STREET FIGHTER III: 3RD STRIKE CHARACTERS

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is the 1999 Capcom arcade fighter that the FGC still treats as a high-water mark for technical depth. The third and final revision of Street Fighter III, it grows the roster to nineteen and refines every system the line had been building toward. Parries reward perfect timing instead of meter, super arts let you pick which super you bring into the match, and EX moves spend bar for bigger versions of your specials.

Five newcomers join, headlined by Makoto, Remy, and Q, while returning fighters get fresh stages, new endings, and updated voice work. The animation, hand-drawn at a frame rate the genre rarely matches before or since, is the reason 3rd Strike footage still circulates online twenty-five years later. EVO Moment 37, the Daigo parry, came out of this game, and the matchups it produced are still being studied. Pure arcade craftsmanship.