My most anticipated PS2 launch game is Street Fighter EX 3, although people may claim that Ridge Racer 5 is the best I personally think that SF: EX3 will be the better game. But anyways, as many of you know by now EX 2 has been recently released in Japan for PSX and it's coming to the US shortly. We all know the fireballs, the dragon punches and the hurricane kicks but there will be a new feature added to the EX series exclusively in EX3 and nowhere else. So what is this "brand new feature" are we talking about, to find you are just going to have to read.

      Tons of you already are familiar with the VS series that Capcom had established awhile back and includes titles such as X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom, and until now they have been the only company to be developing "tag fighting" games (notice the key word 'until'). Just recently Namco had stepped up with their newest Tekken game, which is a combination of Tekken 2 and 3. But it isn't only that, Tekken Tag Tournament has something of its own, to make it stand out as a unique title and less of an expansion, the game has a "tag" feature in it which is a lot like what the Capcom VS games currently have. Technically there is a distinguishable difference between the VS series and Namco's Tekken Tag game. That difference is that the VS is in 2D while Namco's Tag Tournament is in 3D, making Namco the first developer of a "tag" game in 3D. But wait, what's this we have, someone trying to steal the glory?

      Hey look! It's Capcom fighting back with their own 3D tag fighter and this time it will be coming from the Street Fighter series. The company is quickly fighting back with Street Fighter EX 3 and they will make the game's gameplay resemble Street Fighter EX2's gameplay except for the fact that the EX'3 graphics are far superior. In addition, like stated earlier, it's tag feature will bee implemented as well. Capcom will still keep the old Street Fighter basics of gameplay and oh yeah did I mention that the game will be released on the PS2?

      Compared to Tekken Tag Tournament, Street Fighter EX3 does a nice job of coming close to TTT. Although the environments will not be as marvelously detailed as TTT's they are still not bad. As for the character detail, I'll say that the fighters look great, but I know PS2 can do much better and if Capcom just pushed the game slightly they can get their SF characters to look like Tekken characters. Though the visuals are quite nice and as for the special effects they are definite eye candies.

      Street Fighter EX3 is expected to have many, many characters from all over the SF series, the game is scheduled to be a launch title in Japan and hopefully we will have an import review of the game by April or mid March. If you import games, then I suggest picking up Street Fighter EX3 which will be released on March 4th before Tekken Tag which is scheduled for March 30.

02/14/00  SolidSnake

Playstation 2

Scheduled release date:
March 4th, 2000
(Japan)

Publisher:
Capcom

Developer:
Capcom

Genre:
Fighting

Number of Players:
1-?