May 12th, 2010
Posted in 
“Step into the ring with our FIRST Retro Head2Head!”
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| Capcom | DVD |
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| Fighting | Stereo |
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| Release: 10/04/2000 | 3 Sec |
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| ESRB: Teen |
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Retrospect Head2Head: Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. Length: 00:05:55 We go Retro style Head2Head with Street Fighter 3 Third Strike for the Xbox and Sega Dreamcast consoles. Watch the video to see which version is crowned our first retro Head2Head champ. |
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Welcome to the Lens of Truth’s first attempt at a Retrospect Head2Head. Now before anyone gets excited, we decided to start off this new section with a game almost every person should have heard of once in their life, and that’s Street Fighter. With Super Street Fighter IV rocking the industry as we speak, we thought it’s the prime time to focus or lens on its predecessor, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. Stick around as we step back a few years and crown our first retrospect Head2Head champion.
Street Fighter III – New Generation was originally released in 1997 as a coin-operated arcade exclusive. Back then no home console on the market could even attempt a decent port due to the intense graphics processing required to render the insane amount of animations each character held. As with all the other games in the Street Fighter series, Street Fighter III had multiple variants of its original skew, which includes Street Fighter III 2nd Impact and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. These games were produced and developed for the CD-ROM/Cartage based CPS III hardware (See image below for reference), which allowed for more elaborate 2D graphics than the CPS II-based games. In 2000, the Sega Dreamcast version of Street Fighter III 3rd Strike was released, claiming to be an arcade perfect port; four years later, Microsoft made their attempt to claim the same. So the question remains, which version of Street Fighter III 3rd Strike is the total arcade experience.
Graphics/Sound: Before we continue, we would like to share with you that both the Xbox and Dreamcast version of this game were captured using S-Video connections ensuring an even graphical comparison across the boards. Street Fighter III 3rd Strike was the best looking animated 2d fighter around, and for a console to reproduce these graphics was an accomplishment in and of itself. However, one version flexed its graphical powerhouse with pixel perfection while the other fell a little under the bus. The Sega Dreamcast version came out swinging, having a sharper image throughout. As seen in the videos, the characters looked more detailed and more defined, while the Xbox seemed to have some type of filter applied, creating a washed-out look. Furthermore, we compared both versions side by side to the arcade version to distinguish any speculation we had. The Dreamcast version was no doubt a pixel perfect port from the arcade.
Another area the Dreamcast come out on top was with its superior audio. At first, we questioned our audio capture because of how significant the audio differences were between the two versions, but after re-inspection of our captures we confirmed that the audio samples in the video are accurate. The Dreamcast version was more crisp and clear, while the Xbox version seemed muffled.
Performance/Controls: Both version performed flawlessly, accurately replicating the complete arcade feel. Both versions’ combo-systems, parries, and super moves executed to the tee. On the other hand, a bad controller could spoil this game like milk left out for days in the sun. Right off the bat, it’s clear both systems controllers suck for fighting games, period. Luckily, the Dreamcast had an arcade stick available for purchase at the time of this release; also the Xbox had a pretty decent arcade stick of its own. The Xbox introduced the Street Fighter Anniversary Arcade Stick simultaneously with their game’s release, and let it be known it’s one of the best looking and most accurate arcades sticks the industry has to offer. This category ended in a deadlock with each system ensuring an arcade experience.
Loading: Surprisingly, loads times were rather quick on both consoles, clocking in around 2 to 3 seconds. Furthermore, considering the Dreamcast was sporting a 12x maximum speed CD-ROM drive while the Xbox had an 16x maximum speed CD-ROM drive, the Dreamcast held it own in this category. Regardless this category was a tie.
Roll over the image to see the differences
Roll over the image to see the differences
Roll over the image to see the differences
Conclusion, Technical Score and Staff Choice on Page 2.
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oh bad ass! this was an unexpected head2head that i always wanted.
saturn and dreamcast days the games were built from the ground up for the hardware. after that, the games were emulated ports.
i only bought the xbox one to play online. i did that twice.
And the Street fighter III 3rd strike of Playstation 2?
ps2 is pretty much the same as xbox. its blurry with some odd filter, you can unlock an option to turn it off, but it looks worse. ps2 didnt have online play like xbox.
the super street fighter 2 turbo part of the collection was disappointing. no matter what arrangement you picked, or what type of gameplay, you ALWAYS played “Super Turbo” against the CPU.
and the remixed music.. the same music used 9 years earlier on 3do. i was hoping for new coolness.
@kamikaze2052
There would basiclly be no difference. Also, if a game came out on the Xbox and PS2, the Xbox version ALWAYS looked better, and thats the truth!
These retro h2h’s are going to be a blast to look through! Keep it up guys!
Nice one guys people forget that the Dreamcast was by far the most powerful console back then, too bad sega messed it all up.
PS3 DEFINITELY WINS HERE
Seriously, this is a very interesting head 2 head… i kind of miss the good old 1999 dreamcast times
Still have my DC and copy of this game.
I only wish I could find people to play against as everybody seems to prefer #4 now.
It’s really sad that people didn’t buy the Dreamcast back in the day. I’m happy to say that I bought one on launch – it was the first reserve that I ever made too.
Having become a hardcore Sega fan mostly due to having to defend having a Sega Saturn and enjoying it’s games more than the rival PS1 at the time (my ps1 collected dust at the time). I had preordered Sega Dreamcast just days after it was launched in Japan. Man those were the days all of my PS1 buddies were gob smacked at how good it was but the promise of the PS2 really killed it coz they would say oh its fantastic brilliant excellent but the PS2 is going to be better.
SFIII >>>>>>> SFIV.
Comparing the qucik response of SFIII to the slower SFIV is downright insulting. SFIV WISHES it played as good as SFIII.
Cool H2H.
How about doing some SNES to Genesis H2Hs? We know the SNES will win most of the time though.
Genesis and Snes head 2 heads are a matter of personal preference. I had a Snes at the time and I always thought the games looked and sounded better. But now I kinda feel that the Sega Megadrive had its held its own both graphically and sound wise.
Take Mortal Kombat 1 for example in some respects the Snes was graphically more accurate and I loved it back then I even thought it had better sound. But now many years later I love the Megadrive version of Mortal Kombat 1 for its tight controls darker style of graphics and best Mortal Kombat 1 sound track I like it even better than the Arcade original.
The Dreamcast version does NOT perform identically to the arcade version. I don’t know how it is for the Xbox version but I’m pretty sure that Urien and Oro’s unblockables were not in the Dreamcast version.
There usually different variations of the arcade game in itself. Street Fighter games tend to have many revisions in the arcade. Some may allow certain juggles and combos, some don’t. You may have played a different version of the arcade compared to whatever revision the dreamcast version is based on.
I’m talking about Third Strike. Urien and Oro both have unblockables in the arcade and PS2 versions. In the Dreamcast version, the game “auto-corrects” and merely holding back blocks for both sides for the unblockables.
Ima buy a dreamcast now, those consoles kicked ass.
Err, the dreamcast one was actually the worst port out of the 3. A lot of things were unintentionally(?) changed from the arcade version and there was bad input lag compared to it.
Yea, well I’ll take the LOT’s word over yours considering they said they have and played the Arcade version (With an Actual Image!) side by side. Maybe you should check you controller about that lag issues.
yea i never, NO ONE ever had issues with the dreamcast version except dreamcast haters. i have new generation for my supergun and i think the dc version has nicer audio.. but my supergun is basic stereo
i loved the XBOX 1, but there is no console on earth witch is able to win against the awesome Dreamcast! its simply the best console ever!
Nice one guys! The DC is still my fave console, I run it using a VGA box, works really well and is nice and sharp. I have a street fighter game somewhere for it – some weird Japanese special edition with online play (as well as Marvel vs Capcom), so might have to dig it out tonight!
Thanks again, good H2H!
Because of this retroHead2Head…I’m hooking up my Dreamcast and re-working some of my Dudley combos.
thanks for the nostalgia, Lens of Truth.
DC vs XBOX eh?
Heh. I totally expected it to be the PS2 vs DC version. I clean forgot that it came out on Xbox!
Legend has it that the PS2 release is the ‘best’ and most up-to-date revision of 3S for a home console. Not sure where the actual Xbox version stands amongst this?
And it’s true (unfortunately) that the DC version is definitely seen as the lesser version (esp. compared to the PS2) due to changes mentioned earlier. Truth is though, unless your a tourney level pro, do you really care?
And, yeah… SF3 series > SF4 series for life!
I know that your post is over 2 years old, but I did want to correct something after stumbling on this fun article. The first run of Third Strike cabs did have the aforementioned unblockables, but these were patched out of the game entirely with arcade version 990608 which is the final arcade revision of the game. So in this regard, as in every other regard where Street Fighter III: Third Strike is concerned, Dreamcast was the most accurate version.
Before the days of 3SOE, the Dreamcast version was the next go-to after an actual arcade cabinet.
its obvious the dreamcast would look sharper because Xbox 1 could utilizes component for its best image. I understand they wanted to use the same video output, but i have both, tried this, and the xbox version is sharper when using component……obviously.
its like comparing 360 using composite, with a lower console using composite….the older console is built to use composite as its main output for its highest quality, so of course its going to look sharper. Its like running an SNES with composite on a tv, and then running your 360 with composite…the SNES is going to look much sharper.