Sean kicks things off with a cross up and a quick string into his Hurricane Kicks, which buys Ibuki time to run in and take the baton.
Ibuki gets a full jump in extension here, using one of her target combo and her leaping kicks to lock the opponent down once more to make way for Makoto.
Makoto runs in and nails Q with a massive juggle combo using multiple supers, and when all is said and done we see 36 hits on the combo scoreboard.
There are other interesting influences sprinkled into this fun project. We see that the fighters have the ability to run, which looks to be from Capcom vs. SNK 2, and 2Dee4ever even makes mention of a “Mega Crash” mechanic from Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, which acts similarly to Bursts from Guilty Gear.
Imagine… What “if” Street Fighter Third Strike was a tag fighter FGC?
Sean x Ibuki x Makoto pic.twitter.com/pw6zZdO6Ao— 2Dee (@2Dee4ever) May 15, 2024
It’s unclear whether or not the creator intends to make this into something fully playable or if it’s just an interesting exercise in creativity. Either way, what we have already looks pretty darn awesome.
