Archview #18: Street Fighter EX 3

 What a shame...

 I´ve always been a fan of the awfully underrated Street Fighter EX series. Why? They tend to be faster than the regular SF games, and they have some badass characters like Kairi and Garuda, owned by Arika, reason as to why they haven´t appeared outside the EX series. Street Fighter EX 3 skipped arcades, a first for the series, and it was a PS2 launch title. As with most launch titles, this means the game was rushed, and it shows even in the boxart, which is just a picture of Ryu model´s face, it even doubles as the instruction booklet´s cover, a sign of things to come?
 For starters, it has less characters than EX 2 Alpha Plus. There are no new characters either... actually, there is a new character, Ace, but he is a "template" character, destined to be outfitted with moves from other characters, that means that he looks generic and his moveset is not unique to him. Gameplay-wise, they removed the best feature of EX2: Excel combos, and it was substitued with mechanics that seem more like an afterthought, like the "Surprise Attack"(Mid Punch plus Mid Kick) and some tag non-sense.

 For some reason they decided to make Tag the default mode of play, heck, 1 vs 1 can only be done by going to Team Battle and doing one-man teams, baffling to say the least. Besides Tag battle, there´s also "Dramatic" battle, where you can go 1 vs 3 at the same time, or 2 vs 2, amusing for a couple of times at least. The game does have a clear lack of modes, theres Original Mode, read "arcade mode", however after beating each oponent you can add him to your team, then Arena Battle, where Dramatic, Tag, Team and Multiplayer is located, finally there´s Character Edit, where you edit Ace´s moves and accomplish missions to earn points in order to buy more moves. My One gripe with the missions is that you are told what to do, not how to, so it can be a bit challenging until you have learned what a Surprise blow is and how other mechanics are named.
 The presentation is lackluster, graphics are blocky and simple. Some models just look awkward, like Guile or Sagat, and some of the animations lack oomph. All the stages look incredibly generic and boring, and the music didn´t win me over, I felt it didn´t fit the game, but to each his own. The endings are just a tiny text window, and none of them are satisfying. There´s also a bizarre "mini-game" during the credits, where you get infinite HP and infinite energy bars, and you get to pummel loads of generic thugs, it´s midly amusing, but gets boring after the tenth time!
 Despite being a letdown, the basics of the game are sound, it is a fun game, but it could´ve been so much more, SF EX 2 Alpha Plus ends up being a better alternative.
 5 out of 10