Over two years in development, Street Fighter III (much like Street Fighter II before it) brings a cast of nearly all new characters, a new graphics style, and a revamped fighting system. Perennial favorites Ken and Ryu return from Street Fighter II, while the rest of the cast is made up of entirely new characters. Alex tough New Yorker who fights to avenge his defeated martial arts instructor, is the central character. Other members of the New Generation include Yung & Yang, twin Chinese masters of Kung Fu; Dudley, a gentlemanly Afro-British boxer; Ibuki, a female, high school-aged Ninja from Japan; Elena, the daughter of an African tribal leader; Oro, a 140-year-old hermit who fights with one arm; Necro, a Russian cyberpunk; and Sean, Ken's would-be student from Brazil. Each posses unique fighting styles and a variety of user selectable, custom moves.

Street Fighter III boasts several major revisions to its popular fighting system. The addition of Parrying now allows players to deflect oncoming attacks. This is an aggressive form of blocking, and adds a whole new dynamic to gameplay. Players now choose one of three different Super Art moves for each character (formerly known as Super Combos) before the fight begins. This adds even more depth to head-to-head matches, as every fight is different depending on the Super Art choices of players. Street Fighter III's gameplay will be extremely familiar and comfortable to fans of the Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha series, while the new revisions add substantial complexity, depth and innovation.

Most notable upon first review, Street Fighter III is visually the most stunning, fluid animated game ever created. Capcom introduces Street Fighter III on the all-new, 32-bit CPS III hardware. CPS III is a major, industry-leading step forward in the world of arcade game technology. Street Fighter III features up to 64 colors per animated sprite and 36,000 colors for each background. CPS III utilizes a CD-ROM drive with 776 megabits of RAM. Capcom has taken advantage of the extra storage space to add many more frames of animation per character. For instance, Ryu's Hadoken attack was animated using only four frames of animation in Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha. In Street Fighter III, this move utilizes a stunning 14 frames of animation. The result of the new hardware: Street Fighter III's graphics are four times more colorful, and 150% - 250% smoother due to the additional animation frames.

"We are confident we have a game worthy of the title Street Fighter III," stated Mr. Yoshiki Okamoto, director of research and development for Capcom Co., Ltd. "Our new hardware is the best in the industry for an animated game. We believe our fans will appreciate the extra time and extraordinary effort behind the game."

"Ever since Street Fighter II was released in 1991, millions of fans around the world have been clamoring for Street Fighter III," said Steve Blattspieler, vice president sales and marketing for Capcom Coin-Op. "We are now very proud to introduce Street Fighter III, the next step in the evolution of 2D fighting, as the newest installment to the world's premier fighting series."

Capcom, with its status as the world's foremost publisher of fighting games, could not arbitrarily assign the prestigious title to just any game. Instead, Capcom adopted a long-term strategy of updating Street Fighter II and its subsequent prequel series, Street Fighter Alpha, with new features until a title worthy of this legendary designation was ready. This resulted in five iterations of Street Fighter II and two versions of Street Fighter Alpha over the past five years, creating the most successful, long-standing product line in video game history. The New Generation will make its debut six years after Street Fighter II. For Street Fighter III to achieve its truly landmark status the game could not be rushed.

Care has been taken by Capcom to address any issues that came up after the release of Resident Evil including Americanizing the script. "I don't know. I think we're all going to miss the 'master of unlocking'," continued Seydoux, recalling one of the more notorious lines from Resident Evil. "We at Capcom have a deep affection for Resident Evil which continues to sell - now, to a new and larger PlayStation audience. But we're also waiting with the legion of fans who've played the first game to play and be frightened by the new Resident Evil 2."

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