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So WHY exactly did Street Fighter 3 and Street Fighter EX fail to grab people?

Street Fighter 2 and it's many versions in the early 90's took the world by storm selling truck loads of copies. Even when MK came to take some of it's thunder in the regions it was allowed to be sold in, SF 2 still sold strong. Understandably Alpha was treated more as a side series that also did well but not as much.

But fast forward to the highly anticipated Street Fighter 3 and it failed to gain interest in the arcades or at home to the general audience, despite having a massive graphical upgrade, advanced audio, top tier animation, and faster action. Some say it was because nearly the entire cast was new, but they fixed that with the next two iterations and that didn't work out either.

But the big one that never made sense to me was Street Fighter EX. It was pretty much everyone's favorite Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, in 3D.

You had all the crowd favorites plus new characters, all the classic moves were there along with new combos and special attacks, nice polygon graphic designs, CD Audio, and flashy effects.

It carried the weight of the Street Fighter name with the hype of 3D polygonal gaming. Anndddd SF EX and it's sequel pretty much bombed on the PlayStation. The 3rd game released at launch on the PS2 killed the series.

What happened? Why were people not excited for Street Fighter 2 in 3D along with classic+new characters and moves? It wasn't broken to my knowledge, all 3 games got good ratings from what I recall.

It's not even just that these two parts of the series didn't meet the same popularity as SF2, but they didn't even get a fraction of it.

SFIII(mostly Third strike) at least kind of survived due to the core EVO community but outside that? Nope.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I think because they were just so different. Especially with EX.

I loved EX, played it a ton on my PS1. I never really played a ton of SF3 though, I knew it was loved and always was interested in it. Just never really gave it a shot.

But man, 2 played SO well. Ugh.
 

Nocturno999

Member
SF3 had a very weird cast and played differently to 2. There was a lot more competition from SNK, Sega, etc.

SF3 was appreciated years later thanks to 3rd Strike and Daigo's parry .

Ex was a lot of fun but its sequels were meh and the 1st didn't aged well.
 

squarealex

Member
bc people thinking 3D is the future
bc SF3 was originally without Ken / Ryu
bc SF3 was developped not thinking as a "hardcore" fighting game
bc SF2 cast is too iconic
bc SF EX 1 is ok, SF EX 2 too but they are 3D fighting game, so the feeling is "different" and graphics (for the first game) is not so good and original character was meh (character from Arika)
bc SF EX 3 is fking trash OMG
bc SFAlpha 2 & 3 is awsome
bc Pocket Fighter is Fun

but hey : SF3.2 is nice and SF3.3 is god tier... and Arcade game popularity ended at this time...
 
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01011001

Banned
SF2 and all it’s editions were better.

said noone ever... SF3 Third Strike is one of the best fighting games ever made, and easily kicks any SF2 version in the ass... even HD Remix, which is the only one with decent balancing. the original SF3 was the issue, like MK3 they started with removing all the established characters in favor of an almost entirely new cast.

as for EX, well... look at it... it's ugly, it only is 3D in the first place because they tried to chase the trend
 
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kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
Because

1) It didn’t really take off with fans until 3rd strike
2) Arcades were dying
3) For whatever idiotic reason it was a Dreamcast exclusive. Completely bypassing PS1 and N64 and only getting to PS2 in 2004 (5 years later)
This 👆

Not being available to most gamers is the reason SF3 didn't "take off"
 
SFIII didn't catch on at release because people didn't like how parries made setplay redundant.

Folks skipped SFEX because it was considered ugly and also because they (wrongly) assumed the SF play style would translate poorly to 3D.
These sound like explanations for the core, not the general gaming audience.
 
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New generation and Second Impact Giant Attack both fuckung sucked. It was kind of a 'fool me once, fool me twice' situation. 3rd Strike came out and it's the best fighting game ever made, but who could trust Capcom after those first two. As for EX, they're just bad.
 

01011001

Banned
These sound like explanations for the core, not the general gaming audience.

the general gaming audience wanted the shiny new 3D fighting games like Tekken and Virtua Fighter. SFEX was poorly marketed to the point that many didn't even know it existed. all my friends knew SF2, Tekken, Virtua Fighter... even Bloody Roar... but I surprised many of them when I showed them EX2, noone knew the SFEX games existed. I think at the time there were too many diffrent iterations of Street Fighter. SF2 with its many versions, SF3, SF Alpha, SFEX... just too much

here's the timeline:
1995: Alpha 1, Street Fighter The Movie
1996: Alpha 2, EX1
1997: SF3, Alpha 3, SF3 2nd
1998: EX2, Marvel vs. StreetFighter
1999: SF3 3rd

this is crazy... just way too much. in 4 years they released 10 games from 3 different sub-series + the movie game + Marvel
now add to that SF2 collections on PS1 and Saturn, the capcom crossover games with marvel and SNK... it's crazy...
 
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New Generation sucked out the gate. Wasn't very fun compared to the Alphas, had an unfinished feel, roster didn't go over well and there was too much competition from arcade stuff like Tekken 3 and even other Capcom fighters

SFEX I dunno but it seemed like people were never all that enthusiastic about it at any point of it's life.
 

K1Expwy

Member
Players went into SF3 expecting SF2 with better graphics, but it's a very different beast. It also needed more characters and rebalancing to really take off, two expansions later. Even then, Western players were playing 3rd Strike the wrong way until 2002 or so, after interacting more with top JP players.
Obviously the Internet was available, but for a number of reasons (largely because recording and uploading footage on a hosting site was complicated at the time), it was difficult to learn the game without being physically present for high level competition, which meant traveling to another city or country.

Sales-wise it wasn't available on a popular home platform until 2004, 7 years after SF3's debut. It has a positive reputation today, long after the initial releases in arcade and home could take advantage of it
 
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SALMORE

Member
in SF3 case ... i didn't mind the new characters but the thing that turned me off was the Parry ! it was essential to the game but very hard to pull off ! if they had given it a dedicated button or by pressing two buttons together it would have been a different story
 

Alphagear

Member
Personally think SF3 was a great game though the character roster was weird like someone mention above.

Biggest reason for its failure was it only being released in Arcade which was dying and the short lived Dreamcast.

Obviously shocked to this day that it wasn't released on the PS2 or other consoles.
 
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Okay I'll meet you on some points, better music ,stages, they had stage transitions, and win loose screens. Visually more appealing. Gameplay though. Where it matters... 3rd Stike double perfects those two and gets an MSF grade.
 
Because Zero/Alpha 3 was better! People forget and don't want to talk about how bad SF3 New Generation/2nd Impact was! All new cast (no Ryu/Ken until 2nd Impact and no Chun until 3S), new systems that absoultly divided the fanbase (the parry) and a lot of high level players hated 3rd Strike including Mr. Evo moment 37 himself.
 

01011001

Banned
Because Zero/Alpha 3 was better! People forget and don't want to talk about how bad SF3 New Generation/2nd Impact was! All new cast (no Ryu/Ken until 2nd Impact and no Chun until 3S), new systems that absoultly divided the fanbase (the parry) and a lot of high level players hated 3rd Strike including Mr. Evo moment 37 himself.

Ryu and Ken were there from the start... where does this wrong information come from? it's the second time in this thread where I read this...

sf3kkkk8.png
 
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*Nightwing

Member
EX was hot garbage comparing the tight controls of the 2d ver gameplay wise to what was offered in 3D with EX.
the general gaming audience wanted the shiny new 3D fighting games like Tekken and Virtua Fighter. SFEX was poorly marketed to the point that many didn't even know it existed. all my friends knew SF2, Tekken, Virtua Fighter... even Bloody Roar... but I surprised many of them when I showed them EX2, noone knew the SFEX games existed. I think at the time there were too many diffrent iterations of Street Fighter. SF2 with its many versions, SF3, SF Alpha, SFEX... just too much

here's the timeline:
1995: Alpha 1, Street Fighter The Movie
1996: Alpha 2, EX1
1997: SF3, Alpha 3, SF3 2nd
1998: EX2, Marvel vs. StreetFighter
1999: SF3 3rd

this is crazy... just way too much. in 4 years they released 10 games from 3 different sub-series + the movie game + Marvel
now add to that SF2 collections on PS1 and Saturn, the capcom crossover games with marvel and SNK... it's crazy...
And this is what happened to all the different ver of SF III, it got lost in a sea of other SF releases
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
The cast deviated greatly from Street Fighter 2 and other Capcom fighters featuring Street Fighter characters, such as Alpha and X-Men vs Street Fighter. This was also during the time when arcade scene was on a downward spiral. EVO really brought life back into to the franchise as many people saw what these new characters were actually capable of.
 

Unk Adams

Banned
Tekken was the new hot series at the time. Street Fighter was considered lame and old by mainstream gamers by that point. In the case of Street Fighter III, 2D games were also considered "outdated". Does this all sound stupid? Yes, but it's sadly true.
 
Ryu and Ken were there from the start... where does this wrong information come from? it's the second time in this thread where I read this...
No Ken wasn't going to be in New Generation but they added him in after seeing that there weren't enough characters in the roster.
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
said noone ever... SF3 Third Strike is one of the best fighting games ever made, and easily kicks any SF2 version in the ass... even HD Remix, which is the only one with decent balancing. the original SF3 was the issue, like MK3 they started with removing all the established characters in favor of an almost entirely new cast.

as for EX, well... look at it... it's ugly, it only is 3D in the first place because they tried to chase the trend
I said it. SF2 Championship Edition was the best fighter of all time. The GOAT.
 
Was SF EX much uglier at the time than Tekken 2 which came out the same year? Sure Tekken 2 looked better, but EX wasn't far behind and looked better then some better selling ps1 fighting games. It also had the Street Fighter brand which was on fire just 2 years before
 
Was SF EX much uglier at the time than Tekken 2 which came out the same year? Sure Tekken 2 looked better, but EX wasn't far behind and looked better then some better selling ps1 fighting games. It also had the Street Fighter brand which was on fire just 2 years before
Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha also had (actually, to this day, has) the best soundtrack of any Street Fighter game ever released.
 

01011001

Banned
I said it. SF2 Championship Edition was the best fighter of all time. The GOAT.

that's nostalgia speaking. Championship Edition isn't even the best SF2... not even remotely close. (not even in the top 3)
HD Remix is the best SF2 version. it actually is somewhat balanced, which can't be said for any other iteration.

and SF3 Third Strike is easily better in every imaginable way
 
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mcjmetroid

Member
People were wayyyy too hard on Street Fighter EX. I played 2 and it was slower yes.. bit a perfectly good fighting game for the PS2 at the time.

It never took off because it just wasn't as polished as a Tekken or a Soul Calibur.

Still it is a shame they shelved 3D street fighter after that
 

01011001

Banned
No Ken wasn't going to be in New Generation but they added him in after seeing that there weren't enough characters in the roster.

what I mean is, they were both in the original SF3, while I saw 2 comments, including yours, that said they only were in SF3 starting with 2nd Impact, which is false. they were both in the original SF3
 
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People were wayyyy too hard on Street Fighter EX. I played 2 and it was slower yes.. bit a perfectly good fighting game for the PS2 at the time.

It never took off because it just wasn't as polished as a Tekken or a Soul Calibur.

Still it is a shame they shelved 3D street fighter after that
2 was for the PS1, or did you mean you played 3.
 

yurinka

Member
I loved both SF3 and SFEX, but back then the popularity of the consoles spiked making the arcades less popular, and the 3D games and other genres got the attention of the majority of the people, making 2D sprite based games and fighting games 'dated' or 'not trendy'.

Street Fighter III didn't get a console port until the Dreamcast, pretty late, and it was a not popular console that only a few of us bought. Regarding SFEX it was 3D and was on PlayStation but most people prefered other kind of games like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy, and inside 3D fighting games most people did prefer Tekken series over SFEX, not sure why (maybe because it was more fresh and its gameplay was more accesible to new players bacause you can do flashy stuff just smashing buttons and their visuals looked better back then).

Capcom also relased a ton of Street Fighter games in a few years, so many people maybe also was tired of them. Even if some of us did love these games or the other Capcom fighting games released during this era (crossovers with SNK and Marvel, Darkstalkers, Jojo, Pocket Fighters, etc) they weren't so popular in sales.

Maybe in terms of the mainstream market the Capcom fighting games needed to rest during some time, because with Street Fighter IV the series became big again in terms of sales, something also shared with Street Fighter V, that even if it's a console exclusive it's top 10 best selling Capcom game ever and their 2nd best selling capcom fighting game ever (and it sold a ton of DLC on top of that).
 
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what I mean is, they were both in the original SF3, while I saw 2 comments, including yours, that said they only were in SF3 starting with 2nd Impact, which is false. they were both in the original SF3
Because originally both weren't going to be added, likely some people never kept track of things after and still don't know Capcom changed their minds.
 

MrMephistoX

Member
Honestly no clue other than 2D fighters kind of getting overshadowed by Tekken and Virtua Fighter at that time and even MK4 went 3D. + Arcades were just starting to die off at least in my area: we went from Wunderland having like 5 locations to just disappearing almost overnight like a few months or a year after SFIII hit.

Once Dreamcast came out what was the point?

I just emulated EX3 the other day and it’s surprisingly weird and fun but it must have looked like shit on a PS2 compared to arcade perfect 2D fighters + VF and Tekken.
 
Inside 3D fighting games most people did prefer Tekken series over SFEX, not sure why.

This is what I'm wondering. It looked good back then, it had Street Fighter 2 all over it, SF branding, new fool moves, a nice roster of new and old characters, and more.

More people wanted to play Ballz 3D or Dragon Ball ultimate 22 than SFEX and I don't know why.
 

ethomaz

Banned
This is what I'm wondering. It looked good back then, it had Street Fighter 2 all over it, SF branding, new fool moves, a nice roster of new and old characters, and more.

More people wanted to play Ballz 3D or Dragon Ball ultimate 22 than SFEX and I don't know why.
Because the game was really really bad.

Anybody that played Tekken, Virtual Fighter, Soul Edge / Soul Calibur, etc know why it was bad.
 
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CamHostage

Member
SF3 always felt like homework to me. None of the fighters were recognizable, all the movesets were different and sometimes a little weird, there's all these new systems to learn, even the beautiful animation felt like something I wasn't used to in judging pacing and reaction, and then there's this "Parry" that I kept being told I needed to master or I had no business playing the game... it read loud and clear that it wasn't the game for me, and the fanbase at the time was not at all interested in inviting people like me to expand the love because they all felt so special for having a SF for them that they would rather see it fail than to have noobs bother them.

And then SF EX just never had a chance. Didn't look as good or move as Tekken / VF, got caught between 2D and 3D in the worst way of both, had goofy Arika characters, didn't feel like "canon". (I'm not sure why canon mattered to fight players, as if it's "canon" that every character has each won every tournament in their timeline...)

SF Alpha helped bridge the time instead, and then SF4 was the real sweet spot in inviting everybody back to play together. Not perfect, but fun and dazzling.

SF2 and all it’s editions were better.
said noone ever... SF3 Third Strike is one of the best fighting games ever made, and easily kicks any SF2 version in the ass...

...Not noone ever. REDRZA MWS just said it. I might say it too. I respect SF3 3rd, but if I were to dig out a fighting game to play over some beers right now, I can't imagine what circumstances a 3 would be a better hang than good ol' 2.
 
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