Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
- June 13, 2006 10:24 AM PST
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If you are any kind of fighting game fan, then you probably should add Street Fighter Alpha Anthology to your collection.
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To many people, the Street Fighter series brings back memories of the times you were in elementary/middle/high school, when you'd hang out at the donut shop after school, putting your quarter up on the machine and waiting patiently to either cream or get creamed by your opponent. To me particularly, the Street Fighter Alpha series brings me back to this shady and dark arcade, its only source of light emitting from the screens, located in an ethnocentric mall. It smelled of deep-fried sesame breads and coffee, but I always remember waiting for my turn to play Street Fighter Alpha 3. These memories and connotations are now made more readily available to us by Capcom's swift decision to anthologize the series in a PS2 disc and calling it Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (or Street Fighter Zero: Fighter's Generation in Japan).
So Many Alphas, So Little Time!
The anthology itself consists of all the Alphas made, and then some: Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha Gold, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Gem Fighter. Arcade goers might know these games as Street Fighter Zero instead of Alpha, and Gem Fighter as Pocket Fighter. The differences between the anthology ports and the PSX ports are scarce. There is a slight graphical upgrade, and the menu isn't as gaudy as the previous Alphas are, but everything else stays true to the original.
For those unfamiliar with the Alpha series, the storylines for these games take place before the Street Fighter 2 series. The classic SF2 crew--Chun Li, Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Akuma, and M. Bison--are considerably younger and have a different quest than they did in their future storylines. Street Fighter Alpha's gameplay was a considerable upgrade from the Street Fighter 2, cleaning up on combo counts and utilizing a super combo move gauge. At the time, Street Fighter Alpha was a highly anticipated release but fell short of fans' expectations due to the limited character selection. The release of Street Fighter Alpha 2, throwing in some more SF2 characters, tweaking the storyline, and only slightly tweaking the gameplay, made some fans happier, but with the ultimate release of Street Fighter Alpha 3, introducing even more character selection (and subsequently more stages), better character design, and a new super combo system, making it a favorite for many fans. The games even feature the availability of Sodom, Rolento, and Guy from Capcom's beat-em-up franchise, Final Fight.
Gem Fighter stands on its own two feet as a fighting game. Adapting the characters from the arcade favorite Puzzle Fighter, the characters in Gem Fighter are all super-deformed (chibi-style), and instead of beating each other up via puzzles, the game is an actual fighting game, utilizing gems to power up certain moves. Using comical elements and simple gameplay, Gem Fighter is a lovely addition to the Alpha Anthology.
Each game has an Arcade, Versus, Survival, Dramatic Battle, and Training mode for your enjoyment (except for Gem Fighter, which does not have the Dramatic Battle mode). Arcade mode stays true to the arcade storyline, Versus allows you to challenge your buddies for pizza, Survival challenges you to see how awesome of a (wo)man you are, Dramatic Battle tests to see who dies firstyou and your CPU partner or your overpowered opponentand last but not least, Training helps you become the best ninja of them all.
So Dark the Capcom of Man
Graphics-wise, Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is a bit crudely thrown together. The menus are tacky as always, and the graphics in the games themselves experienced little to no changes. The controls for any fighting game are either a pain, pleasure, or a minor nuance, depending on the gamer. Unlike the PSP release of Street Fighter Alpha Max, where the D-Pad became rather uncomfortable over a period of time, a PS2 controller is perfectly accommodating for thumbs of all sorts, but if one would prefer a Masstick then he or she should go on and use it for a true arcade-like experience.
My only annoyance lies in Capcom's faithfulness to not putting their character move list in the game. So if you've forgotten Chun-Li's different moves within the three Alphas (and shame on you for doing so!), take a visit to your local arcade and look at the moves sticker, use a GameFAQ or visit a strategy guide to jog your memory, because you won't find the moves in the menu. Not even in training mode.
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is a canonical addition to any fighting game fan's game library. For the listed price of $29.99, Street Fighter fanatics couldn't ask for more. With the addition of Gem Fighter, friends and family members will be holding Street Fighter Alpha tournaments and trash-talking each other in no time.
