Street Fighter Alpha 3
Score: 95% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Capcom Developer: Crawfish Interactive Media: Cart/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Fighting
Graphics & Sound: Well, well... look what finally got released! Fighting game fans might remember Nintendo's announcement of Street Fighter Alpha 3 for Game Boy Advance before the system itself even hit shelves (back in the middle of 2001), and yet stateside players had to wait until December 2002 for a taste of that sweet, handheld Alpha action. Yes, the ultra-successful arcade version may have showed up in '98, but it's still just as addictive and competitive today. Considering the measly eight megs supplied in this cartridge, Street Fighter Alpha 3's graphics are completely spot-on; if you squint and hold the Game Boy two feet from your face, you can't even tell the difference from the arcade! A few frames of animation had to be thrown out here and there, but the visuals are essentially all present. Of course, the original was never as fluid as Street Fighter III: Third Strike or Guilty Gear X, but that makes the translation to a portable incarnation even more plausible. Too bad the music had to be cut down to tinny GBC-quality material to fit into the game -- not that the original tunes were especially memorable, but it would've been nice to hear something closer to the real thing. Lots of sound effects were left behind as well; most in-fight grunts and yells remain, but digitized intro phrases and that lovable announcer are nowhere to be found. No biggie, though. The only real problem I've encountered was a strange popping noise before some matches began, but it's not distracting enough to drop the game's score or anything.
Gameplay: Purists will be thrilled to learn that the handheld SFA3 retains every character from the Dreamcast version (including Deejay, Fei Long, Juni and Juli), plus Capcom vs. SNK 2's Yun as an exclusive unlockable fighter. That's 33 characters -- the most damn impressive roster any portable brawler's seen since the granddaddy of them all, SNK vs. Capcom on the Neo Geo Pocket. Each fighter can still be played in X-ism, A-ism, or V-ism modes, which determine several major factors in the player's position in a match. X-ism only uses one Super meter, causes more damage to be taken and dished out, and often strips a fighter of one or more moves; A-ism, the closest to classic Street Fighter Alpha tradition, gives the player three Super bars and the ability to block in the air; V-ism allows for custom combos and lowers the amount of damage given and received per hit. Confused yet? Well, you shouldn't be. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past four years, you should already know how this game works! It's all the same on the small screen, too. Game modes include Arcade, Versus, Score Ranking, Training, and two unlockable modes to keep things interesting. Enemy AI patterns seem exactly the same here as they were in the arcade counterpart, so single player battles aren't really any different. Versus matches are where this title really shines, though. I know I haven't honestly had fun playing multiplayer handheld fighting games since the Neo Geo Pocket days, but SFA3 was finally able to rekindle that love of competition on the go. Now, whenever my roommates and I go on vacation again, we'll know what to bring.
Difficulty: In true Capcom fashion, difficulty ranks from one to eight stars in the Options menu. Even on three stars, seasoned players will get beat down more than a few times during the transition to a four-button control scheme. Unlike most other Capcom fighting titles, though, the hardest difficulty in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is actually hard. As in, you'll have to rely on tricking the computer into falling for the same patterns and hope to get lucky with your Supers in order to win -- that kind of hard.
Game Mechanics: As with most console/arcade-to-Game Boy conversions, controls often take the biggest hit. Such is the case with Street Fighter Alpha 3, but it could always be worse. See, developers at Crawfish Interactive decided to assign the Medium attacks to combinations of face buttons and shoulder triggers, rather than a 'pressure sensitive' system, which most gamers seem to despise. This works out pretty well after a while, except when trying to perform a massive V-ism custom combo laden with Medium hits. I usually play in X-ism anyway, so I don't really mind; combo-monkeys who played only V-Akuma and V-Sakura in the arcades, however, will definitely become frustrated here. It all comes down to how you play the game, and how much you might want to learn new styles of gameplay. The only negatives couldn't have been avoided during the game's creation, so it's nearly impossible to talk smack about SFA3 unless you never liked the series to begin with. Being a hardcore fan since Street Fighter II, I couldn't help but love the Alpha games, and I commend Crawfish Interactive for such a fantastic job on the GBA edition. If you buy one fighting game for your Game Boy Advance, skip over King of Fighters EX: Neoblood and Guilty Gear X Advance immediately -- Street Fighter Alpha 3 won't disappoint.
-Ben Monkey, GameVortex Communications AKA Ben Lewis
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