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Product Description ------------------- One of the most popular series in video game history enters the PlayStation2 platform with Street Fighter EX3. Building on the EX branch of the series, this game has all of the old fighters you love (and love to hate) as well as the same controls. What's new is that these characters are now dynamic 3-D models working through a system of tag-team bouts. Try taking on three of these studied fighters at the same time. If you do well, one of them will choose to be your tag-team partner. You'll be able to switch between the two fighters at will or work them together in lethal dual combos. Also new to the series is the game's Hard Attack--an indefensible blow that reduces the competition. .com ---- Given its immense popularity, not to mention first-rate pedigree, it's not surprising that Street Fighter EX3 is among the first PlayStation2 titles. After the relative success of the first game for the original PlayStation (PSX) and the disaster of the second, it'll be interesting to see how long-term fans of the series take to yet another 3-D brawler with the Street Fighter moniker. Even with classic characters--like Sagat, Blanka, Ken, and (of course) Ryu--back to duke it out, this might be one horse that's been beaten to death. In Street Fighter EX3, players will be able to take advantage of a new system that allows character sw at any time throughout the battle. Not only will you be able to swap at will, but your dynamic duo also will have double-teaming tag combos to enhance an nent's agony. This means that gamers will face three other nents, and have four incredibly detailed fighters battling it out on screen at any one time in the ultimate handicap match. Take them out, and one might ask to join as your sidekick. Form a stable of four, and all of you can take your turn kicking Bison's tail, as well as that of any of the other famous Street Fighter characters in the game. The control is predictable, but that's what fans want... nay, crave. Super combos, dizzies, and a number of other ste Street Fighter combos are here and look incredible. Lighting effects are much more mature: the animated sparks fly, and the pyrotechnics flame up all over the place. Character models have come a long way since the days of the first blocky Street Fighter EX game. Although they still lack necks, these brawlers are seamless and well defined. Their victorious poses rival any graphics that previously have been seen on a console. Not everything is peaches 'n' cream with EX3, however. The endings of the EX series always have been a bit lacking: all you get in EX3 is a frozen frame with text; then, while the credits roll, a little consolation prize: over 10 enemies onscreen at once, all wanting to put the boots to you. This isn't the "true" ending we'd hoped for, but it's a nice gesture (and it shows off the system's power). Capcom is doing everything it can to make Street Fighter EX3 the fighting game of choice for the PlayStation2; but, with Namco's Tekken Tag Tournament set to hit the market at the same time, it'll be a tough sell. Still, this is a Street Fighter game, and that alone justifies at least a play. --Todd Mowatt Pros: * Switch characters at any time during fighting * Seamless and well-defined character models Cons: * Predictable controls * Lackluster ending P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review ------ Capcom's Street Fighter EX series, developed by Arika, takes the standard Street Fighter 2D gameplay and throws it into a 3D world, adding a few new characters and moves along the way. The original Street Fighter EX fared pretty poorly in arcades, but after a few revisions it found a greater audience at home on the PlayStation. Street Fighter EX2 added a few new moves and characters, but it never really made much of a splash in Japan (a US PlayStation release of EX2 is scheduled for next month). Street Fighter EX3 takes the gameplay and additional moves of EX2, adds a tag-team element similar to that of Tekken Tag Tournament or Capcom's own Marvel vs. Capcom, and drops it onto the PlayStation2 for a quick and dirty fighting game that seems a little rushed but still manages to be a lot of fun. The game's main mode is original mode, where you'll pick one character and dive right into a short but sweet fighting quest. Your first match is against three competitors - all at the same time. After winning this, or any, match in this mode, you'll be asked if you'd like to recruit one of your nents. You can recruit up to three partners as you progress through the six-match quest, which comprises tag battles, team battles, and a two-on-one match. Completing the final battle nets you a screen full of Japanese text and the ending credits. The ending credits serve as a sort of bonus stage, where your main fighter is put on the screen with six or seven generic fighters whom you can beat with only one or two hits. The game gives you an infinite combo meter and keeps track of how many of the generic bad guys you can knock out before the credits end. The other fighting modes in the game let you set up tag battles, dramatic battles, team battles, and four-player matches at will. The game's other real bonus is the character edit mode, which is an extention of the expert mode that appeared in EX1 and EX2. Instead of having a set number of missions to complete with each character, EX3 gives you Ace, a generic-looking fighter who looks a bit more like a fighter out of the Rival Schools universe than a Street Fighter. When you first start playing, Ace has no special moves whatsoever - he is a completely blank slate. As you complete the expert mode-like tasks (block all attacks, perform a three-hit combo, execute a combo that does over 90 points of damage, and the like), you earn experience points. You use these points to buy Ace's special moves and super combos, which you'll need to complete tasks later in the edit mode. Once you've beefed up Ace, he'll be able to hold his own in the game's other modes. While the character graphics used in EX3 look pretty amazing when standing still, there are just too many problems with other aspects of the visual presentation to warrant giving the game a higher graphics score. For starters, certain portions of the game are plagued by slowdown. Get more than two characters on the screen at once and execute a special move with any sort of neat visual effects, and the game starts to get choppy. Add a fourth character to the display, and the game slows down even more. The ending-credit sequence is horribly plagued by slowdown, also. Another little problem is that the animation is the same as it was in EX2. Granted, you can't exactly add lots of frames to all the special moves and keep the game's timing as faithful to the Street Fighter series as EX3 is, but now that the 3D Street Fighters don't look all blocky and pixilated, the jerky animation really stands out. Also worth mentioning is the appearance of B.A. Baracus himself. Yes, what appears to be Mr. T's picture adorns the walls of one of the arenas. It's a strange yet heartwarming tribute to such a master thespian. The audio portion of EX3 is packed with great effects, such as deep, bassy whooshing noises that accompany super-combo fireballs and the like. All of the hits and misses sound terrific, and the character voices are nice and crystal clear. The music, however, doesn't always fit the action. Also, in an annoying demonstration of audio streaming, the music changes tunes on the fly when other characters get tagged in, so you never listen to one song for long - one track fades into another as soon as the action on the screen dictates a change. Street Fighter EX3 is the game that EX2 should have, and probably would have, been, had this kind of hardware power been available sooner. The tag-team fighting adds a nice new element that the previous game totally lacked. EX3 may feel a bit rushed in some spots, but overall it's a fun and great-looking fighting game that won't disappoint longtime EX fans.--Jeff Gerstmann--Copyright © 2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review See more ( javascript:void(0) )