Street Fighter Alpha
The
Street Fighter Alpha (
Street Fighter Zero outside the
USA,
Europe, and
Australia) series of
fighting games is part of the
Street Fighter series by
Capcom. The series serves as a
prequel to
Street Fighter II, and explains the events which happen before that game.
There are three games in the series:
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Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (
SFA)
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Street Fighter Alpha 2 (
SFA2)
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Street Fighter Alpha 3 (
SFA3)The names of the game are commonly abbreviated to
SFA, plus the series number.
There are also many versions of the game with slight modifications, as well as ports to home
consoles.
The series has been ported to the
PlayStation,
Sega Saturn,
Sega Dreamcast,
Game Boy Color,
PlayStation Portable, and
Game Boy Advance.
SFA and
SFA2 were ported to the
PC;
SFA2 was also ported to the
SNES, making it the last
Street Fighter game for that console.
Capcom has released
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (
Street Fighter Zero: Fighters' Generation in Japan), which includes
SFA1,
SFA2,
SFA2 Gold,
SFA3, and
Pocket Fighter (as
Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix) . It was released on 6/13/06 for the
PS2.
After
Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the main producers claim to have been at a loss as to what to do next, despite large demand for
Street Fighter III. Inspired perhaps by the
Street Fighter II movie,
Alpha was born. The game was drawn in the
sprite style that was used for
Darkstalkers, a similar fighting game. Also borrowed from was the concept of a super bar with multiple stocks (
Darkstalkers had allowed for three while
Super Turbo allowed only for one), as well as the (although eventually dropped)
Chain Combo.
One particular secret feature of
Alpha that supports the claim that
Alpha was inspired by the movie is the
Dramatic Battle mode, in which two characters (
Ryu and
Ken) would fight a third (
M. Bison) at the same time, similar to the ending of the movie. This feature was a fairly popular part of
Alpha, and at least one version of each game would have a hidden option to fight in
Dramatic Battles.
Each game in the
Alpha series can be seen to be updating the storyline in the previous games. This combined with Capcom's decision to
change some of the storyline after the games have been released has made the
Street Fighter II story confusing.
Each game in the series introduced more characters from
Street Fighter II. Characters were also introduced from other games such as
Final Fight and the original
Street Fighter.
Gameplay
The fighting system of
Street Fighter Alpha is based on those of previous
Street Fighter games, with a different super combo gauge from that of
Super Turbo. The super combo gauge, similar to
Darkstalkers, was divided into three levels. The amount of super combo gauge that was required to perform a super combo depended on the number of buttons pressed, and later on, the strength of the button.
The one major addition to the
Alpha system was the introduction of
Custom Combos or
Original Combos in
Alpha 2. A
Custom Combo would allow a character to chain any move into any other move, while the super meter gradually decreased. Although the ability to perform super combos were unaffected, characters were kept in forward motion, so the character was left vulnerable should the opponent end up on the other side of the character. In
Alpha 3, and other fighting games where
Custom Combos are used, characters were not kept in forward motion, but the ability to perform super combos were restricted or eliminated altogether.
The
gameplay and characters used in
Alpha were the basis of many
Street Fighter spinoffs, and some characters considered to be central characters in the plot were first introduced in the
Alpha series.
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams
The original
SFA was released in
1995 as the prequel to
Street Fighter II. Fans were disappointed that the game did not feature nearly as fluid animation as
Darkstalkers. In addition it was felt by many fans that the game was rushed to release, with a low number of characters and stages.
Characters
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Adon (returns from
Street Fighter)
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Akuma (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Birdie (returns from
Street Fighter)
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Charlie*
Chun-Li (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Dan*
Guy (returns from
Final Fight)
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Ken (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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M. Bison (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Rose*
Ryu (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Sagat (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Sodom (returns from
Final Fight)
Street Fighter Alpha 2
This was released in
1996 as an update to the original
SFA. The story behind this game is a
retcon of those found in
Alpha, and
canonically, all but one ending (
Charlie's) occurred (although, some of the endings in
Alpha 2 could be considered as continuation of endings from the original
Alpha, particularly
Ken's and
Sagat's).
Alpha 2 brought back every character from
Alpha, including the
hidden characters Dan,
Akuma, and M. Bison.
Alpha 2 also brought back
Gen,
Zangief, and
Dhalsim from previous
Street Fighter games (the latter two allegedly due to popular demand), as well as
Rolento from the
Final Fight series.
Sakura made her first appearance in this game.
The US home version (for the
PlayStation and
Saturn) featured several characters not found in the arcade version which includes classic versions of Dhalsim and Zangief that had no super moves and played like their original versions in the
Street Fighter II series.
New characters
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Dhalsim (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Evil Ryu*
Gen (returns from
Street Fighter)
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Rolento (returns from
Final Fight)
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Sakura *
Zangief (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Cammy (returns from
Super Street Fighter II)
Cammy appears only in Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold for the PS1 and Saturn as a secret character, and is only selectable in versus mode. She was carried over to Street Fighter Alpha 3 as a regular character.Trivia
Street Fighter Alpha 2 featured an early use of "EX" characters, which were alternate versions of characters possessing different movesets.
*The
Australian stage in
Street Fighter Alpha 2 was based on the area where Ryu and Sagat fought in the opening scene of
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
Street Fighter Alpha 3
This game was released in
1998, with updated graphics and characters compared to
Alpha 2.
Alpha 3 reintroduced many characters from previous
Street Fighter II games. The most notable absence (and indeed, the only one out of the eight World Warriors) was
Guile, although he was available for use in the home versions, starting with the PlayStation version. The remaining "New Challengers" (
Dee Jay,
Fei Long, and
T. Hawk) were also reintroduced for the home versions.
Shin Akuma and
Evil Ryu return from Alpha 2 in the console versions.
Also The main hero
Cody Travers from
Final Fight was added but instead of being a hero he is simply an escaped prisoner.
The most notorious new character in the game is
Shin M. Bison. He is the final boss for every character in the game except himself and
Evil Ryu. Fighting him in his normal form was not necessarily enough to appeal to a player who went through 10 stages (eight in the previous games) to face him, so he was made stronger, and given a new "Super Psycho Crusher". If he hit the player with this attack, it would take away about three-fourths of the character's health meter, just about killing them. Another new feature for
Shin M. Bison was his -ISM type. He did not have A-ISM, V-ISM, or X-ISM, but instead a totally new -ISM called Shadowlaw-ISM by most fans, since it has the symbol of Shadowlaw in it. It was an -ISM that filled up quickly in comparison to the other 3 -ISMs. In the arcade and
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology version of the game, if a player loses to
Shin M. Bison even once, the player is not allowed to continue. The player is shown an ending of
Shin M. Bison using the player's character to devastate a city. Fortunately, this was fixed for all the other home versions. In arcade mode of the home versions other than in Alpha Anthology, however, the player may continue after losing to
Shin M. Bison, but should the continue timer reach zero, a "bad" ending akin to the one mentioned above will be shown.. There is a Final Battle mode in each home version, where the player can go right up to facing
Shin M. Bison (Or someone else in
M. Bison and
Evil Ryu's case). And should he lose in that mode, the player will automatically receive the "bad" ending, as in the arcade version.
In Japan, an update of the game called
Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper, (which was based on the
Sega Dreamcast version) was released featuring many gameplay tweaks, with a port to the
Game Boy Advance that included three
Street Fighter characters from
Capcom vs. SNK 2 (
Eagle,
Maki and
Yun) that were not in the original version of
Alpha 3.
A second update, titled
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX (a.k.a.
Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper) was made for the
PSP, which introduces the
crossover character
Ingrid to the
Street Fighter canon. This game was released on February 9,
2006 and is currently only available for the PSP. This game is very much like the other games but has featured every single fighter plus additional ones totaling 37 different fighters. The game contains the World Tour mode carried over from the PSX and DC versions, where the player can create their own custom fighter with raised abilities of attack and defense. This is a new feature which is only available on this game. The game also has some bits redesigned and has new features of gameplay such as controls and combos.
SFA3 is considered by many fans to be the best
Street Fighter game (to date), containing almost every character to date (excluding many
Street Fighter III characters). The Sega Saturn port (released only in Japan, as one of the last games for the system) is notoriously hard to find but is often considered to be superior, surpassing even the
Sega Dreamcast version. The Sega Saturn version of
Street Fighter Zero 3 remains the best version available graphically, even when compared to much later releases such as the PSP version (Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX) and the version in
Street Fighter Alpha 3 on
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2.
A direct arcade port of SFA3 has been released for PS2
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on June 13 2006. This version of Street Fighter Alpha 3, although it omits the characters added in
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, includes a secret version of the game that features the console's characters (Guile, Dee Jay, T-Hawk, Fei-Long, Evil Ryu, and Shin Akuma), but plays exactly the same as the arcade version. This is a good way to see what
Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper would have been like were it released in US arcades.
New characters
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Balrog (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Blanka (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Cody (returns from
Final Fight)
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Dee Jay (returns from
Super Street Fighter II)
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E. Honda (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Eagle (returns from
Street Fighter)
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Fei Long (returns from
Super Street Fighter II)
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Guile (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Ingrid (returns from
Capcom Fighting Evolution)
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Juli*
Juni*
Karin*
Shin Bison*
Maki (returns from
Final Fight 2)
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R. Mika*
T. Hawk (returns from
Super Street Fighter II)
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Vega (returns from
Street Fighter II)
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Yun (returns from
Street Fighter III)
Guile, T. Hawk, Dee Jay, Fei Long, Shin Akuma, and Evil Ryu were added to the console versions. Eagle, Maki, and Yun appear in the GBA and PSP versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 from their appearance in Capcom vs. SNK 2. Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution was added to the PSP version, which is called Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX (a.k.a. Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper).Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
Released in
2006 for the
Playstation 2, known as
Street Fighter Zero: Fighter's Generation in Asia, this compilation includes Street Fighter Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 2 Gold, Alpha 3 and Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix (the US name for
Pocket Fighter). By completing the single player mode of each game additional games unlock including a bonus version of Alpha 3 (which includes all the added home version characters and new fighting styles) along with the new Hyper Street Fighter Alpha. The Japanese version also unlocks a full English version of Alpha 2. Hyper Street Fighter Alpha is a Versus only versions of Alpha 1, 2 and 3 for certain characters. For example the player can choose to pit Alpha 1 Guy against Cody (who's not in 1 or 2) much like
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition. Hyper Street Fighter Alpha also features new ISMs that mimic other Capcom fighting games. One ISM mimics the game mechanics of the
Darkstalkers series by adding chain combos and the advancing guard. Another ISM is based off of
Street Fighter 3 and includes the parrying system associated with that series. The most surprising, however, is that one of the new ISMs makes some the characters retain all of their move variations from the
Marvel vs. Capcom series of video games, despite Capcom legally being unable to release any of the Marvel games into a collection.
The game was released in North America on June 13, 2006 and has so far received mainly positive feedback by fans of the series because of the accuracy of the Arcade conversions, the ability to customise gameplay options (which help to emulate the different revisions of the games that the Arcade cabinets received) and the absence of in-game "load time screens". Also, Alpha 2 Gold has
Cammy fully selectable in every mode, including Arcade mode, where she has her own ending.
In the Japanese release, the extra mode versions of
Alpha and
Alpha 2 were removed from the U.S. release since the extra mode versions first upgrades were carried over to the versions of the game released outside of Japan.
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Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams at
The Killer List of Video Games*
Street Fighter Alpha 2 at
The Killer List of Video Games*
Street Fighter Alpha 3 at
The Killer List of Video Games*
Shoryuken.com (the online center of competitive Street Fighter)*
Evolution Fighting Game Championships (largest annual fighting game tournament in the Western Hemisphere)
