Capcom over the years have developed several 3D games for the original Playstation. The Resident Evil series, and Star Gladiators being their best known work. It seems strange that they elected to have another company make the Street Fighter EX series for the Playstation. Arika won that honour and did not disappoint with both Street Fighter EX, and EX2 being as good, if not better than their arcade counterparts. Now the Playstation2 is home to Arika's first attempt at bringing Chun Li and Co to the next level.

Graphically EX3 is without a doubt the best looking of the series. Sadly the jump upward seems more like a hop. While character models have been much improved they lack the level of improvement that Tekken Tag Tournament bestowed upon its fighters. Instead they look much like their older siblings only smoother. The same applies to the backgrounds to a lesser extent. Some even show off effects that are definitely next generation, but overall the whole effect leaves one with a sense of understatement. Special effects have always been a staple of the Street Fighter diet and EX3 delivers this without question. Super moves and combos deliver brilliant pyrotechnic displays of light and sound that sometimes dazzle the players enough to make on-screen battle hard to make out for a moment. This does not detract from the game, as hardened experts will know what is happening. Novices new to the game will just appreciate it for its entertaining glory.

There has been some mention as to horrid amounts of slowdown that make the game close to unplayable. Over several hours of play in the various modes this flaw did not occur. At times the action did slow down some, but not enough to warrant annoyance. Even so, this affliction was only found in the Japanese version. Arika have made the U.S. version superior to it's Asian cousin as it has been retooled, and recoded to totally eliminate those problems as well as adding in some new touches. Hopefully the PAL release of this game will benefit from the latter as well.

All the standard game modes are included, as well as some new ones that allow multiple fighters to engage in combat at the same time - either AI controlled, or player. To say that the combat can get hectic is an understatement. Without proper co-ordination with friends the ensuing battles quickly breakdown into a pseudo-free for all. Still it's a kick to have so much happening on screen at once and should be considered a must for game parties.

Another mode worthy of mention is the advanced training mode. In this section you control a new character called 'Ace'. His default attacks are extremely basic and do not even include a single special attack. Training requires Ace to do specific actions against an AI enemy. Succeeding in those missions rewards the player with varying amounts of points. These points can be spent to buy new moves for Ace. The range is limited at first but eventually encompasses all the available special moves. This new improved Ace can then be saved to memory card and used in the normal modes of play. For veteran SF fans this means they will have the unique ability of literally building their dream fighter. Ace cannot use all available attacks, as many attacks conflict with their button/control combinations, so specific attacks must be picked. I.e. - Ace could happily use Ryu's Fireball, but not Doctrine Dark's lasso as they both use the same button combo. This does not prove to be too much of a hindrance as most gamers have played the series before and already have their favourite fighters. Most likely they'll merely want to 'tweak' their fighter to remove an attack they do not like, and instead replace it with something they do. Regardless, it's main attraction will be having differing players coming together - loading up their own versions of Ace and seeing who has the better fighter. There are literally thousands of different possibilities so creative expression is given a license to go wild and explore. Akuma's air fireball, Zangiev's screw piledriver, Bison's psycho crusher...you can appreciate the potential.

The line-up of fighters number well over a dozen with several others hidden away and can only be unlocked when the game has been defeated. Old favourites Ryu, Ken, & Guile return as well as some older faces - Blanka & Vega being just two. There are some new faces as well, but you'll have to find out about them the hard way...Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise now would we?