Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Best in series"

There're a lot of 2D Fighting games out there, especially on consoles and arcade machines. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (1998, Capcom) seems to be just another one, but in fact this is one of those kind of games that sucks you in. Every match, no matter if it's against the AI or a second player, you'll feel more and more addicted as your skills become better. Even the most experienced players know that it's always possible to improve your abilities, and if the AI become too predictable and easy (which is inevitable after a few dozen hours of gameplay), you'll probably find someone better than you. This means you only stop playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 if get tired of it, otherwise you'll find yourself studying all the possible attack combinations, mastering the tempo of your favorite character and trying to finally beat that **********er, who always finish the round before you can hit a button.

Street Fighter fans will stand on a familiar ground while playing the third installment of the Alpha series, for a number of reasons. First, most characters are back from the original titles, such as Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Chun-Li, M. Bison, Sagat, Blanka and others. Their look is a bit different from the original, although it isn't a dramatic change; they just look bigger and better designed. Most of their special moves are also the same as before, but their effectiveness changed because of the new engine. Finally, the story is basically the same: M. Bison, the evil guy, wants to rule the world, but to do so he must defeat everyone that come across his path.

So, Street Fighter Alpha 3 delivers a good nostalgia, but the new content shines as much as the remaked stuff from the original games. There're several new characters, some from Alpha 1, others from Alpha 2 and a few entirely new ones. Intriguingly, Capcom decided to put several faces from Final Fight (1989): Guy, Cody, Sodom and Rolento. There is also this blonde girl, Karin, which came from a Street Figther manga. Some other additions: R. Mika, similar to the fighting style of the big Russian Zangief; Rose, a mystic woman with psychic powers; Sakura, the little girl who is a big Ryu's fan; Charlie, an old friend of Guile etc. In total, the player can choose between 25 characters, plus three secret ones: Juli and Juni, which are very similar to Cammy; and Balrog, the famous boxer from the original game.

That relatively large amount of fighters isn't in there just to fill empty places in the selection screen. All of them are unique and, trust me, they're all powerful after you master their special attacks and combinations. If that wasn't enough, each character has three different combat styles, which are selected immediately after picking up a fighter. The X-ISM mode tries to bring back the original "feel" from Street Fighter II Turbo, where you have a "power bar" that allows you to perform a single powerful attack against your unlucky opponent. The A-ISM style plays exactly how the first and second Alpha versions did. You can perform more than one type of combo attack, and its strength depends on how much levels from the power bar were used (one to three levels). Finally, the V-ISM mode allows you to drain your power bar to perform a custom combo, which makes your character amazingly fast to attack your adversary with both normal and special moves. The problem is that the power bar ends very quickly, so you must execute the desired combination as fast as possible, and without getting hit by the opponent.

All the three fighting styles are good options, and after trying each one for several hours, you'll notice that they all have weakness and strengths. For instance, X-ISM fighters cannot block attacks while jumping; they receive much more damage; and, as I said above, each character has only one special combo, which drains all the power bar at once. On the other hand, X-ISM mode greatly increases the damage dealt by your fighter, which can be a lethal advantage if you use it correctly. The A-ISM mode is more versatile and a bit faster than X-ISM, while V-ISM is especially effective when used by experienced players. In fact, it's a favorite for those that have time to spend, trying to find the best custom combo for the controlled character. Serious players can perform unblockable V-ISM combos, which leads to a deadly sequence of attacks that can beat the adversary without any possible retaliation. The real problem with this mode is the amount of damage dealt by the special moves and normal attacks, which is greatly reduced in comparison with X-ISM. Naturally, A-ISM is something between the other two, and probably the best choice for newcomers.

The power bar, present in all the three fighting styles, is gradually filled up when you hit your opponent. To block incoming attacks, all you have to do is to move back until the adversary hits you. This will damage your "guard meter" instead of your main health. If your guard gauge reaches its limit, your character will open their defense for a few seconds, allowing the opponent to hit you without any possible resistance. Blocking normal attacks absorbs all the damage; however you still receive some injures if you block a special attack.

Some fighting games are very difficult to learn how to execute special moves, but in Street Fighter Alpha 3 the key combinations are very simple, and your best friend is how fast you're to use them precisely. Particularly against the AI, you'll want to counterattack instead of mindlessly try to hit your opponent, and this is the main reason why it's better to have simple combinations for special attacks; it's because you can perform them immediately after the adversary attacks you.

Talking about the AI, it's a bit easy to learn how they behave at certain situations. But Capcom undoubtedly did an amazing job about this, since the AI plays completely different with each character in the game. You'll notice that some are easier than others, but all of them are exploitable and all you have to do is repeat the same attack (or retaliation) again and again, since they (usually!) don't improve the way they reacts. If you decide to increase the AI skill level, the difficulty indeed raises by doing so, but mainly because the damage dealt by your opponent becomes ludicrously high, while yours don't change.

Anyway, Street Fighter Alpha 3 is much better than the sum of its parts (deserves a GameSpot medal), and if you're (still) looking for a great 2D Fighting game, this is the one for you. There're still some arcade machines around running it, and naturally there're some good emulators with multiplayer support if you prefer to play this game on your PC. Some websites also organizes on-line tournaments, which significantly helps to keep Street Fighter Alpha 3 a top game of its genre.