« 3rd Strike Online Feedback Series: Haunts »

At ComicCon 2010, Capcom announced Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition with no specific details. What was mentioned, however, is that should the fans have any suggestions on what should be included in this rerelease, they should inform Capcom. To aid this process, iPlayWinner will be publishing articles from notable members of the community on what they would like to see from this new edition of 3rd Strike. Please share your thoughts in the comments section, both in direct response to our ideas and to include your own as well. And be sure to return to iPlayWinner each week and let us know how your opinions have shifted, if at all, during the course of this series!

Many of you probably know me simply as the admin of iPlayWinner, one of the "Four Gods of Streaming," and from time to time a Street Fighter 4 player, but 3rd Strike is the game that really got me into this mess. I started playing 3rd Strike competitively a little over eight years ago, winning multiple tournaments in the South East and placing second at Final Round one year as well. I ended up doing pretty well after moving to the West Coast, but the game died out soon after my arrival. Hey, I even put together a nice Makoto guide on SRK with the help of some key community members. All of this is, of course, preceded by me getting my ass handed to me multiple times by players who were better than me, but at the end of the day 3rd Strike is the spark that lit my competitive fire. 

That said, I couldn't be happier about the announcement of Third Strike Online Edition. There are plenty of new players who haven't had a chance to experience this game outside of GGPO and with a re-release of the game there is hope for the revival of the competitive 3rd Strike scene. 

Capcom has of course asked players for their feedback, and as you all know by now that is the purpose of these articles. So, here is my feedback:

Don't change a thing.

Yep, that's right. Don't make one tweak or adjustment to any move properties. Don't try to get cute by messing around with Super bars and damage output or any of that. Do not break the sacred seal.

People will argue that some of the characters are overpowered and some are simply too weak and changes need to be made to compress the tiers. This is a major concern for me.

The issue with making adjustments to the characters is the fact that, although it starts off innocent enough, it opens the floodgate for a wave of changes. Once one person on the development teams says "let's just give Chun-Li one bar for Super Art 2 instead of two" another rolls up and says "Well, you know Urien seems to be pretty cheap, lets take out all those unblockables." This continues on throughout the development and when it's all said and done we end up with Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Frankenstein Edition.

I'm not denying that Chun-Li and Yun dominate the game, but these are issues that should have been dealt with years ago before the game came out in arcades. The damage has been done, 3rd Strike is what it is -- don't try to turn it into something else. 

Another concern of mine when it comes to balance tweaks, which may not seem like a big issue to some people reading this, is the divide it will cause between Japan and USA. If 3rd Strike Online ends up being much different than the arcade version, the chances of the Japanese taking the game seriously is slim to none. Not only would I want Japanese players to come to EVO to compete, I'd like to be practicing the same game they are playing for when I go back to Japan. 

More than that, there are literally thousands of great 3rd Strike videos available on YouTube for new players to learn from and enjoy. If the game ends up being radically different, how much can new players gain from watching these videos? There is a very deep, rich, history to the competitive scene for this game contained in these videos and making major changes to this game ensures that all of that will be forgotten.

"Awwwlright, that's cool."

Lastly, there is an element of selfishness involved with all of this too. For all the bitching and moaning kids do these days about Sagat or whichever character they deem to be "overpowered," I want them to feel the true ultimate punishment of truly overpowered characters. This complaining about balance and "every character needs a chance" has gotten out of control.  Maybe after eating a Super Art 2 from Chun-Li, followed up by a Universal Overhead into another Super Art 2 will put things into perspective for a lot of new players. Don't like it? Too bad, go back to playing Street Fighter 4 or BlazBlue. On the flip side, players need to experience the sense of satisfaction -- some would say enlightenment -- of beating a Yun player who runs away the entire match spamming Crouching Medium Punch to build up another Genei Jin. "Wah, wah, two to three Genei-Jins in a round is too hard! Cheap! Cheap!" Shut up and learn how to block.

So, now some of you are reading this and may be thinking "So, Capcom should just release an arcade perfect version and be done with it? Were is all my money going then?"

Just because this is a plea to leave the gameplay intact and fully untouched, I still think there is a lot of work to be done on the game. The number one thing Capcom should focus on is a proper Training Mode. This is a perfect opportunity for Capcom to set the bar for what a fighting game training mode should be. Forget the Street Fighter 4 Challenge modes -- throw that out the window -- take all the knowledge, combos and set ups that are already known and put together a comprehensive tutorial mode for each character. This would be the number one thing Capcom could implement into the game to ensure players pick up the game and stick with it. Instead of changing Chun-Li, teach players how to beat Chun-Li.

The ability to upload replays directly to YouTube would be killer too. End up playing MOV or Kokujin online and want to show your friends how bad you got owned? Hit "Upload to YouTube" and there you have it. I'd say even take it a step further and add in even more social networking features like what SEGA is currently implementing with Virtua Fighter 5. Are you on a 10 win hot streak? Why not have the ability to post that to Facebook and Twitter so your friends or foes can hop on and attempt to dethrone you? 

All in all, I'm very excited for the re-release of 3rd Strike and what new features it may contain but please Capcom, please leave the original gameplay intact and do not alienate the true fans of the series who have supported this game when no one else did. 

If you missed it, don't forget to check out Mr Jared's entry into the 3rd Strike Online Edition Feedback series!