Street Fighter EX3 (PS2) > Reviews (7)

The Streetfighter EX series has always taken on a sort of ugly-step-child role when it comes to Capcom's most famous fighting game series and it's many spin-offs. For those of you who've never seen or played one of the games, they take Capcom's famous Streetfighter characters like Ryu, Ken and Chun Li, and makes 3D models of them, but still plays them in a 2D fighter.

The first two games were released in arcades, as well as recieving ports to Sony's all conquering PlayStation console, but recieved a lukewarm reception, not only from series fans, but gamers in general. Most casual fight fans had moved on to Namco's Tekken and it's sequels, and series fans were insensed at what had been done to their favourite series.

You see, while the EX games used Streetfighter characters, had the same QCF and Charge methods of performing special moves, they weren't made by Capcom. You see, Capcom simply lent out it's characters to a smaller company called Arika, who half-filled the cast with their own, lame, characters, and the game often felt like a half-made game where Arika had started to make a fighter, then realised they couldn't be bothered coming up with more characters, or a plot, so they just threw money at Capcom so they could use the SF name and characters.

After Streetfighter EX2 Plus, you could have forgiven people for thinking the spin-off was over. Capcom would just rely on the Versus series whoring to keep SF fans happy, or at least playing. Yet, when the Sony PlayStation 2 launched, lo and behold, there was a new Streetfighter EX game to accompany it. When you think about it, with exclusive Streetfighter and Tekken titles, you would have thought the PS2 launch would have been great for fighting fans. Only it turned out a Bloody Roar game was the best one on offer. Oops.

You see, Streetfighter EX3 manages to make the exact same mistake that both prequels did. It is not the characters, or the hadoukens that make Streetfighter, it's the friggin gameplay. EX3 is far too slow, sluggish and generally nothing like a Streetfighter title should be. What makes it worse, is that Arika is still intent on messing with videogaming lore. Ken's Hadouken is not Green. While they fixed Ken's hurricane kick so he no longer does it like Dan, Ryu still does.

EX3, like both games before it, manages to completely fluff up the one thing it had to get right, it doesn't feel like Streetfighter. As with the prequels, all it feels like is a lame game that wants to be SF. Maybe Arika should buy the license for Fighter's History or something.
To say the game isn't at all fun would be incredibly harsh. On 2-Player, or even 4-Player, via a Dead or Alive 2-esque Tag-mode, the game can be quite entertaining, especially after a few drinks. It features enough classic SF characters that even those who haven't played the games since the second one will be able to find someone familiar. However, had the game actually played like Streetfighter, it wouldn't have been quite entertaining, it would have been ourtright good.

For those who have never played an EX game, it's a 2D fighter with 3D graphics. Don't let anyone try to tell you this is a 3D game, because it isn't. Sure the characters slightly shift angle when knocked onto the ground and stuff, but there is no side-stepping or anything that actually makes use of 3 dimensions.

You only actually start with a fraction of the cast, the rest must be unlocked by playing 'Original' mode. This is where 'Arcade' or 'Story' or whatever should be. I'm glad the game didn't call it either of those things, because it doesn't resemble anything I've ever seen in an arcade, or boast a story, so I guess 'Original' is about as spot-on as it gets. In this mode, you choose a character, but you never actually fight opponents 1-on-1, in a best of 3 rounds contest, as you would expect. For example, the first fight is a 'Dramatic Battle', where you fight 3 enemies at once. When you beat them, you are given the chance to allow the last defeated member to 'join your team'. Everytime you defeat a foe, they can join your team, which can comprise of 3 fighters and your selected character. Some fights allow you to play tag-style, ala the Versus games, or sometimes you will fight in a dramatic battle agains the computer.

What really sucks the life from Original mode, is not only that it's endings are the epitome of lame, with a block of text appearing over your character's winpose(no FMV videos?), but it's also sickeningly easy. I give you 10 minutes to complete it.

The game does offer the usual Versus and training modes, as well as Versus Tag Battles and so on, but in general, it just left me longing for a standard Arcade mode. Had Arika had their heads screwed on, they would just have put in an Arcade mode, but put time into cool Tekken-esque FMV endings. But no, instead we get this ridiculous single player mode and text endings.

Further fuelling fire against this game is the lack of new characters. It's the same cast as the second game, only with the new 'customisable fighter' ACE. ACE is basically the edit fighter mode from Streetfighter Alpha 3, only instead of selecting the character you could upgrade, you are stuck with this guy, who is one of Arika's more generic creations. Someone should really tell these guys that their character design skills stink.

Controlling the game works the same as all of Capcom's games on any Sony console:

Square:Light Punch
Triangle:Medium Punch
X:Light Kick
Circle:Medium Kick
R1: Strong Punch
R2:Strong Kick

The response of the buttons is fine, but the fact is that the actual game itself is so slow and sluggish, it doesn't feel right, trying to play SF. I would also recommend an alternative controller, with the Dualshock 2's D-Pad being as useless as ever, to compliment the lack of 6 Face Buttons. Thankfully I've got two of those Streetfighter anniversary controllers, which, while far from perfect, make the game a lot more playable than with the Dualshock 2.

Graphically, the game is a huge improvement over the first two titles, but it still is far from impressive, even for a launch title.

While it isn't the blocky monstrosity of the other games, the fighters still don't look or move realistically, or even take on a '3D Manga' feeling. They just look...mediocre. The game also suffers from some texture clipping, as well as the fact that the Blanka model is quite possibly the most ridiculously bad thing ever seen by human eyes.
The game also features a nice selection of generic and lame stages, and even pauses to put in a decent one, in the form of Sagat's Thai ruins, which are actually really well created.

Easily the worst aspect of the game is the sound. While the character voices are passable, the music is dreadful. Generic electro nonsense. The stuff mute buttons were made for. Seriously, I lasted the first match of Original mode before hitting the magic M.

Believe it or not, Streetfighter EX3 isn't actually that bad, but with the exposure that the SF license brings the game, it also brings with it expectations. I judge the game as I would any SF title, and under those circumstances, the game just can't hold up. If it didn't have the gaul to claim to be a Streetfighter game, then this would just be what it is, another mediocre fighter for the PS2. And that's where it's score comes from. The game isn't a complete disaster, but I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone, especially SF fans, unless, to get friends to play multiplayer, games must be in 3D. Personally I would take any of Capcom's 2D games over this, any day of the week.