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Monday, June 28th, 2021
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SFIII: 3rd Strike Early Character Portraits by Daigo Ikeno
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 It's amazing that after 3 decades of studying fighting game artwork, we can still come across rare early renditions and rough sketches of the final illustrations that
we know and
love from countless games. Today, Street Fighter series Art Director and Designer, Takayuki Nakayama, shared some early portraits of the
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike cast that predate the original launch of the game in 1999. Nakayama tweeted a photo of this magazine scan (below), showing early "sketchy" character portraits (drawn by Daigo Ikeno) that would eventually be "cleaned up" for the iconic
SF III: 3rd Strike character selection and versus screens. At a quick glance, you might not notice much difference, but upon closer examination you'll see that several early "sketchy" versions differ from the final ones that made the cut to 3rd Strike, as is the case for Dudley,
Twelve,
Ryu and
Akuma... and they're awesome to see! Scroll down for a closer
comparison. 
In a reply to Nakayama on Twitter, @ryo_redcyclone tweeted a quick comparison of these early versions side-by-side with the final promo artwork / versus portraits.
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Good thing for Twelve... he was upgraded to a new model. 
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Dudley's chiseled jaw and mouth placement
definitely look more defined in the final version (right).
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In Ryu's case... the shoto hero got an entirely new angle.
Perhaps he looked a bit "young" for SFIII in the first rendition?
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Akuma's face details & nose shape were redrawn.
Early 3S Akuma also had pupils? 
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Click Here for the full Portrait Gallery
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Hope you enjoyed the comparisons! Appreciating fighting game artwork never gets old. Keep it here on Fighters Generation for more fighting game news and content.
~TFG Webmaster, Frank Joseph |
@Fighters_Gen
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| Sources:
@takanakayama,
@ryo_redcyclone Related Tweet:
@Fighters_Gen
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Related News | July 2021
Early Guilty Gear 1998 Concept Art, Character Designs
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The original Guilty Gear fighting game launched on PS1 in May 1998 and was in development for at least 1 and a half years. Several of Guilty Gear's iconic fighters underwent some major design changes before the final release. Take a look at some early character
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Related News:
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Related TFG Links: SFIII: 3S,
Artist Profiles, Ryu,
Akuma,
Dudley,
Twelve |
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