You can find Street and Orb on the Top Hat Chat Channel, here kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fJaeftmLrrnKips.html

As a longtime follower of the "FGC" for over 25 years and with 3rd Strike being one of my favorite fighting games of all time, I can safely say that at the time of release, 3rd Strike was NOT received well. Since people had already been soured by New Generation and 2nd Impact, people considered 3S as "more of the same", with some even making the jokes of "3 strikes you're out!". And since SFA 3 was still pretty much a thing and with MvC 2 looming in the horizon, 3rd Strike kinda got overlooked. It was only throughout the passage of time that it gained the recognition of the community, not unlike other media such as movies, music albums or TV shows which also gain praise many years AFTER they were released (some call them "cult classics" now). And of course there was "EVO moment #37" (the Daigo parry that appeared in the beginning of the video) which pretty much cemented 3S's legacy. Sure, the game is praised and recognized NOW, but let's not pretend it was always that way. Cuz it wasn't.

Keep calm and Parry on.

I worked part time in an arcade in the late 90s and was a huge SF fan. I helped install the SF3 cabinet. I was shocked by how little it was played. At that point Tekken 2/3 And X-men Vs Streetighter drew the crowds.

SF III was NOT that popular on release. That is a FACT.Great trio of iterations though it may have been,

I'm 40 years old. And I was around 17 the time when Street Fighter 3 NEw Generation was released to arcades. I followed the game development for years in Gamepro and EGM. I was happy when my arcade received the game. But unfortunately many people in my arcade didn't enjoy the game. They hated how you had to select your super, as compared to Alpha when you could use multiple supers at anytime during the match. The game also seemed slow compared to Tekken, UMK3, and the Versus games that were immensely popular in my arcade at the time. I personally loved SF3, but I mostly played on an empty cabinet with a few other enthusiasts. 3s was a little more popular, but 3s was considered dead in the USA. It was only when Japan (where the game was massively popular) beat the USA at Evo 2002 is when the USA started taking the game much more seriously. And after the Evo 2004 footage the game had a second life. SF3 was popular in some arcades though. Often referred to as "hotspots". Texas,Socal, and NYC were three areas where SF3 had always been relatively popular. I lived in Atlanta and it certainly wasn't popular in my areas until the 2000s with the competitive scene.

Speaking as a long-time Third Strike fan, comments like the ones examined here make it difficult to speak as a Third Strike fan.

During my youth, I actually thought SFA was SF3.

I was playing MvC in the arcades a lot when SF3 came out and I remember that machine never got touched. People played Alpha but never touched SF3

I lived in Hong Kong at the time of release and played it in the arcades... Mostly by myself cause nobody else played it

People take stuff way too seriously lol

I didn't even hear about SF3 back in the day, but maybe around 2005 or so I got really into it and couldn't believe I had missed it. Started playing it online together with friends, even if that was a huge hassle back then. Thanks to Daigo's EVO 2004 moment, is how I discovered it so many years later.

"I wonder if there's an asian equivelent of a weeaboo who loves western culture." Probably some kid who dresses like a cowboy, and instead of studying the blade he studies the 6-shooter, has seen every episode of Walker Texas Ranger

"look at all those salty people" makes 40 min video while salty.

The salt mine backdrop and your pronunciation of pronunciation was brilliant.

As someone who grew up and played in arcades in the late 80s and all through the 90s and nobody was on SF3 series....it only attracted a small group of ppl. MvC2 was waaaay more popular and Tekken also. I always played it if I saw it but no one was really on it, I got more competition in other games because ppl wasn't on 3s or any other version of of SF3. It only got popular when the Daigo Parry went viral (before that was term) and only the hardcore tournament screen played and even they will tell you not as many played it as they did SF2

I was in the competitive scene back then, and frequented arcades in NYC, London, Paris, and Amsterdam. SF Alpha 3, Virtua Fighter 2/3, Tekken, Soul Edge, and VS series were simply more popular. (Still more popular than SF EX2, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat 4, Dead or Alive, War Gods, lol!) It wasn't until about 2001, with Third Strike, that westerners started caring about SF3. It was still mostly for the most competitive. The Daigo parry in 2004 boosted the game's popularity, but that also had to do with many people getting bored of CvS2, MvC2, and the 3D fighters. Also, SF33 wasn't a part of the official lineups of B5 (2001) and the 2002 Evo series. In 2002 there was a Japan vs USA battle, which showed how much the Americans were still learning the game.

Its not about pronunciation But about to at least try to say and pronounce correctly surnames or names, When I see English surnames or names I give my best to pronounce them the correct way, Native English speakers are the first one to criticise non native speakers when they pronounce words. Arrogance is to think that you can pronounce any other name the way you want but expect non native English speakers to pronounce English words perfectly, This is not about accent at all. I know that English names and surnames are not spoken like in my mother tongue.

*films a response video in a salt mine * Legend

Reserving a seat early that title alone is enough to sir up some turmoil.

I grew up in Hong Kong, China and for the most part the problem with Street Fighter 3 was it uses a new CP3 board where the majority of the games were on a a CP2 board. That's why the other series like Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series and the Marvel VS stuff were more popular and commonly played.

I just have one thing to say: _What a salty gentleman tbh_

I love how that one guy is talking about how Tekken was popular until 3 & TT as if those came out way later or something instead of at the same time SF3 was coming out

17:11 Alas, poor Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life

I love this video! Great job illustrating your points, and I'm definitely looking forward to your next video!

Diego Umehara *DIEGO* Umehara 😂😂😂 I'm sorry man, I agree with everything else in the this video but, that gaff was just too priceless to pass up. Daigo is pronounced (Die-go) btw

as a fluent japanese speaker i fully agree. none of yall pronounce ryu correctly. so, we laugh at you regardless (while understanding quite well how difficult the pronunciation can be). not being salty or anything. coz, you know, japlish is a thing

Hahahah, I loved that video. It's a video that provided amazing hindsight on the topic of why YOUUUU and I didn't play the title at the time of its release. There's alot of elitists that don't get out of the internet that often and just say what they want based on reading the title and watching seconds of the video...and in this case, obviously never removed their sf33 disc from their Dreamcast since the game's release which makes them experts in the history SF subject matter... Keep doing what you do and keep telling us the factual truths of the games we love now.

"How dare you expect me to say people's names right"

1:32 Damn that’s parrying! Nice informative video as usual TGM👏🏽👏🏽

This videos on Street Fighter and the Vs games have made me a subscriber! Love your content! I just hope you go far enough to do Tatsunoko Vs Capcom

He's absolutely right.. I grew up in the 90's, killed Street Fighter II all the way up to x men vs street fighter.. But for some reason missed out on Street Fighter III

A most excellent review my friend. Very thorough. Very well done.

SF2 was culturally important in the mainstream(it even spawned a fucking movie), SF3 was important in the FGC(It was the first modern fighter to be taken serious in the competitive scene). You pretty much nailed all the reasons why SF3 didn't sell well back in the day

This is legit my favorite video 😍 new subscriber right here

If you guys went on the Fightcade chatrooms for this game, you’d instantly understand the thumbnail

As someone who basically lived in arcades through out the mid to late 90's, Mr. Top Hats is correct. SF3:3rdStrike was while more popular that it's prior iterations still took the back seat to Tekken and Soulcalibur. I was a long time fan of 3 but I could not get my friends to come over to play, they were enamored with Tekken, which in hindsight makes sense, Tekken felt like something new. Heck it wasn't until SF3 hit Dreamcast did it really take off. I remember abandoning SF3 to get back into the Alpha series witfh SFA3 since I skipped SFA2 to focus on Marvel games and SF3. But yeah SF3 was not a popular game by any stretch of the word.

Great video by the way.. keep up the good work

Bro just keep being you. Love the videos. Subbed

I love how you handled this issue top hot and I laughed at the many comments that ppl left and being a huge street fighter fan myself I enjoyed this video so much.also the first video was also a good one as well Thank you again Top Hat 🎩

... Personally, I loved the 3 series, but I can't argue your point though. It didn't sell too well based on the fact that it took damn near 4 years before a home version came out, and Capcom oversaturated their market by releasing so many fighting games.

My only hangup with the pronunciation of Ryu is that it's not a word, but a name, so getting as close to proper pronunciation as possible makes a lot more sense here. I used to say rye-you like everyone else but once I heard it said properly in Marvel vs Capcom I looked into it and ended up learning about basic japanese vowel sounds and felt silly for how many things I pronounced wrong for so many years. They just have the same five or six sounds for everything and unlike english it almost never changes. Makes reading japanese names/words pretty simple.

STREET FIGHTER 3 series is a big hit in our country, especially in the 90's

I never even knew Alex was supposed to be the main character. I never thought the 3 series was bad. It aged way better than most software from that era, due to the beautiful hand drawn art and animation. It mostly wasn't popular for the reasons stated. Capcom was competing a itself, 3d games were all the rage. the biggest factor: it just wasn't widley available for whatever reason .also infind it hard to play. The most advanced tech is gated behind high technical excecution. Its not a bad series. Its just one of a zillion SF variations, and wasn't the revolution 2 was, that's all.

Yeeaah! Love this channel. Can't believe some of the stick this guy gets. Maybe it's just cos I'm also an Englishman, but I really appreciate his humour. I'm a long time subscriber, and always look forward to new content being uploaded. Keep em coming mate!

Yep, my experiences were similar to yours. I saw this game in the arcades I went to back then (in malls and other places), and while it was there, it usually had a spot on a back wall rather than being one of the 'featured' games in the front/center of the arcade, and almost never had more than just 1 or 2 cabinets rather than the 3~4+ cabinets that the popular titles would always get (for example, titles like MK3/Ultimate usually had at least 3~5 cabinets, as would whatever the current iteration of SFII would) and by the time III finally showed up, arcades had moved on to mostly 3D titles and varied genres beyond fighters for the most part. I played SFIII maybe one time in the arcade, and soundly abandoned it. While I did notice the quality of the animation itself (the high frame count was clear), but stylistically it really didn't appeal to me, neither did the fact that most of the original roster was gone, replaced with characters I didn't recognize and therefore had no confidence in choosing since I wasn't certain that I would know their moveset (i.e. no guarantee a standard Hadoken/Hurricane Kick/Shoryuken/Flash Kick/Sonic Boom etc. movement would work, and no idea what would come out even if it did).

Great video, one thing about Alex; i agree he's an 80's throwback of a mascot, but I think his design owes far more to John Rambo than Hulk Hogan.

Great job dude what a great video

I think a majority of fighting game enthusiasts were either too young, like me, to really gravitate toward SF3 when it released or it was lost in the shuffle because of the VS. series, 3D fighters, and other more accessible fighters. I didn't really get into it until the mid 00s. On top of that, there weren't a lot of arcades within reasonable distance from home, but there were cabinets at different places that were usually more popular fighters and because I didn't have a dreamcast, I didn't play it till it was available on PS2. I love the game, sure, but the lashing out of its toxic fandom is wild. Very much appreciate your stuff, Top Hat Gaming Man. I hope you're doing alright.

Thanks for the consistent content fam. You’re right though. I’m 33 years old been a huge SF fan since the Second game, And never really heard of street fighter 3 until like 2005/2006.. we were playing alpha series , capcom vs snk etc. I don’t know why that’s just how it was here in NY at that time.

Wow, the emotional responses to your SF3 to your historical impact coverage is hilarious. Thanks for sharing these tear jerking expositions, truth is that SF2 went beyond the game community into pop culture, SF3 didn't reach that type hype, not that its a bad game, but choices made by Capcom did impact the reception, this does not deny that it has had a revival thanks to multiple ports and fan passion.

My journey with SF has been since the arcades in the early 90's. To now, it's difficult to share a thought or compare to other titles. I give you kudos for sharing the obstacles you have had to face. SF 3 was a game i had in my Dreamcast library. Double Impact & TS. Loved it from start to finish, even though some characters take time to master. But most of all what grabbed me was the animation, visuals, and music. It was the best title yet. I did enjoy SF2. Even though 3 went on with very few familiar faces, the new gang was worth the ride to learn. 3 was also an expansion, Third Strike. Seriously. The master work, precision, and learning curve. Even now with the Anniversary Collection on current consoles keeps that alive. As a longtime fan, I know the feels. We all see a game differently. Honestly I wish V from the start was a complete game. Seeing Champion Edition reminds me of the past, when everything came together to celebrate it's growth, changes, and fandom. Even though it's an obstacle course. I love SF, its just challenging to share what you love without being heckled. Top Hot Gaming, again + kudos for creating this companion video. As a fan, this hits deep. It goes beyond words to just say thank you.

Awesome video! I liked the first one, and seriously, a lot of delusional fight nerds showed up. Not everyone in the fighting game community are like that. Real original fans would know that SFIII was the darkest time in the SF franchise. Checking the original video recently, it seems like reason is more prevalent. It surprised me how many of them attacked the video over 3rd Strike, when SFIII (the 1st release) is what you were discussing. That release was horrible. The game itself was sound, but I clearly remember people not playing that machine for long. SFIII 3rd Strike is the game that everyone fondly remembers. Most of these kids never got to see an SFIII machine. There's a reason why Street Fighter IV took so long to be released - SFIII wasn't a successful release initially, and Capcom were ready to move on without them. Thank you for putting these people out there! It sure was fun!

its ate up that you have to explain this in further detail... cheerio old chap. keep calm, and carry on...

"DIEGO Umehara" LOLHaHaHa U made me laught so much now dude. UmeShoryu for U!!!

Happy Thanksgiving! I enjoy your videos alot and thank you for sharing your opinions! Will you be reading more comments in future videos?

I was in high school when sf3 came out... And there was an arcade 1 block way from my school.. XmenVsf Sf3 and tekken were huge having crowds around all 3 .... Especially between the hours of 3 and 6 pm

I remember when we played SF III 3rd Strike together. You were very cordial. You were very clean. We had fun. But after you had left, I noticed that my VHS copy of Christmas with Kathie Lee was missing. Yeeeaaahhh!

I love how the music is from the first two games, and NOT 3s lmao!

The salt I love this shit keep it up :D I'm a fan of street fighter and I love the vids especially the one about the game based on the film, The actor who played Vega jay Tavare sent me an autographed photo of himself as Vega a while back

I played the hell out of SF2 and Alpha 1/2. I would consider myself a huge fan of the series yet I remember the first time I heard about SF3 was when a friend showed me Third Strike on the Dreamcast. I was super impressed by it but never got around to owning it until I had it on the 360. Your original video was therefore extremely relevant to me and my original perception of SF3. Love your vids, keep up the good work.

Here's the thing about Street Fighter 3. It was something that I saw in a magazine that I was hugely excited for, but forgot about during the SF Alpha days because, while I could find just about any other version of SF that was popular at the time, SF3 didn't actually appear in an arcade near me until 2000. I played it briefly and thought the animation was stunning and I sat around waiting forever for this game to come to consoles, which eventually it did on the PS2 bundled with SF2 Anniversary. I didn't even know there were two other versions of the game. We got 3rd Strike and that was it. It wasn't until CPS3 emulation broke on the scene somewhere around 05 or 06 that I was even aware of any other version of SF3. That's how UNPOPULAR SF3 was, at least where I lived. And for that matter, I think I was the only person in my immediate area that actually owned a copy of it. Fighting games were huge in my area. But most people were playing MVC2 or Street Fighter Alpha 3, if they were playing a Capcom fighter at all. Those were the only 2 Capcom fighters that were largely represented in my area because 2D fighers had gone out of style. The rest of it was Tekken, the resurgence of Mortal Kombat, and the king at the time, Soul Calibur 2. SF3 didn't appear on anyone's radar, except for mine, until a little thing called Moment 37 happened. Then everyone wanted to play 3TS and all of a sudden you couldn't find a copy, new or used, in the area. Of particular importance, was the XBOX Version because of XBL. My point. SF3 was niche. It's a great game, still my favorite SF game in the entire series, but completely niche. And no I can't do the famous Diago parry regardless of the hours i put in on the training mode in the PS3/X360 release. The last part, the pronunciation of Ryu. Willing to bet, because this is how I learned to say it, was a little anime called Street Fighter 2 V. Before that, no one knew the pronunciation, no one cared about the pronunciation, and honestly I wish someone would have kicked my ass back in the day for force correcting everyone's pronunciation. Watching mental break down after mental breakdown on social media has taught me how utterly annoying I was and I'm glad that I was made painfully aware of it so I was forced to change because I didn't want to be anything like that.

This was a stupendous salt-inducing video response!! I loved every single second of it, too. 😂 You even got a response from SF Alpha 3 player Apoc! I know I bought 2 copies of W Impact. My best friend's Dreamcast scratched my first copy! I imported 3rd Strike and kept it at my house. TBH I preferred playing .Alpha 3 to 3rd Strike but I still loved it. I'm a die-hard fighting game fan who would frequent local arcades during the fighting game golden-age. Being from Northern California USA at a time when arcades were prevalent, even I admit that we were in a proverbial bubble of choice when it came to the genre here; with Capcom USA being in the Bay Area, we got to experience a lot of their new games (including limited releases) due to the sheer luck of proximity. Playing Darkstalkers and Cyberbots in the arcade were great experiences that many didn't get to have. Even attending Nor Cal Regionals in 2004 to be among the first to play Capcom Fighting Evolution was a great memory - It was broken and FUN! LOL I played and enjoyed the SF III series during this time as well; but even then, I knew only a relative few of us would truly give it the attention it deserved. It was a great game but with arcades on the decline (eventually being mostly relegated to university campuses in the early 00s) those outside of the hardcore FGC just didn't play it. We can't attack people who just present facts. It doesn't look good on the FGC to do so. Heck, I even enjoyed the Battle Arena Toshinden series as a young teen. It's awesome music and character designs kept me interested. You have to be a fan to even touch that game.

who the hell wants to play a street fighter game without Chun-li? not me

All 3 SF 3 games were great but I didn't play it till well after they came out. Keep the great content coming Mr. Top Hat Gaming Man. You are one of the best in the youtube game.

The rest of us would like you to stop hogging all of the salt.

2nd impact's soundtrack was sublime. Notice how THGM uses it so much in his video.

I love 3rd Strike,I had it for my Dreamcast back in da day,such great music and tight gameplay,gonna be getting it real soon for my PS2,In the form of SF anniversary collection ...Great game great video

Very well articulated. Good show!

Street Fighter 3 attracts the biggest posers. Great game but no one played or held it to high regard until the Daigo parry. CVS 2 and KOF 13 are also guilty of drawing posers who didn't play those game either.

As a devoted Street Fighter 3 fan I can agree that most people didn't play at the time of inception. Tbh what put Third Strike on the map was the tournament scene. And that famous match...

Sf3 and its iterations were not popular in the UK at the time of release. Your words are correct.

You said the reason it only shifted 80,000 units, it only came out on the Dreamcast which was not only not far away from ending Segas hardware days, but also, as you said in the video, proportionately had many less owners than its competitors. SF2 came out on everything eventually really didn’t it, during the height of the 16-bit console wars, of course it would have sold much much more.

it just sounds like because SFIII has a strong following in the fighting game community, they don't like hearing that it was not very popular upon release. No one played it in the 1990s, because arcades were dead and the Dreamcast didn't sell. One fact you don't draw much attention to is that the FANS had a huge backlash against it, because most of the SFII roster was not carried over--that's why they had to make Third Strike, it was a reaction to fan outrage. Which is the version everyone wants (only need to check ebay prices of Dreamcast Second Impact vs Third Strike). But by then it was too late, SF3 had a tainted rep and the Dreamcast was over. It became popular afterwards by people "discovering" this awesome SF game that never got any recognition when it was new.

Seriously anyone who says tekken didn’t rule the arcade at the end of the 90s either has memory loss or wasn’t alive at the time

SF3 was so much fun upon release. We’d always jump to have people Shoryuken us and parry that shit.

I was a huge Street Fighter fan growing up, and huge fighting game fan in general. I was surprised to accidentally find Street Fighter 3 on sale for the Dreamcast as I simply didn't know it existed. Maybe it was a UK thing, but all you'd hear about was Soul Calibur, Tekken, Dead or Alive etc. Little Street Fighter 3 was pushed to the side and overlooked. People trying to rewrite history claiming it was "massively popular" are only deluding themselves. As great a game as it was (and I'll never dispute nor try and take that away from you), it wasn't popular at the time. A few years on though, a certain Evo moment and more of a "community" behind it and that changed for the better. 3rd Strike is still one of the best titles in the SF line-up in my book, but there is no getting around the fact that I learned of its existence purely by accident DESPITE being a huge fan of the genre.

I never even saw a Street Fighter 3 cabinet in an arcade. I saw plenty of 2, darkstalkers, and they had one of the Alpha cabinets at uni, but I never knew what any of the 3 games involved until I saw your videos.

my god....imagine a fighting game tournament taking place in a salt mine...IT WOULD BE LEGENDARY!

I've read that makoto was written as to be ryu's little sister in Street fighter 3 third strike.. but was changed during late development.. is there any concept art of this? Maybe like a hand-drawn ending that never made it to the real arcade.

Street fighter 3rd strike is my all time favorite game and has been since it released on Dreamcast. But. I am fully aware of it failing to grab the attention of the consumer. These people are crazy.

Yeah, that was definitely a big thing I remember people pissed off about them getting rid of all the older characters.

Dude I graduated high school in 98. I remember Street Fighter 3 when it was new. At that time in general 2D gaming was dead in the arcade. Nobody cared. Everybody was all about 3D Fighters Tekken 2 Tekken 3. Street Fighter EX even though it sucked. Stuff like that. Even still it was a bomb. All I did was show off cps-3 which at the end of the day got three to four games tops . It was crap. You took every character that was great about Street Fighter 2 and took them out of the game except the basic characters from the very first game. You gave us a bunch of new characters with a Sprinkle of final fight . Street Fighter 3 never ever saw the type of Glory in the arcade that Street Fighter 2 saw. Street Fighter 3 wasn't even relevant on the Home console Market until it hit Dreamcast. It's 2020. Even when Street Fighter 3 got re-released in HD on PlayStation 3 nobody cared and anybody who does play it online or did at the time gave it the Glory it ever got. You did not do this game an injustice with your review. You hit the nail right on the head. The only thing that came out of Street Fighter 3 was it further tie to final fight and Street Fighter universes together

I'm actually pretty good at this game, and put a ridiculous amount of hours into it. I've been around since the early 90s. I can say with confidence I didn't know this game existed till 2010. It is NOW one of my all time favorites, but it really didn't get any attention at it's time and that's the unfortunate reality. It's also why we haven't seen a game with it's mechanics since. I didn't have any gripes with your original video, I thought it was pretty spot on. It's sad what subject matters people will take so personally.

Been watching all these fighting game videos he's been dropping. This one right here though, is top tier. Like a diss track to the comments. This is good shit

I don't even think that "we" realize how hard that cab was even to find. it is truly baffling that people can't look at a KZfaq video and understand it's about personal perspective, take things personal, or understand how their world isn't THE world.

Sadest thing is at least 30 percent of the commenters probably werent even around when SF3 hit the arcades

Daigo represented exactly how serious this Street Fighter incarnation was. Straight up dedication. Much respect is still due.

Great video and sorry you have to deal with such toxicity. People take entertainment too seriously.

great video.

A character like Stone Cold Steve Austin in Street Fighter? Give me a hell yeah!

Watched the whole video, was significantly less surprised than I thought I'd be. Similar stuff happens in the Mega Man community if you try to say that Legends wasn't popular and that ZX didn't sell well.

Hope you are enjoying Romania, that was a surprise location haha.

the tangent about using your childhood to justify being intentionally racist towards Ryu is what pushed me over the edge into thinking this has to be a bit. There's no way any real person could still be this fedorapilled in 2019.

Your original video was spot on. I’ve been playing Street Fighter since World Warrior. I loved Street Fighter 3 but it was not popular at that time compared to other games of the time. Anyone who says different just doesn’t know what they talking about. Keep the videos coming man. AND 2ND IMPACT IS BETTER THAN THIRD STRIKE! Come at me bro.

Hello! I discovered your channel recently and have been enjoying the content thus far, particularly the fighting game content. Fighting games are perhaps my favorite video game genre and have been since the 90's. Street Fighter is definitely my series of choice, but I do love KOF and Guilty Gear dearly (and SamSho, Soul Cal, Darkstalkers, ect.). Anyway, I remember when SFIII came out vividly. I wanted to play it but I was a console gamer, not an arcade gamer. Even so, I do remember thinking that the character roster was disappointing. I wasn't familiar with any of the characters and Ryu and Ken are not among my favorites. So, instead I went to SFAlpha3 (my all time fav SF game). Later in the early 2000's I acquired a Dreamcast and immediately purchased SFIII:3rd Strike. To my chagrin the game didn't play. Couldn't get it to load up at all. I purchased three different copies of the game and ran into the same problem everytime! Someone somewhere didn't want me playing. So I went with the next closest thing, Double Impact. It was fun but it just didn't hook me like SFA3 had. It wasn't until the SFII Anniversary Collection on PS2 came out that I really took to SFIII:3rd Strike (somewhere around 2006?) and recognized how amazing the game truly was (I still think Alex is underwhelming though along with many others, 'cough' Remy 'cough' Makoto). Anyway, I never really heard anyone talking about SFIII back in the day save from my circle of friends, but to be fair I did live in the middle of nowhere. Today, as a 36 year old gamer whose been playing SF more years than I haven't, I love SFIII and enjoy playing as all of the characters immensely. But SFA3 is still my favorite SF game, second would be SSFIV (where I welcomed every SFIII character they gave me). To this day I wish Capcom would release a SF game featuring EVERY character ever featured in a SF game (in 2D of course). Keep up the awesome content! Fight on!

it’s DAI-GO not “Diego” SMH

Westabou is the term. There will be people in the world that just like other countries and cultures.

Much like you, I also had SF2 on SNES (SF2 Turbo actually) and me and every one around me would say, "Raiyou". For reference, Im American. Anyway, I didnt realize it was said "Ryu" until playing the newly released Super SF2 in the arcades 1993. I remember I was fighting a Ryu player and he won, and the announcer said, "Ryu wins". At first I was like, "You? There are two of us, who is you" lol. Sounded like "You". I soon realized how his name was actually said. Slowly tried to say it more correctly over time. One part was, I wanted to learn Japanese, the other part was, I had a Japanese friend who I met that same year who laughed when I said Mai Shiranui`s last name lol. Thats another name many ppl mess up. But I get it, if you dont speak Japanese, how would you know? Saying the name wrong though weve known for over 2 decades how its correctly pronounced I guess is cool because ppl know what your talking about, but you sound pretentious and stubborn by saying, ppl who say it correctly are "weebs". I guess that comes with the "Top Hat" moniker. Ive been living in Japan for well over a decade now, and when I tell Japanese ppl how most American`s used to say Ryu, they almost always laugh. But I tell them its the same when we hear "Makudonarudo". In most cases, if you say any English words that are also used in Japan with its original pronunciation, most ppl wont even know what you said. And saying "Riiyuu" is a lot closer than "Raiyou". At least if you were talking in context, a Japanese person would understand "Riiyuu". The way "Raiyou" is said, has a similar pronunciation to ラー油　"Raayuu" which is a spicy red oil you put in ramen. Which is where that laughter comes from :D. I remember I disliked the SF3 series upon release. Even though I say this, I had both SF3 Double Impact and 3S on Dreamcast which I would casual play with friends. I had one friend who always wanted to play it with me, to which I would sigh and frown lol. Apart from the fact that cades were dying and I hardly saw it anywhere anyway. 2nd Impact and 3S were a different story though, as I saw them at various cades, though hardly anyone was playing it. Even though ppl say it was EVO 2004 that kickstarted 3S popularity, I think it only strengthened it. I started college in 2001, and they had a 3S machine and ppl were always playing it. I then transferred to another school and they also had a 3S machine. It was the same situation, ppl were lined up during breaks and inbetween classes to play 3S. There were only 3 machines at the second college, one was MvC and a Neo Geo cabinet which nobody was playing. I was like, "damn, ppl like 3S more than I thought." It was at this time I started to get into 3S. I went from hating the parry mechanic and characters to loving them, once I got a good grasp of them. Then I would go to cades like Golf Land and others like it and see that this game had a cult following, well before EVO 2004. But as you said, it was a small hardcore crowd which seemed huge when you are in those circles of ppl who loved the game during that era.

I remember Third Strike being in arcades, but honestly, I played Super Turbo and Tekken 3 more. And then Marvel VS Capcom 2 and Capcom VS SNK 2 grabbed my attention after they were released. Those were good times... I didn't become a fan of 3S until it was released on the SF Anniversary Collection on the PS2 in 2004. I continued playing it via the Online Edition on the PS3, and most recently on the 30th Anniversary Collection on Steam. It's easily one of my favorite all-time fighting games. I used to play as just Chun-Li, Akuma, and Sean, but lately I've been trying out Twelve, Elena, and Hugo. It's still so awesome after all these years.