Street Fighter Alpha 3

The Good
After years of minimally adjusted sequels and spin-offs Capcom finally set out to release the definitive Street Fighter title, by just jamming every character, gameplay mode and feature you could think of in order to finally make the series justice.

The first thing that hits you besides the fancy new techno look and music is the revamped interface, which far from the usual dip switch-like Capcom template for home conversions features nicely rendered menus with several choices to tune up and modes to play with. Capcom finally listened to it's fans and provided new game modes besides the usual Vs, practice and arcade ones. You have a new range of multiplayer, team, etc. options to choose from but the real winner here is the inclusion of a "World Tour" mode, which is an exciting tournament mode in which you start with a plain vanilla version of a character and gradually improve him by unlocking his/her moves (some exclusive to the mode) and stats by winning mission-like battles were you have to, for instance win a battle without jumping, or by using only kicks or grapples, etc... The rpg angle keeps you coming for more and the option to later take the character to a friend's house or into the other game modes is a definitive plus enabling you and your friends to work out on your customized character and then duke it out among each other. Additionally you get extra modes that change the balance of the game by giving each character massive strenght, speed, etc. directly ported from the time-unlockable modes in the arcade original, and the japanese version even comes with a pocket-station add-on game to take on the road!! How much more can you get??

As for the game itself Alpha 3 makes a series of major changes that for once manage to keep everyone happy. The fighting system is basically the same as in SFA2, with an added block bar that helps put a stop to "turtlers" and which once depleted leaves you unable to block and stunned (but not in the same way as SF3's stun bar) and then starts over with a shorter bar, great addition.

The game mechanics have been splitted into 3 different fighting styles, or "-isms" that change how each character plays. Z-ism is standard Alpha style gameplay, with the classic 3-level power bar, counters, etc. X-ism is SF2-like gameplay, with far stronger special moves and a single (but devastating) power bar minus the counters and combo possibilities of the Z-ism, and finally there's the V-ism which works as the custom combo system from SFA2 and makes your character slightly faster and with more combos. What does all of this mean? That essentially there's a flavor for everyone, enabling you to play Street Fighter the way you want to play it, and with whoever you want to play it. Why's that? Because the next big-ass addition in the game by far comes courtesy of it's massive character lineup. There's no joking here, the amount of characters in the original arcade version was massive already, but for the home versions it's downright staggering! Every character from SFA2 is joined by EVERY character from the classic SSF2 with an updated look, and on top of that Capcom even dared to include original characters like Sakura's rival Karyn, busty wrestler R.Mika, Cody from Final Fight and a couple of Cammy clones... Result? 31 frigging characters!! And that's without counting the secret ones!!!

The only side effect of this lineup is that the plot of the game has no place anywhere in the continuity and thus it takes place in an alternate reality of sorts, kind of like The King of Fighters '98 only far cooler. And on top of that each character is superbly balanced and the game even holds it up when mixing up the different -isms and modes (though I'm not too familiar with the V-ism).

The Bad
The whole Techno-thing can get annoying after a while, specially with the announcer and his stupid "encouraging" lines, sheeesh...

There's also the issue of load times and quite obvious missing frames of animation for lots of characters, but that's a given when you are talking 2d fighters for the psx.

The Bottom Line
The biggest, baddest, most feature-packed Street Fighter title ever released, the ultimate in the series and quite possibly the finest traditional 2D fighter ever released. This is what Street Fighter 3 should have been, a celebration of everything that is Street Fighter. If you've got to have only 1 fighting game then make it Alpha 3, it's the best so far without any doubt. Hadoken!!

The Good
Alpha 3 is a classic Street Fighter. Plenty of characters, heaps even, some great moves and smooth hand drawn animation. It's unlike any other Street Fighter title.

The inclusion of the three fighting styles, called -isms, is a neat touch and adds even further to the lastability of the game. Not to mention some of the crazy moves on offer here for some of the characters, with out of this world combos (more whacky and stylish than Killer Instinct or Tekken).

The range of characters is outstanding. Everyone is here to play, including old faithful Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li. The new additions, plus some forgotten favs are fun to play around with as well. There's just so many to choose from!!

Although the arcade and multiplayer modes will be where most of the action is, I guarantee that World Tour mode is worth trying. It's like the Diablo of the fighter genre, where you receive points after every round you complete. As you go along you'll play the many different styles, pick-up some of the many special moves exclusive to the mode and open up some characters along the way as well. It's a great mode, and the bonus is you can use your character from that in all of the other modes. Sweet

The Bad
There are a few downsides. Load times are minimal, but they still get annoying. Speaking of annoying, the commentator here really got on my nerves after the first few hours of play. A real pain.

The Bottom Line
It's the best Street Fighter out there to date, besides the many titles in the Vs. series (e.g. Capcom vs SNK, another fav of mine). A must buy for anyone interested in the series, or fighting games in general.