Street Fighter 3: Third Strike was originally released on May 12, 1999, and here in 2024 it remains one of the most beloved and highly renowned fighting games to ever exist. Part of what makes Third Strike so special and gives it some of its staying power are the visuals, which feature carefully crafted 2D sprites that, when you really pay attention to them, exude tons of expression and personality.
Goh_Billy is an avid curator of sprites from past fighting games, often highlighting the subtle things we seldom see or really pay attention to, and recently we saw Billy share an image featuring a set of sprites from Street Fighter 3: Third Strike that still just look fantastic today. Let’s take a look at Third Strike’s character sprites when a fighter gets shocked by an electricity-based attack.
Now, if you’re familiar with the Street Fighter franchise, then you’ve probably seen the special sprites that appear when a character gets hit with flames or electricity. These unique models stretch as far back as the Street Fighter 2 series, and you’ve seen them most when Dhalsim lands one of his fireballs or Blanka hits electric thunder.
The same idea rolled over to Third Strike, and every character has their own sprite that comes into play whenever they’re shocked.
When it comes to Street Fighter shock sprites, they usually work as follows. A fighter will get hit with an electrical attack causing their body to flash, and during these alternating flashes we see a silhouetted outline of their body and their skeleton prominently on display.
Looking at all of Third Strike’s together in one image, we get to look more closely at some of the little traits that were used to really differentiate between characters and better identify them.
Hugo’s is pretty obvious as he’s the largest character in the game and we see his long hair sticking up and out in all directions, while Akuma still stands in a ready pose despite taking the surge head on.
Even more interesting is that mysterious characters like Q and Twelve can be seen not having visible skeletons, which is clearly meant to keep some of their secrets closer to the vest.
When it comes to a beautiful game like Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, sometimes it’s nice to just slow things down and really appreciate some of the tremendous work that went into the 2D sprites and animation. You can do a little of that by checking out the shock sprites from Goh_Billy below.
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