3RRDC SFA3

Now it used to be for 2D fighting games you were in either one or two
camps. The SNK camp with its Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Samurai
Shodown and of course the King of Fighters. Or you were a Capcom fan
and you prayed to the Street Fighter altar. For the Street Fighter fan,
Street Fighter Alpha 3 on Dreamcast is like what King of Fighters 98 is
to SNK fans. Loads of characters and tight gameplay for a great
addition to the dreamcast fighting game arena.

The Alpha series (named Zero in Japan) take place before Street
Fighter 2. So far 3 has been the latest game in the Alpha series, and
was already available onPS1 and (import?) Saturn. All 33 characters
have his or her own story with art work to go with it. But basically the
main story here is bad guy Bison (we'll just stick to the American
names to avoid confusion) has this thing called the psycho drive that
makes him really powerful. So some of his foes want to stop him, and
some of his allies will eventually turn on him in a hunt for power. Lots
of new characters and modes make this fighter one to keep off the
street and on your TV.

You want gameplay, Capcom has got you covered! There are 10 major
modes to fight in! Arcade mode is where you fight your way through 10
other people to get an ending. Along the way you'll get dialogue to
advance your character's story in the 5th level. In vs. mode you can
fight against your friend. A training mode to practice the moves is
included. Those are by now basics to fighting games but alpha 3 has
tons of tricks up its sleeve.

The other modes include World tour mode. Here you select a character
to start off with, and you have fights all across the globe choosing from
a selection of fights which ones you want to do. Very similar to Soul
Calibur's mission mode. The fights all have their own set goals and
standards like kill this many people or use combos only to inflict
damage. A very good addition. Now once you finish world tour you can
register your character in entry mode to use in other modes. There's
also team battle and survival mode. Followed by two versions of
dramatic battle. "Dramatic battle" is where two humans on a team
fight on screen at the same time against the computer. "Vs dramatic
battle" is a three-player 2 on 1 mode. While 4-player would have been
cool, 3 players beats 2. Final Battle mode lets you fight the final boss.
Then there are options, score ranking and memory card for various
savings and scores and such.

There is also network mode. Without an internet connection you can
fight a few very tough battles. Can't tell you what you could have done
on line. I think just download more guys to fight? But in any even as
you can see, Alpha 3 is huge.

How's the fighting? Oh very nice. There are 4 different fighting styles
to choose from, and then you can choose from 3 "isms." X, V, and A ism
to be exact. X is simple with one powerful super combo. A, is your
normal one with a bunch of super combos. And V is known as variable.
This one has the custom combo. So the level of depth to the gameplay
is very very good. The game hosts a number of different moves and
features. Stuff like air blocking, rolling, alpha counters, guard crush,
and of course taunting make it very sweet. As with past street fighters
you get punches and kicks in the forms of light, medium, and hard. You
can move with either the d-pad or the control stick your choice. Lots of
special moves for each character, just a lot of good stuff all around
here.

The graphics are now starting to show their age, with the Guilty Gear
X's and Street Fighter (normal) 3's of the world raising the 2D bar. So
all the characters look ok. Better than Alpha 2. You won't have a
Capcom vs. SNK, some look great and some look crap here. Arcade
perfect graphics with no frames of animation cut (like in many PS1
fighters, including the PS1 version of this.)

Which brings me to the PS1 version. Having played it at a friend's
house I can comment on loading. There are no loading screens in
Alpha 3 arcade mode and vs. mode besides the initial load at the
beginning of the game. (Kinda like Dead or Alive 2 on DC except
sooner). The PS1 version had to load between fights and such. But they
had artwork on the loading screens. That artwork sadly didn't make
the jump to DC. I'm very pleased with the loading, but I wish there was
a gallery mode in addition to the billion other modes. Oh well.

Hey StreetFighter Alpha 3, you sound good! A mostly techno/rockish
sound going for it here. My favorite track being the psychic lady Rose's
theme. Characters all have voices (but no voice in cut scenes or
endings). The announcer is kind of a surfer dude meets the fonz.
"Heyyyy." The music and sound overall is a very solid bit of work, and
some of the tracks I can remember. Best Street Fighter soundtrack
since the original Street Fighter 2. Still for the best fighting game
music please refer to the King ofFighters 98.

Replay is very high! All 33 characters have their own ending. Then
there's the bonus character, Shin Akuma, who you can get by
highlighting Akuma and hold start while selecting. Each character's
outfit color can be changed by selecting it with the 4 face buttons and
the trigger buttons. World tour mode is great replay. On my 2nd and
3rd world tour characters, after they beat the last mission another one
came up on an island. Here you have to fight 2 Bison's at the end at
the same time. Both have unlimited specials. It's been well over a year
since I unlocked the mission and I still haven't beaten it. Has anybody?
And of course there's vs. mode, and the 3-player mode, and co-op
mode. The multiplayer goodness is strong with this one.

Guess I should say something about the characters. You've got the
normals: Ryu, Ken, Chun li, Bison, Zangeif, and such. And my favorite
Sakura! All 4 of the Super StreetFighter 2 characters are here. Then
you get some new ones like Juli, Juni, R. Mika, and Cody (from Final
Fight, in fact there are a few Final Fight dudes in here). The character
selection is great. The best street fighter character selection.

This is by far the best Street Fighter since Super Street Fighter 2, and
the best in the entire series. It may not have the best graphics, but the
character selection, sound, and all the modes make up for it. Now do I
prefer it over the King of Fighters? Ha, look at my name again. But still
this game is top 20 (maybe 15) Dreamcast material. If you're a 2D
fighting fan and you don't own this, then you should be thrown in jail.

Review by: Orochi Sonic