Street Fighter Alpha 3


Street Fighter Alpha 3 is a 2D competitive fighting game originally released by Capcom for the arcades in 1998. It is the third and final installment in the Street Fighter Alpha sub-series, which serves as a prequel to Street Fighter II, and ran on the same CP System II hardware as previous Alpha games. The game was produced after the Street Fighter III sub-series has started, being released after ', but before '. Alpha 3 further expanded the playable fighter roster from Street Fighter Alpha 2 and added new features such as selectable fighting styles called "isms".
Alpha 3 has also been released on a variety of home platforms starting with the PlayStation port in 1998, which added an exclusive World Tour mode and brought back even more characters, with further versions on the Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable. The game was also included in the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, as well as the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.

Gameplay

Street Fighter Alpha 3 discards the "Manual" and "Auto" modes from the previous Alpha games and instead offers three different playing styles known as "isms" for players to choose from. The standard playing style, A-ism, is based on the previous Alpha games, in which the player has a three-level Super Combo gauge with access to several Super Combo moves. X-ism is a simple style based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, in which the player has a single-level Super Combo gauge and access to a single but powerful Super Combo move. The third style, V-ism, is a unique style that allows the player to perform custom combos similar to the ones in Street Fighter Alpha 2, but cannot use Super Combos. In X-ism, players cannot air-block nor perform Alpha Counters, and can only use 1 Super Combo move in its powerful Level 3 version. To activate V-ism's Super Combo, players have to press both kick and punch of the same strength. X-ism has the highest attack power but least defence, A-ism has more attack power than V-ism and a similar level of defence. All three modes have variations of movesets for each character, adding considerable depth to the gameplay. In addition, there are hidden modes that add handicaps to the player as well as benefits.
Alpha 3 also introduces a "Guard Power Gauge" which depletes each time the player blocks – if the gauge is completely depleted, then the player will remain vulnerable to an attack. When broken the bar shrinks and is refilled to its new maximum, it can be shrunk a number of times. Worth noting, while in X-Ism the character has the least defence of all modes it also has the largest guard bar, vice versa for V-ism with A-Zism being in the middle. Also the guard bar varies between characters, Zangief e.g. has a very large guard bar. The guard bar does not exist in Dramatic Battle matches so no guard crushing is possible there.
The I-ism style is customizable when selecting which character and super gauge to be used, which is only exclusive to Dreamcast version's Saikyo Dojo Mode, or PSP version's MAX update on World Tour or/and Entry Modes.
The controls for several actions have been modified from the previous Alpha games. For example, the level of a Super Combo move in A-ism is now determined by the strength of the attack button pressed, rather than the number of buttons pushed; and throwing is now done by pressing two punch or kick buttons simultaneously.

Characters

The game brings back all eighteen of the characters that appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 2. As with the previous Alpha titles, several characters were added to the game: Cammy, who was previously featured in the console-exclusive Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, E. Honda, Blanka, Balrog, and Vega. New characters introduced in Alpha 3 include R. Mika, a Japanese female wrestler who idolizes Zangief; Karin, Sakura's rival who was first introduced in the Street Fighter manga Sakura Ganbaru! by Masahiko Nakahira; Cody from Final Fight, who has since become an escaped convict; and Juli and Juni, two of Shadaloo's "Dolls" who serve as Bison's assassins and guards.
The PlayStation version added the remaining characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II: Dee Jay, Fei Long, and T. Hawk, along with Guile from Street Fighter II, Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma from Street Fighter Alpha 2, the latter three being unlockable. The Sega Saturn and Dreamcast versions move Guile and Evil Ryu to the default.
The Game Boy Advance port contains all of the characters from previous versions, as well as three additional characters: Yun from Street Fighter III, Maki from Final Fight 2, and Eagle from the original Street Fighter, all three based on their incarnations from '. The PlayStation Portable version, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, also adds Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution, to bring the total character count to 38 characters.
CharacterStreet Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper 		Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper
Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX
Total
Adon4
Akuma4
Balrog4
Birdie4
Blanka4
Cammy4
Charlie4
Chun-Li4
Cody4
Dhalsim4
Dan4
Dee Jay3
E. Honda4
Eagle2
Evil Ryu3
Fei Long3
Gen4
Guile3
Guy4
Ingrid1
Juli4
Juni4
Karin4
Ken4
M. Bison4
Maki2
R. Mika4
Rolento4
Rose4
Ryu4
Sagat4
Sakura4
Shin Akuma3
Sodom4
T. Hawk3
Vega4
Yun2
Zangief4
Total'''28343738

Versions

  • Street Fighter Alpha 3 was initially ported in 1998 to the PlayStation, selling a million copies. This version replaced the "hit" sprites with "hit" polygons in order to focus more memory on character animations. Juli, Juni, and Balrog were added to the immediate regular roster, and they were given new character portraits and their own storylines. Dee Jay, Fei Long, and T. Hawk were also included to the roster. Evil Ryu, Guile, and Shin Akuma were also added as secret unlockable characters in the World Tour mode, a mode that allows the player to strengthen and customize their chosen characters fighting style while traveling around the world. An additional feature in the Japanese version also made use of the PocketStation peripheral, which allows the player to build up their character's strength. In this version, Shin Akuma serves as the final boss for Evil Ryu, as well as a secret boss in Final Battle. Due to RAM limitations, the only unique pairings available for a complete campaign in the Dramatic Battle mode are Ryu & Ken and Juli & Juni; other character combinations can only be used for one-match battles. The AI for dramatic battle/survival modes is exceptionally poor with the CPU neglecting to defend against sweep attacks, perhaps due to RAM again. As often with home ports of arcade games, combos often infinite ones are possible due to less frames that aren't possible in the arcade.
  • This version was re-released for download on the North American PlayStation Network on October 18, 2011.
  • The 1999 Dreamcast version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3: Saikyo Dojo, uses all the added features from the PlayStation version of the game, but features a different World Tour mode. An online mode was added, allowing players to display their high scores. In addition, a Saikyo Dojo mode was added which pits a very weak character of the player's choice against two very strong opponents. The Dreamcast version was re-released in Japan in 2000 as Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō for Matching Service as a mail order title via Dreamcast Direct. The Matching Service version differs from the original with the addition of an Online Versus mode.
  • The Sega Saturn version of Street Fighter Zero 3 was also released in 1999 shortly after the initial Dreamcast version in Japan only. This port makes use of Sega's 4-MB RAM cartridge and uses all the features from the PlayStation version except for the polygon usage and PocketStation mode. The Saturn version uses the extra RAM to include more frames, sprites but slower loading times than the PlayStation version, making it near arcade perfect. Evil Ryu and Guile are immediately selectable, while the player can also unlock Shin Akuma, who shares a slot with his regular counterpart. While the World Tour and Survival modes are virtually unchanged from the PlayStation version, Dramatic Battle mode received improvements with the addition of Reverse Dramatic Battle mode and allowing three different characters to be used. This is also the only port to feature Dramatic Battle against the entire roster of characters, as all other versions limit this mode to boss characters only. The AI for dramatic battle is far superior than the PlayStation version, other minor changes are revised scoring for some moves in the game. The features, characters etc. of the first home port on the PlayStation are available straight away for the Saturn version.
  • Street Fighter Zero 3 was re-released for the arcades in Japan in 2001 under the title of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper. The game was released for the Dreamcast-based NAOMI hardware and features all 6 characters from the console ports and some balance changes, most notably removal of "crouch canceling" glitch which allowed V-ISM infinite combos. Upper also allows players to upload any customized characters from the Dreamcast version of the game by inserting a VMU into a memory card slot on the cabinet.
  • A Game Boy Advance version developed by Crawfish Interactive was released in 2002 under the title Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper. The port is compressed and lacks several stages and music tracks from the previous arcade and console versions, although all of the characters are present. In addition, Eagle, Maki, and Yun, all whom were characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2, were also added to the game. Only a small number of character voices were included in this version due to storage limitations, which the developers worked around by having characters share voice samples, modified with real-time pitch shifting, such as using a higher pitched version of Kens voice for Sakura's attack calls.
  • The PlayStation Portable version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, was released in 2006 and features the additional characters from the GBA version as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution. This version is a near faithful port of the arcade version with minimal loading times and all frames and sprites intact. All of the added characters now feature their own in-game storylines and endings. The Dramatic Battle mode in this version is the only one where both the player and partner characters can be selected individually. It also includes the Reverse Dramatic Battle mode from the Saturn version, an exclusive tag mode called "Variable Battle", which is similar to Dramatic Battle but players can tag in and out their partner, and a mode called "100 Kumite".
  • Street Fighter Alpha Anthology was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2. It contains the arcade version of Alpha 3 as one of the immediately available games, along with a revised version of Alpha 3 Upper as a secret game. Being a compilation of arcade games, the World Tour Mode that was featured in the previous home ports is not included, nor are the extra characters introduced in the portable versions of the game, although it uses the soundtracks from the home versions. In Upper, all of the characters are readily available.
  • Street Fighter Alpha 3 has an arcade perfect inclusion via Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch & Steam. The original 28 characters appear in the title and those introduced in the GBA PS2 and PSP versions are not included due to the game running on its original version through emulation. Save States are put in place to allow the player to continue with progress and this title alongside Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II Turbo & Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Fight for the Future each have online functionality.

    Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Street Fighter Alpha 3 on their September 1, 1998 issue as being the second most-successful arcade game of the year.
On release, Famitsu magazine scored the Sega Saturn version of the game a 32 out of 40; they later scored it 30 out of 40. The PlayStation version also scored 32 out of 40 on release. The Dreamcast version scored slightly better, receiving a 33 out of 40.
The Official UK PlayStation Magazine said that the game would outlast Tekken 3, and stated "the only thing to tarnish this is the graphics. So if you think gameplay is more important than texture-mapped polygons, consider the score to be a ten."
Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Capcom may have outdone itself with the most playable and innovative fighting game since the original Street Fighter II."
By 2003, the Game Boy Advance version had sold over 30,000 copies. Meanwhile, the original PlayStation version sold a million units as of June 2016.
In 2019, Game Informer ranked it as the 18th best fighting game of all time.