Street Fighter 3 2nd Impact Giant Attack ((FULL))
Alternate Company Equivalent: Remy is Capcom's take of a typical SNK design that you might see in The King of Fighters or its ilk.
Ambidextrous Sprite: Amazingly averted for a 2D game. Gill's half-red half-blue body does not switch colors when he turns around. He was deliberately designed this way so that Capcom could show off the power of their CPS-3 board. Although, Oro doesn't have that kind of luck, as his bound arm and which shoulder his clothing hangs from switches sides.
Anti-Frustration Features: If you continue a set number of times in 3rd Strike, the CPU's difficulty level will be bumped down a level.
Artificial Brilliance: On higher difficulty settings, the AI is capable of red parrying, something that even highly-skilled players can have trouble mastering. This includes being able to parry out of Urien's Aegis Reflector, which is entirely possible for a human to pull off, but extremely difficult. AI Ryu and Akuma are noticeably more competent than most other opponents.
Artificial Stupidity: Despite its reputation for being one of the most challenging and technically demanding games in the series, some of the AI opponents consistently make really dumb decisions even on the highest difficulty settings: Ken will consistently throw out the light, medium, and fierce versions of his Shoryuken in succession whenever he's far enough away, despite it having no tactical benefit or sense whatsoever.
Sean will frequently do a double light kick followed by a Ryuubi Kyaku, despite it being extremely easy to punish and parry.
Makoto will bust out her Abare Tosanami and especially Tanden Renki at random. Both Super Arts require some setup or predicting your opponent, and doing them randomly just leaves her wide open. Poorly using the latter is especially ridiculous, as it gives her a massive attack boost in exchange for removing her ability to block incoming attacks.
The most egregious example is Twelve, who loves taunting almost as much as Dan. Twelve's taunt turns him invisible, but the startup animation is ridiculously slow and leaves him wide open to attack. There are very few instances where a human player can get away with this safely, but the AI tries doing it randomly. Even if he does manage to turn invisible, tracking him down and hitting back into visibility is very easy. All this predictable, mindboggling stupidity comes from the same AI that is capable of red parrying.
Ascended Meme: 3rd Strike Online Edition has a trial where you have to replicate Daigo's famous parry and finish.
Badass Adorable: Ibuki and Elena. Their cheerful personalities are balanced with their incredible combat prowess. Chun-Li also qualifies due to her updated laughing win animation; not only will she jump and cheer, but she'll even blush if you hold the Start button when you win.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: The way the Elena and Ibuki are injured in New Generation and 2nd Impact after losing sees them having little body damage while showing off some fanservice in their own way.
Boss Rush: In 3rd Strike, there's a way to glitch the arcade mode into turning all of the opponents into Gill.
Bowdlerise: Also counts as All in the Manual, No Export for You, and Guide Dang It!. The entire backstory of Street Fighter III and information on the Secret Society/Illuminati were strongly withheld from being known outside of Japan during its release era, and in tandem with III's then lukewarm reception, character information in console release manuals, especially Gill and Urien's backstories, were presented extremely vague as if to not stir controversy and were sometimes mixed in with localization misinformation that muddied up actual canon. It was only into the 2010s by translation from GameFAQ plot guides, transcribing efforts by the Street Fighter Wiki, and Street Fighter V, that helped to bring more exposure on Street Fighter III's events as a whole.
The Cameo: Take a closer look at Ryu's New Generation hot springs stage. Linn Kurosawa from Alien vs. Predator is sharing the pool with Chun-Li, who would later return as a playable character in 3rd Strike.
Infinite, who recorded the vocal songs for 3rd Strike, is also the game's announcer.
Central Theme: As Third Strike reveals, to Fight For the Future. III in its entirety is all about the "new generation" of fighters, and in the 1990s upon the Turn of the Millennium, was all about a changing world with anticipation and possibility for the new millennium of the 2000s. This is further cemented by its villains, who wish to take the future of the world and mankind for themselves and their own designs.
Character Roster Global Warming: About 20 characters and two (possibly three) big guys (Alex, Hugo and possibly Q).
Cherry Tapping: Several characters have taunts that also register as light hits: Dudley's rose is one of the most iconic in the series, if not all of the fighting game genre. It's not only a fast projectile, but it's stylish.
Sean can do the same with his basketballs, but it's much slower and awkward.
Ken's brash hand gesture can hit twice if you're close enough.
Ibuki's hop registers as a throw at close range, but can be parried like a hit.
Urien's Ground Pound can induce a knockdown status.
Elena's does a dance move that can hit low, launch the target up, and hit them as they're falling.
Makoto and Yang's taunts can only do single, slow taps at close range.
Necro and Yun can taunt continuously as long as you hold the buttons down and they don't get hit. It's entirely possible to KO a cornered opponent by doing multi-taunt combos.
This can be taken to the logical extreme by using Twelve's X.C.O.P.Y. Super Art in a mirror match. It allows Twelve to change into his opponent and gain their basic moveset and taunt stat boosts, but without the ability to use their EX moves or Super Arts. In a mirror match, that means Twelve will simply change colors, lose his voice, and be cut off from some best parts of his already mediocre moveset. He'll still go through that slow transformation animation that leaves him wide open, despite it being completely pointless. The cherry on top is that it doesn't allow him to turn invisible, let alone get any stat boosts from taunting. Essentially, this is the weakest version of arguably the worst character in the game. It's highly unlikely, but still possible to win in this state.
Cliffhanger Wall: For over two decades, this game was the furthest down the franchise timeline, as the two sequels following it are interquels between II and this game. It wouldn't be until 2023's Street Fighter 6 that the series would go past the events of III.
Close-Range Combatant: Alex, Hugo, Dudley, Elena, Makoto, and Q all specialize in close range combat. They make up for their lack of range with high damage attacks, better throws, combos, and anti-air options, and fast ground speeds.
Colon Cancer: The 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike portion of the second and third title, respectively, are sometimes treated as separate titles instead of being part of the main title.
Compilation Rerelease: Double Impact for the Dreamcast can't really count since it's the only way the first two versions of Street Fighter III even got released at the time. The only Street Fighter III game that would be revisited after the Dreamcast would be 3rd Strike. It wouldn't be until 30th Anniversary Collection where they'd ever officially see the light of day again, alongside 3rd Strike, which is the only true compilation of Street Fighter III's entire lineage.
Cute Bruiser: Makoto is the smallest character, but she hits absurdly hard and has one of the easiest 100% "Touch of Death" combos in the game.
Die, Chair, Die!: Certain stages allow for this ranging from causing furniture in the background to bounce after a powerful attack to causing a character to be knocked into a different part of the level for another one of the rounds.
Difficult, but Awesome: Mastering the parrying mechanic can make a huge difference. That goes double for red parrying, which involves blocking and then parrying parts of multi-hit attacks. If you're skilled enough, you can No-Sell almost every attack in the game.
Necro's seemingly slow, awkward moves make him potentially nigh unstoppable when his opponent is in the corner.
If timed well, Oro's juggling combos can completely shut down a match. He also has special versions of all three of his Super Arts, but they require you to fully charge the EX meter beforehand. That means scrounging for as much meter as you can, and letting the match go on longer than what's really practical. His standing fierce kick has relatively little range, but it can rack up stun damage very quickly.
With good charge partitioning and buffering, Urien's tackles and Aegis Reflectors can completely overwhelm a cornered opponent.
The same can be said for Hugo. Mastery of the parrying system and devastating throws and anti-airs go a long way, indeed.
Twelve's X.C.O.P.Y. Super Art demands that you have knowledge of the other characters' movesets, but given that you can still make use of their taunt-granted buffs while mimicked, he can become a force to be reckoned with. His air dashing, move canceling properties, and clever spacing can be lethal if your opponent is unaccustomed to fighting him.
Q's moveset lacks variety, but makes great use of the parrying system and defensive strategies. Some of his attacks, if timed well, combo in very unexpected ways. Check it out.
In 3rd Strike, Elena is typically overlooked due to her limited range, slow startup on some of her moves, seemingly low priority, and clunky hitbox. But hiding underneath all of those flaws is easily one of the best offensive rushdown characters in the entire game. This is due to a healthy dose of Confusion Fu, as she has some absurd mixups, and most opponents are unaccustomed to fighting her, and the fact that several of her attacks - both regular and EX - can be easily comboed into each other. If she connects with one of her aerial combos on an opponent and follows it up properly, she can rack up tons of damage and induce stun status in a matter of seconds. She also has an exceptional kara throw. Lastly, if her Brave Dance Super Art fully connects, it is slightly stronger than Chun-Li's Houyoku Sen Super Art.
Easter Egg: As 3rd Strike was supposed to be the final Street Fighter game, there were several secrets put in for people to discover: Chun-Li will blush during her "Yatta!" victory animation if you press Start immediately after winning the match.
Dudley's Rolling Thunder can be changed to a dash if you hold hold forward and all three punches.
Alex's will do an alternate version of his Hyper Bomb Super Art if the opponent is facing away when he connects with it.
Elena's Healing can be canceled by pressing all three punch buttons at the same time.
Sean, Dudley, and Ibuki's projectiles (the basketball, rose, and kunai) are all physical objects instead of ki. As such, they cancel each other out if they collide.
Hugo's Hammer Mountain can be delayed by holding down a punch button. If you hold it down long enough, the move will be canceled entirely.
Oro has EX versions of all of his Super Arts, including a Dragon Ball Z-style Spirit Bomb. You need to fully charge his meter and use all three punch buttons to trigger them.
Ibuki's hopping taunt has properties of a light attack and a throw at close range; she'll jump over the opponent's shoulder and give a little wave. It can even be used to stop some oncoming attack in mid-animation.
Necro and Yun can taunt continuously until you let go of the buttons or they get hit.
Makoto's taunt is actually the first part of three animations; you have to keep holding down the buttons to see the entire thing.
Makoto also has hidden taunt that only activates if you input the taunt directly after doing a Hayate. Unlike most other taunts in the game, it doesn't have any practical use.
Hugo's taunts have a few variations depending on the input. The first two versions boost his stats. But if you hold down the Start button and taunt, Poison will walk onscreen and do her own taunt.
Alex's Flash Chop, Hugo's Giant Palm Bomber, Yun's Kobokushi, and Yang's Byakko Soshoda can cancel out projectiles as long as the attacks connect at the same time.
Chun-Li can do her aerial stomp up to 10 times in a row in corners, and can wall jump as well.
Urien can do an alternate version of his Aegis Reflector if you trigger it with all three punch buttons.
You can control the trajectory of Sean's basketball during his opening animation; if done correctly, you can hit any character with it, not just Elena. If Sean taunts during a match, you can hit him out of the animation before he catches the ball, and it'll go flying harmlessly across the screen.
If you defeat three human opponents with Yang, his cat will appear in the next match, and all subsequent consecutive matches that you win.
You can alter the difficulty level of the parrying bonus round by holding certain button combinations when the "Parrying" message appears onscreen.
Remy has several incredibly detailed Idle Animations that you'll probably never see due to him being a charge character and the time limits in each round. The only way to see them all is to go into practice mode and just watch him. The one you're most likely encounter in an actual fight is when he brushes his long hair away from his face with his hand while he's crouching. If this happens enough times, he'll get annoyed, take a deep breath, and blow a strand of hair away instead.
If Twelve uses his X.C.O.P.Y. Super Art during the SUV bonus round, you'll get a unique animation of it clutching its head in pain and the move won't activate.
EX Special Attack: Introduced in 2nd Impact. By pressing two buttons of the same type while performing a special move and spending half of a meter, you can perform a stronger version of said special move. Note that "half of a meter" means the exact cost varies depending on your chosen Super Art, since different ones have differently sized meters.
Fragile Speedster: Ibuki is the fastest character in the game. She relies on quick mixup combos that are hard to parry and counter, and has solid ground and aerial strategies. She has a high learning curve, but she's nearly unstoppable in the right hands... as long as she doesn't get hit. She has the fourth worst health in the game, and can have trouble rebuilding lost momentum. A heavy hitter or anyone with anti-air options can crush her in seconds.
Game-Breaking Bug: The arcade version of 3rd Strike with revision 990512 (dated May 12, 1999) had a bug that causes the game to restart if Ken defeats Makoto using his neutral throw. This was fixed on revision 990608 (dated June 8, 1999).
Genre Mashup: III's soundtrack goes for a more hip hop, jazz, and overall 1990s influenced feel, while 3rd Strike alone kicks this up to eleven and upgrades all sorts of genres with a beat with drum and bass-styled remix backing. Elena's theme, for example, mixes up African drums with house music while throwing in some saxophone sounds, and Q's theme can only be described as funky X-Files music. As many have said, III's frontier into new sounds and keeping it up to date helped to put the "Street" in Street Fighter.
Glass Cannon: Akuma is gradually nerfed every time he's playable. He loses most of his lengthy Alpha 3 combos in the transition to 2nd Impact, along with a considerable portion of his health. 3rd Strike removes the borderline broken combos (of which nearly every character has) along with his ground roll. This final version has slightly reduced damage, and his health is the absolute lowest of the roster. A heavy hitter like Chun-Li needs only a couple of combos to take him out. To make up for this, Akuma is given one more Super Art - bringing the total to 5 - that can be triggered whenever his meter is completely full. He has great priority and combos, better control over his teleports, and variations on his dive kicks/throws. It's rather telling that despite his pathetic health, he's still considered a high tier character.
Yun and Yang. Yun is an absolute terror in matches due to great combos, speed, and dive kick tactics. He's especially deadly if he's using his Gen'ei Jin Super Art, which basically lets him juggle his target with impunity until the meter runs out. Yang doesn't have as many good combos or speed, but he hits hard and racks up stun damage quickly. He thrives by understanding spacing, being patient, and punishing his opponents' mistakes. Despite all of this, these Bash Brothers have the least amount of health after Akuma. Their strengths also rely on momentum; if you know how to block or parry competently, you can shut down most of their best tactics, and then destroy them.
Makoto can be turned into one if you use her Tanden Renki Super Art. It adds a 25% stat boost to her already high attack power, but at the expense of her ability to block. Using it recklessly will end a match very quickly, and usually not in Makoto's favor.
Hermit Guru: Oro is an Old Master from South America. While the location of his grotto in New Generation and 2nd Impact is never specified, it's based on the real-life tepui caves found in the Guiana Highlands, most commonly in Venezuela and western Guyana. This is fitting with Oro's distant and mysterious nature; the tepui caves are among the last unexplored regions of the world. It's not until 3rd Strike that he's relocated to an entirely different stage that's based in Brazil.
Idle Animation: The game runs at 60 fps, and animators went all out to make the characters move as fluidly as possible. This includes when they're standing still. While every fighter looks awesome, some, particularly a few who were added in 3rd Strike, got extra attention: Remy has at least half a dozen variations of his standing idle animations which he'll cycle through. These usually involve slightly shifting his stance, flexing his fingers, or glaring at his opponent. When he's crouching, he'll eventually brush the hair away from his eyes with his hand. If he does that enough times, he'll get annoyed, take a deep breath, and blow a strand away. But since he's a charge character and there's a time limit in matches, the only way you can see all of them is in practice mode.
Makoto's gi will ripple as some increasingly Dramatic Wind picks up.
Ibuki is constantly making hand seals by slightly moving her fingers.
Both Q and Oro's eyes will briefly glow or change color, respectively.
Elena never stops dancing during a match, even in her crouching animation.
Alex keeps flexing his fingers, especially in his crouching animation.
Yun will adjust his baseball cap every five seconds that he's idle.
The Illuminati: Is actually Gill's organization.
Jack of All Stats: Ryu, as usual. He has all the essentials, such as the Hadoken for a projectile, Shoryuken as an anti-air, the Hurricane Kick, etc. His speed is completely average, attacks are simple, and his inputs and hit confirms are easy to learn. His EX moves are also a great introduction into how the mechanic works. It's not until you start delving into parrying, super jumps, and stun damage that you find out how effective