Street Fighter Alpha 3 was the final entry in an interesting trilogy. It is not like Capcom to simply release a fighting game and not milk it somehow. We saw this with Street Fighter II which has many updates. Each update was an additional full purchase, on Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Maybe they realized fans were not going to go for that forever. By the time they got around to releasing the “Alpha” series of games they changed their tactics. Street Fighter Alpha 3 is the final game in the Alpha series. It seems that Capcom went all out for it.

Capcom upping their nickel/dime game

While there were “updates” to the Street Fighter Alpha 3 base game, they were not released on the same platforms. This is where Capcom got a bad rap with fans. This final Alpha game hit many platforms, each with unique reasons to purchase it there too.

A proper ending to the trilogy of fighting games.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 releases were different

The Sony PlayStation version featured Balrog, Juni and Juli as part of the immediate roster. Dee Jay, Fei Long and T. Hawk also appear in this version. Some collision elements were changed as well as various other little changes.

The Sega Dreamcast version features the stuff from the PlayStation version. It adds a new World Tour mode and an online mode that featured global leader boards. Players could also play a variation of “Dramatic Battle” which first appeared in Street Fighter Alpha.

The Sega Saturn version used the 4 meg RAM cartridge. This cartridge was only available in Japan (way to keep this one from coming stateside). Again, the PlayStation stuff is here, minus the PocketStation stuff. Evil Ryu and Guile are on the main roster and Dramatic Battle is available for the complete roster of characters. In other versions only a select few can participate in this mode. This version also featured more animation than the Sony PlayStation port.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 hit portables too

There is a Game Boy Advance version too. This version is the worst off as it is missing a few stages, lots of music and other little details. You do get Eagle, Maki and Yun from Capcom vs SNK 2 in this version but is that enough?

The PlayStation Portable version is the one to get if you only have a hand held. The GBA exclusive characters, near arcade perfect graphics and sound are all here. Also game story lines for all of the characters is included. Dramatic Battle is also updated exclusive to this version.

Finally, we have the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology release which hit the PlayStation 2. Capcom included the re-release of the arcade game in this collection. While doing that, they forgot to add in a lot from other home ports.

So, where have you played Street Fighter Alpha 3? Myself, I prefer the PlayStation Portable version.

Carl Williams

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