Go Fanboy - Everyone Has a Favorite

Street Fighter III: Double Impact holds a somewhat ironic title; it serves not only as the second incarnation of the III series, but as the second real dose of Street Fighter Dreamcast owners will be receiving on the system.

For the uninitiated, the SFIII series shows just how gracefully the series aging. It's returned to the more simplistic roots of SFII, with less show, and more style.

For fighting fans, that can only be a good thing. And for SF fans? Hey, this IS Street Fighter.

Visuals:: It's been a long time coming, but Capcom has finally upped the anté on the SF series with some downright sexy animation. While the arcade cabinet may have used the CPS-III board, the Dreamcast version uses nothing but Dreamcast, and it shows.

Despite the characters still not running in 640x480, the game still manages a much, much cleaner and more polished look than the Alpha series ever did. Every move and maneuver looks fantastic as the characters just dance around the screen without endless fluidity. The colors are vibrant, the background are much more detailed, and, when you kick the game into higher speeds, things start looking real...well, Disney.

That's not to say there isn't room for improvement; getting these guys in full 640x480 would be a dream (which we may have to wait until SFIV at this rate) and improving the background animation more would really make things in a league of their own. As it stands though, this is one of the most beautiful 2D games yet.

Audio:: It's something of standard Capcom fanfare in the series when it comes to the music. While the tracks match the general atmosphere of the setting, they don't really exhibit much in terms of excitement and, because of that, end up sitting comfortably in the background. All the sound effects are spot on however, and generally add a more stylish effect to the series.

Gameplay/Control:: Remember Street Fighter II? Add in more moves, a clever parrying system, the Super Arts system, and a load of new faces, and you essentially have Double Impact.

Guile's and Chun Li's fans will have to wait outside though, as only Ken and Ryu made the cut from the original cast. Everyone else is fresh off the Capcom boat, although they're inevitable similarities in some of their fighting styles. Does Alex seem a bit like a faster Zangief? Necro a bit like Dhalism? Coincidental or not, it's not too hard for older fans to find a newer character and, after some playing, grow accustomed to them as if they were from the original cast.

The only real changes to the series from SFII, as mentioned earlier, is the parrying system and Super Arts moves. Each character has three Super Arts moves; players simply select one to use when they fight. When you Super bar fills up (and it varies in length depending on which one you selected and how many times you can use it), you can execute a dazzling special move for extra damage and some nice eye candy. If you want to select a different Super Arts move, you'll have to wait until you get beaten.

As for the parrying system, by tapping forward on the moment of impact from an opponent, you can cancel out their attack (i.e. recieve no damage) and sneak in your hit or combo. It works both ways though, so if you have two expert SFIII fans fighting, matches will be drawn out and certainly exciting to watch. As you can imagine, mastering this technique will really help you later on in the game and there's even a special bonus round that allows you to practice parrying.

Outside of those two changes though, the game remains essentially like you remember it all those years ago and that's a welcome change from all the aerial raves, air blocking, and A-isms, V-sims, and X-isms the Alpha series lead us to.

Extras:: Outside of being able to play as two or three additional characters (it doesn't take a genius to figure out who), it's same old, same old here. Don't act so surprised dear sir, it's Street Fighter.

Overall:: It's encouraging to see Capcom return Street Fighter to a semi-annual release basis and to the basics. It seemed many fans got lost under the hordes of spin-offs and increasingly complex fighting system. Double Impact makes things easier for older and new fans, as well as fighting fans in general. However, it also shows the years haven't gone to waste as this is Street Fighter in top shape with some mighty fine fighting to be found. Top shape that is, until the next edition hits.