@Warlike: Whee, one person started playing 3S (again) due to this thread. Mission accomplished. 
Also, up for some games some time(given that you play on XBL that is)? I probably won’t be any challenge, but the more people I have to play with, the better. =p
I main Ken, by the way. I blame the fact that I played him in SFA3 when I was like ten years old.
I said a few times if I were to teach someone a SF game, I’d pick 3S or ST.
IMO at a beginner level, I think SF4 requires you to learn too much at once (links, can’t special/super cancel unless you link your last normal, etc.) compared to 3S.
I was thinking of making a thread like this for a while. I find Third Strike easier to teach beginners than SF4. There’s a lot fewer mechanics and annoying tricks to worry about, you move faster and the combos are short.
Much harder to master than most games, but definitely easier to learn.
I always see Dutch players like AQH NL and Nosferatu6D playing OE on Xbox Live, you should get in touch with them. They are good players and really nice guys.
3S is a way harder game to learn. Here is why:
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This game teaches you to block and counter in ways SF4 barely scratches the surface. Seth and Viper shenanigans don’t even touch the surface when it comes to Urien/Oro unblockables. Wake up to an cross-up aegis and learn immediately your only option is to parry.
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Try to wake-up SRK on reaction and not get stuffed by a meaty or parried for a punish of half your life bar. Get hit by a Makoto 100% and watch your opportunity to do anything get squandered.
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Try getting hit and loosing half your life by a cr.mk xx SA2 w/ Chun-li only to realize is that you stood up for a split second and did not block.
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Sure, 3S has fewer match-ups but wait till you learn your tried and true juggles don’t even work on some characters without added memorization, variation and experience.
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Play any great player and watch them completely demolish your metagame. Watch them predict your moves and fully punish everything. Sorry no easy reversal windows here.
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It’s not as link heavy as SF4 when it comes to B+B’s but those combos are born out of redundancy and often become very easy to predict. Unfortunately, SF4 rewards this kinda thing. In 3S you try doing the same thing over and get red parried and SA’d you immediately think twice about doing that same combo.
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I must admit playing the top characters in 3S does not solidify success but it makes it much easier. Try learning a low tier only to discover that your best in certain scenarios is simply not good enough. Virtually anything you do results in you having to parry just to survive.
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Almost all of your tricks and standard tech is removed from the equation. Try zoning with Ryu’s fireballs for half the round and see how it’s netted you virtually no damage and zero meter gain due to your opponent parrying everything. Try full proof frame traps just to see them predicted parried and punished.
…and the list goes on.
All of these things listed above barely mean anything to a SF4 player until they play 3S and learn that SF4 tricks, comeback mechanics, and exploits mean virtually nil in 3S. If you break down 3S at an advanced level this game is much more complex than any SF to have ever been released. This is not selling any of the other titles short but it’s the truth.
Edit: I would like to add that I have been playing SF most of my waking life and still feel like a total scrub when I play 3S.
All of those things are reasons why 3S is a harder game to master, and also why it’s more fun. None of those things matter at lower level.*
Why don’t they matter at lower level? Because people can’t pull most of that stuff off yet. When you’re into the game, the skill ceiling is drastically higher, but the learning curve in the beginning was a lot smoother in 3S, at least for me.
- Well, except the reveral SRKs that even in SF4 are something a scrub like me knows that you can bait out. Oh, and the “you lost half your health from a super” matters too, which is totally not what happens when Ryu hits you with a cross-up tatsu -> super in SF4.
also this is why 3S is more reliant on good netplay, unlike SF4.
3s is very easy to get into. Many characters have pretty easy combos which also happen to be the “correct” ones to use; few matchups is also a good point.
Becoming good is another matter though
I don’t even understand what this topic is about. You’re trying to get the “elitists to quiet down a bit” but you also don’t want to address medium to high level play at all? Like everything you’re describing is true when you first start playing the game, but not really after. So what’s the point? When people say “3s is harder to get good at than 4” they’re not talking beginning level play. And if we’re only talking about beginning level play, well there again SF4 is easier to get into. The rules are pretty simplified compared to 2 and 3, defense is a lot better, things are safer than they usually are in the series. You might think the mechanics are kind of stupid and that mashed our shoryus are stupid and that mostly safe crouching roundhouses and tatsus are really dumb but that doesn’t mean 3s is easier to get into, it just means that SF4 isn’t a particularly good game. or at least doesn’t appeal to you. which hey, sign me up for that boat.
And I don’t mean to be snarky, but FADC Ultra is really goddamn easy. It doesn’t even make sense to say that cancelling into super in 3s is easier than FADC Ultra - FADC Ultra is basically a hit confirm you have all day to do. Unless you’re talking about the mechanics or something. Like “FADC Ultra is slightly harder to input than cr mk xx sa3” or something. That’s all I can think of. cancelling into super in 3s and FADC Ultra in SF4 are the same thing except you need to have way better reactions to actually confirm the hit in 3s.
Yeah, that’s the reasons why I’ve been told SF4 is easier to get into, and yet I still think it was easier to get into 3S. Reason? I couldn’t reliably do basic combos, imput leniency or not. I can do several of them in 3S.
edit: I guess I’m just bitter that I got scared away from 3S for so long, now that I think about it. Thus the thread, to vent some anger. Also, the thread is very much a product of me procrastinating. I don’t want to read genetics right now. :<
Yeah, it’s mechanically speaking, because that’s one of the main limiting factors for beginners. The thing is, FADC ultra isn’t just “slightly harder to input”, unless you’re used to fighting games. It took me about five minutes to reliably pull off c.MK -> super in 3S training mode. I still tend to blow it off on blocking opponents from time to time because I’m bad, but at least I know the inputs and can thus actually do the combo. In SF4, I spent a couple of hours trying to learn FADC ultra with Ryu, and I still couldn’t do it reliably. I hit the ultra about three times during that time, and people I know who had been trying to do it for longer than me were impressed that I even managed to hit it at all.
If you’ve played fighting games before, FADC might be a pretty easy mechanic to master. For a beginner, it’s really hard to get your head around it, yet it’s still the most reliably way to land a lot of the ultras. 3S supers are very easy to do in comparison,
Yeah but in 5 minutes you cant hitconfirm c mk sa3… you can only do it which isnt anything at all.
FADC ultra is was easier than confirming cmk into sa3 10 out of ten times. What you’re telling me is you dont confirm and just do it wily nily
EDIT: this thread is stupid and should be locked tbh
Ugh drakenslag consists of a group of very rude players, no thanks. Also I’m on PSN.
It’s basically this, If you go to Japan and walked into an arcade and played a match of 3rd Strike, you’d get bodied, and never touch the game again. You go to the SF4 Cabinet get wrecked but not as bad as you did in 3rd Strike and start to play that regularly.
When SF4 was new and all, perhaps that was true.
I’m not so sure about that now. You only have to pay attention to the newbies complaining about being double perfected on their first online matches in AE2012.
People getting pissy in this thread is seriously lacking reading comprehension.
no one is getting pissy
I agree with him that 3s is more attractive for beginners to get into. it’s more fun, you can do things that feel rewarding faster, the mechanics feel better, the walk speed is better. I just don’t agree with some specific points he made.
the reason 3S is more difficult for beginners is because it involves elements of self-restraint that don’t exist to the same degree in other games. 99% of supers and around 80% of the special moves are unsafe in 3S. a good percentage of normal moves are unsafe. 95% of the moves a beginner would “decide” to do are probably going to be obvious, and being obvious in 3S = a lot worse than being obvious in other games. one thing that beginners can’t seem to do is refrain from doing the first thing that pops into their head, and that’s not something that 3S tolerates, both because of parrying and the fact that so many moves are unsafe unless used properly. noob vs noob matches mean nothing in every game (which a lot of your post seems to be referencing), and this doesn’t mean it’s harder to win a tournament, but i don’t think anyone cares about accessibility at that point.
also, random notes: matchmaking in 3S is awful for a hundred reasons, and come on. beginners don’t do trials. everybody knows that. the whole problem with beginners is that they buy the game and hop online without knowing anything because the online play is the only part they find enjoyment in.
Regardless of the OP arguments, the point of his “wall of text” was to encourage new players to not be afraid to learn third strike.
Naeras what is your XBL tag
you said you want to play people from here right? I’m not amazing and I live in a isolated place so the connection may be bad but I’m always willing to play.