Sometimes games can hide references to other media, but directly taking elements from other art pieces is much less common. Despite this, a connection has been found between the classic Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and, surprisingly, a Batman series that aired more than 30 years before the game's development.
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is a direct follow-up to Street Fighter 2, though the Street Fighter Alpha spinoff games released in between 2 and 3 iterated upon the gameplay and visuals. Street Fighter 3's presence on CD-ROM-centric hardware allowed for higher detail in graphics and sound.
As submitted to the Fairly Frequent Fighting Game Facts account, whenever the Super Meter is filled in the game a two-word voice clip plays, stating, "let's go." As shown in the video clip, the voice is a slightly pitched-down version of a line from the 1966 Batman TV series, cut out of the phrase "To the Batmobile, let's go." Presumably, it was cut down both because it would make more sense, and including a more direct reference to the iconic Batmobile would be a legal nightmare.
Interestingly, the reference may have been completely unintentional; the sample comes from a "sample disc," a disc that contains various audio samples for use in commercial projects. The iconic sample can even be heard in other games like R-Type Leo, Sonic Shuffle, and Rhythm Thief. Sample CDs were incredibly popular among development studios in the mid-to-late 1990s, and their influence lasted long into the following decades as game soundtracks continued to evolve.
While Batman himself has never appeared in a Street Fighter game, he has starred in numerous licensed video games and even made an appearance in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, so his presence as a fighting game character undeniably exists. However, while Street Fighter lends its characters to crossovers often and a Mortal Kombat crossover has been discussed, Street Fighter crossovers within its own series are something of a rarity.
Even if an official crossover between Street Fighter and Batman will probably never happen, the sampling in Street Fighter 3 remains an interesting case for games of the era. Arcade cabinets that could play audio samples had already existed for years at the game's release, but the upfront use of the Batman sample has given Street Fighter 3 its own legacy as attentive players notice the connection. The larger budgets and more powerful hardware available to the modern Street Fighter games may have brought improvements, but it can be difficult to top the impact of the classics.
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is available on Arcade and Dreamcast.
Source: WhoSampled