Title - "Street Fighter Zero 3"
Alternative title(s) - "Street Fighter Alpha 3"
Genre(s) - Fighting - 2D
Platform(s) - Arcade, Playstation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance and Saturn

Well, this is the last game of the "Zero" part of the "Street Fighter" timeline. When it orignally came out in 1998, was it heavily rushed? Even the ports, which had the extras it needed didn't feel complete. It wasn't until "Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper" when it finally said that the game as well as the "Zero" part of the timeline fully complete. As for the Game Boy Advance version, this is the weird version because of the characters that were in here, Yun, Maki and Eagle, that ruined the flow of the story.

Whether you want to believe it or not, the batch of main stories here are true. Well, the non-evil main stories at least. I will not go into debates, as there is already a guide that explains just about every detail.

For the roster, everyone from the second "Zero" game has returned. As for the new characters, I'll group them up. I told you about Eagle for the people that appeared in the first "SF" game. From the "II" saga, you have the characters that did not appear in a "Zero" game up to this point. I told you about Yun for the "III" saga. From the "Final Fight" series, you have Maki, which I told you about already and Cody, who is now wearing a prison outfit because of his knack of beating up people a lot. (Yare yare.) For new characters, you have the upcoming wrestler Nanakawa Rika/Rainbow Mika and you have the "Sakura Ganbaru" (a djin manga in which the title means "Sakura Does Her Best" and a djin I have not read yet) character of Kanzaki Karin, the first djin character to appear in a game that's not a djin game (as far as I know). Oh. I also forgot that besides Cammy, Vega also has 12 other soldiers, all named after months, and two of them are part of the roster: Juni and Juli (which means "June" and "July" respectively in German if you don't know).

Fun - 6

Usually, when I think of the "Zero" games, I'd expect to have the usual fun. Well, did I get the fun I had before? I wish. I can list so many reasons here, but that's what the other categories are for. At least it has a lot of the characters I like seeing.

Oh yeah. At first, it seems that battling 10 characters (or more for some people) towards Vega (or "The fight is all" guy if you are Vega) can be irritating, as the computer is hard, but after a while, it's not so bad.

Life - 6

Again, see the sections below.

Control - 7

Sure, you still have the same six button format. Sure, you still have the power bars. Sure, you still have the timer. Sure, you can still roll recover with two punches or two kicks. So, why can't I give a high score this time? Where do I begin?

The first big change you're going to notice is the system selection. They are labeled Z-ism, X-ism and V-ism. The Zero system/Z-ism is like the previous "Zero" games, except that you can't start variable combinations, which is now a punch and kick of the same degree. The X system/X-ism is the system used in "Super Street Fighter II X". The Variable system/V-ism is like the previous "Zero" games, except that you don't gain access to super combos and the Zero counter, which is now forward with both a punch and a kick of the same degree. They all have their ups and down.

You'll notice that there's a guard bar also. Choosing your system is important because this affects the length of your guard bar. Should your bar be empty, it leads to a guard crush and if you thought that was bad, the bar gets shorter after each guard crush.

Unlike the previous games, to throw, you need to press two buttons of the same blow. While this means a more better flow in terms of combinations and less accidental throws, I'm left wondering, "Since when did the 'Zero' series become 3D?" Also, there's a juggle system that comes out of random hits and to get out of it, should you get hit, press two buttons of the same blow. I never did like this system.

I so hate the changes. At least there are still six buttons, right? Right?

Story - 6

While there is a story, it feels all messed up. The endings have that weird feeling. Oh well.

Audio - 7

Capcom placed in a risky move by having an all-new soundtrack with a techno touch. I'm all for techno, but there are songs that should have never been replaced. I mean, sure I like a bunch of them like Karin's, Ken's, Nash's and Vega's, but I wanted to hear Ry's old theme again. The sound effects are still there.

The new voice samples are a mixed bag. While characters like Ken and Nash have better samples, some characters have poorer samples this time around like Chun-Li. I don't know if Miyamura Yko-san, who is most well-known as the actress of Asuka in "Evangelion", was forcing herself too hard to have new samples or not, but Chun-Li did sound much better in the first two games. Speaking of which, instead of her playing as Rose too, they have Neya Michiko-san, who is most well-known as "Gunsmith Cats's" Rally's voice actress, which is a nice change. Uh, I don't think Yamadera Kichi-san, who at this point previously played as characters like "Justice Gakuen's" Daigo and "Ranma's" Ryma, wasn't the best choice for Cody, but that doesn't matter.

Oh yeah. Someone, please, please don't remind me about the announcer. I flat out hate him.

Art - 9

Blame Capcom for the idea of making Cody a guy who gets into lots of trouble for one. It's a shame that the stages are not as crowd packed as before, but oh well. You can only select your favorite color of a character if you know which fighting system to pick and chances are that you'll hate it. Other than that, you might as well say that at least the touch is still there.

Overall - 8

This game should have received a "7", but because this might as well be the last "Zero" game, it should deserve an 8. It may be weaker than the first two "Zero" games, but it still gave me fun moments. I'll miss the "Zero" saga.

+

Huge roster, art that is still nice even after three years, it's definitely a game you can use some time on.

-

Too bad having no classic songs, a few stand out songs, a good amount of questionable voice samples, an annoying announcer, a good amount of story issues and a good amount of fundamental issues didn't give the game a real terrific farewell.

Date of creation - 11/28/04

Last update - N/A

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