Street Fighter Alpha

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The Street Fighter Alpha series, originally Street Fighter Zero (ストリートファイターZERO, Sutorito Faita Zero^?) in Japan and parts of Asia, is a sub-series of fighting games part of the Street Fighter series by Capcom. The series serves as a sequel of the original Street Fighter and a prequel to Street Fighter II, and explains the events which happen between both games.

Contents 1 Games 2 Development 3 Series progression 3.1 Gameplay 4 Games 4.1 Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams 4.1.1 Overview 4.1.2 Characters 4.2 Street Fighter Alpha 2 4.2.1 Overview 4.2.2 Alpha 2 changes 4.2.3 New characters 4.2.4 Trivia 4.3 Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha 4.4 Street Fighter Alpha 3 4.4.1 Alpha 3 Gameplay changes 4.4.2 New characters 4.4.3 Additional characters after the arcade release 4.4.4 Characters introduced in the Game Boy Advance version 4.4.5 PSP-exclusive 4.5 Street Fighter Alpha Anthology 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Games

There are three games in the series:

• Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (SFA)
• Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SFA2)
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 (SFA3)

There are also many versions of the game with slight modifications, as well as ports to home consoles.

The series has been ported to the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, PlayStation Portable, and Game Boy Advance. SFA and SFA2 were ported to the PC; SFA2 was also ported to the SNES, making it the last Street Fighter game for that console.

Capcom has released Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (Street Fighter Zero: Fighters' Generation in Japan), which includes SFA, SFA2, SFA2 Gold, SFA3, and Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix. It was released on 6/13/06 exclusively for the PlayStation 2.

[edit] Development

After Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the main producers claim to have been at a loss as to what to do next, despite large demand for Street Fighter III. Inspired perhaps by the Street Fighter II movie, Alpha was born. The game was drawn in the sprite style that was used for Darkstalkers and X-Men: Children of the Atom (which previously featured Akuma as a hidden character), similar fighting games. Also borrowed was the concept of a super bar with multiple stocks (the sequel to Darkstalkers, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, had allowed for ten, while Super Street Fighter II Turbo allowed only for one). Another similarity to Darkstalkers was the Chain Combos' (although these were eventually dropped in Street Figter Alpha 2).

One particular secret feature of Alpha that supports the claim that Alpha was inspired by the movie is the Dramatic Battle mode, in which two characters (Ryu and Ken) would fight a third (M. Bison) at the same time, similar to the ending of the movie. This feature was a fairly popular part of Alpha, and at least one version of each game would have a hidden option to fight in Dramatic Battles.

[edit] Series progression

Each game in the Alpha series can be seen to be updating the storyline in the previous games. This combined with Capcom's decision to change some of the storyline after the games have been released has made the Street Fighter II story confusing.

Each game in the series reproduced more characters from Street Fighter II. Characters were also taken from other games such as Final Fight and the original Street Fighter.

[edit] Gameplay

The fighting system of Street Fighter Alpha is based on those of previous Street Fighter games, with a different super combo gauge from that of Super Turbo. The super combo gauge, similar to Darkstalkers, was divided into three levels. The amount of super combo gauge that was required to perform a super combo depended on the number of buttons pressed, and later on, the strength of the button.

The one major addition to the Alpha system was the introduction of Custom Combos or Original Combos in Alpha 2. A Custom Combo would allow a character to chain any move into any other move, while the super meter gradually decreased. Although the ability to perform super combos were unaffected, characters were kept in forward motion, so the character was left vulnerable should the opponent end up on the other side of the character. In Alpha 3, and other fighting games where Custom Combos are used, characters were not kept in forward motion, but the ability to perform super combos were restricted or eliminated altogether.

The gameplay and characters used in Alpha were the basis of many Street Fighter spinoffs, and some characters considered to be central characters in the plot were first introduced in the Alpha series.

[edit] Games

Street Fighter Alpha
Promotional flyer for Street Fighter Alpha, featuring artwork depicting Ryu and Ken prominently.
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	June 27, 1995 June 5, 1995
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade Game Boy Color PlayStation PlayStation 2 Sega Saturn Windows
Input	8-way Joystick, 6 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	CPS-2
Arcade display	Raster, 384 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

[edit] Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams

The original Street Fighter Alpha was released in 1995 as the prequel to Street Fighter II. Some fans were disappointed that the animation was not feature fluid as Darkstalkers, while some also felt that the game was rushed for release, with a fewer number of characters and stages.

[edit] Overview

In 1995, a prequel of Street Fighter II and sequel of Street Fighter was introduced, called Street Fighter Alpha, renamed from an American working title of Street Fighter Legends (Street Fighter Zero in Japan), again on the CPS-2 arcade board. This featured a completely new graphics engine and an entirely new gameplay system. Street Fighter Alpha represents the first overhaul of the Street Fighter series since its de facto inception 4 years earlier as Street Fighter II. Characters were drawn in an anime style and were meant to look more youthful than in their Street Fighter 2 incarnations. Perhaps most controversially, only 4 of the 10 initially selectable characters were from Street Fighter II: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Sagat. The final boss was yet again M. Bison, who was selectable as a hidden character, as were Akuma and a new character called Dan, a tongue-in-cheek revision of the Ryu/Ken mold with references to SNK characters. The anime-like design of the characters (as opposed to the earlier attempts at realism) were seen as a direct consequence of Capcom's experiments with the Darkstalkers series, which had been introduced a short time before and had been popular. Some of the new characters (Guy and Sodom) were taken from older Capcom games such as Final Fight, while others (Birdie and Adon) were competitors from the original Street Fighter. The original characters were Charlie and Rose. Charlie was an American solider who would become the reason Guile sought vengeance in the subsequent battles. Charlie fought almost exactly like Guile did, leading several to question Charlie's inclusion as opposed to Guile's. Rose was an Italian gypsy who specialized in reading tarot cards. Her unusual style led some to compare her to a Darkstalkers character.

Several new techniques were introduced, the most significant of which was arguably air blocking. Characters could now, with certain caveats, block when jumping, assuming no previous action had been performed while mid-air. Each character also now had several super combos - as opposed to SSFIIT where the super meter would reset after each round, the meter in SFA would retain charge between rounds, as well as charge with fierce punch/kick regardless of whether the opponent was hit. The meter also now had three different levels, and each super combo had three different levels. A super combo could thus inflict different amounts of damage; 1 button was used for a level 1 combo, 2 buttons for a level 2, and 3 for a level 3.

Another change was the introduction of chain combos, which were chains of normal attacks that could be interrupted into each other. This would allow for an introductory system of chains not requiring the intricate timing of combos in previous games. However, the flipside to this was the simplicity with which long chains of damaging attacks could be performed, removing some of the strategy element of the series. The concept of "Alpha counters" ("Zero counters" in Japan and Asia) were introduced, a set of moves using a bar of super charge which allowed a character to make an immediate counterattack from a blocking position. The major purpose of this quickly became noted as being the best way for a player to protect themself from frequent unfair combination attacks, a term known as 'cheap.' (Fireball attacks used overly frequently were also referred to as cheap, leading Rose to become a minor because of her ability to reflect or dispel them.) Also, characters could roll out of situations when thrown or tripped to the ground.

Again fans were left with the feeling that this was a game rushed out before its development was completed. The lack of balance and the dearth of refinement were mildly criticized at the time, but this was perhaps outweighed by the interest the game engendered in the franchise with its new visuals and more spectacular gameplay. The arcade scene was booming in the mid-90's, an era when home machines were still significantly less advanced than their arcade counterparts, and Capcom was at the forefront of the industry. Quickly producing a new product was in, and was more important than applying that time-consuming layer of polish to make the game really shine, and Capcom was becoming known for this, though overall it was a growing trend throughout the industry. Several magazines again reported the producers and programmers as saying upon the release of Street Fighter Alpha 2 that it was the game they had wished the original to be. Alpha did, however, further the story of the characters and add meat to their backgrounds, though this was scarcely the reason the games were played.

It is interesting to note, however, that this was the only game released on Capcom's experimental CPS-changer home system, essentially a modified CPS-1 without the encryption of the newer CPS-2 board. It also, perhaps more importantly, was released on the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The conversions were well-received, but were quite limited due to the smaller amount of RAM in the new-generation 3D machines, this problem particularly affecting the PlayStation conversion. The Saturn conversion were generally considered the best available, though they were not arcade perfect. Later Saturn ports utilised the RAM cartridges that were available for the machine so as to increase the animation quality of the games. Game Boy Color and PC versions were also made available.

[edit] Characters

• Adon (returns from Street Fighter)
• Akuma (returns from Super Street Fighter II Turbo)
• Birdie (returns from Street Fighter)
• Charlie
• Chun-Li (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Dan
• Guy (returns from Final Fight)
• Ken (returns from Street Fighter)
• M. Bison (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Rose
• Ryu (returns from Street Fighter)
• Sagat (returns from Street Fighter)
• Sodom (returns from Final Fight)

Street Fighter Alpha 2
North American promotional flyer for Street Fighter Alpha 2, featuring artwork depicting Ryu, Akuma and Sakura.
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	March 6, 1996 February 27, 1996
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade PlayStation PlayStation 2 Sega Saturn SNES Windows
Input	8-way Joystick, 6 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	CPS-2
Arcade display	Raster, 384 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

[edit] Street Fighter Alpha 2

This was released in 1996 as an update to the original SFA. The story behind this game is an override of those found in Alpha, and canonically, all but one ending (Charlie's) occurred (although, some of the endings in Alpha 2 could be considered as continuation of endings from the original Alpha, particularly Ken's and Sagat's) ^[1]. Alpha 2 brought back every character from Alpha, including the hidden characters Dan, Akuma, and M. Bison. Alpha 2 also brought back Gen, from the original Street Fighter, and Zangief and Dhalsim from Street Fighter II (the latter two allegedly due to popular demand), as well as Rolento from the Final Fight series. Sakura made her first appearance in this game.

The English localizations of the Arcade and Saturn versions features three new characters not found in the Japanese originals, which consisted of Evil Ryu (a version of Ryu with Akuma's powers) and classic versions of Dhalsim and Zangief that had no super moves and played like their original versions in the Street Fighter II series.

[edit] Overview

Everyone was expecting Capcom to release a sequel to Street Fighter Alpha. A number of factors conspired against the release of the sequel, however. The CPS-2 board upon which the games had recently been based was essentially little more than a slightly improved CPS-1 board. Capcom was diverting resources to the development of 3D arcade games and the new CPS-3 board, which eventually debuted the following year. As such, sparse resources were devoted to Street Fighter Alpha 2, some reports stating that at times, the team working on it was said to number one person. Despite this context, the game was released in early 1996, 8 months after the original, and garnered immediate praise from the press and public alike.

Correcting what had often been the primary complaint about the first Alpha game, Alpha 2 was a significantly more polished and balanced game. Primarily, the degree to which each character's set of moves complemented the others was again addressed.

Several new features were introduced in this incarnation: the chain combos were removed (although Gen and Guy could still perform a few), custom combos, a concept which would be refined in later games, were also introduced in Alpha 2 - the player could press a combination of buttons (two punches and one kick or vice versa) to initiate a state where all moves could be canceled into each other at increased speed, thus allowing the player to create their own super combos. Also, Alpha Counters were revised so that they would be variable to the situation i.e. a punch Alpha Counter would result in an anti-air counter while with kick would respond low. Rose's Alpha Counter actually switched positions with the opponent, this became a critical move if Rose used it while in the corner.

The three hidden characters from SFA were made originally selectable and five new characters were added, among them old SFII faces Dhalsim and Zangief together with later favourite Sakura. This was also the first appearance of 'Shin Akuma' in the home versions, the so-called "real" Akuma, capable of throwing double fireballs mid-air and all-around superior to the normal Akuma. He was a hidden character.

Numerous game magazines at the time voted SFA2 one of the best arcade games of the year, the relatively minor changes to the fundamentals of the game and the extensive polishing of the same winning formula gained general approval from competitive fans also. The game was again ported to the Saturn and PlayStation, the Saturn version again the superior port, due to the ability to select the classic Champion Edition versions of Zangief and Dhalsim, Chun-Li's original Street Fighter II outfit (complete with her original fireball motion), an Evil version of Ryu, a special version of Sakura, and Shin Akuma. A PC version was also available, though it did not carry all the hidden characters that the Saturn version had, namely the other versions of Zangief and Dhalsim, Evil Ryu and Sakura.

Interestingly, due to the implementation of the S-DD1 chip that was used for graphic decompression, a conversion of this game was one of the last games on the SNES, despite the doubts about it being feasible. While it is commonly not compared favorably to the Saturn or PlayStation versions, it is a competent port, featuring all of the original characters featured in the arcade version (except for the SFII variant of Chun-Li, no other secret characters are available, though Shin Akuma can be fought against). In order to fit in the cartridge, some graphic down-scaling was done (the characters are smaller) and the animations are less fluid. A peculiarity in this version is that each time a round begins, the game stops for four seconds before resuming again shortly after.

[edit] Alpha 2 changes

• The players vital drained slower than in the first Alpha game. As both fighters could withstand more attacks, the fights lasted longer in Alpha 2.
• Each character had a completely different stage. In the first Alpha, most of the backgrounds were shared by 2 characters (with slight changes).

[edit] New characters

• Dhalsim (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Evil Ryu
• Gen (returns from Street Fighter)
• Rolento (returns from Final Fight)
• Sakura
• Zangief (returns from Street Fighter II)

[edit] Trivia

• Street Fighter Alpha 2 featured an early use of "EX" characters, which were alternate versions of characters possessing different movesets.
• The Australian stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 was based on the area where Ryu and Sagat fought in the opening scene of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	August 5, 1996
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade PlayStation Sega Saturn
Input	8-way Joystick, 6 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	CPS-2
Arcade display	Raster, 384 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

[edit] Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha

Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha was released in 1996 as an updated version of Zero 2. Due to presence of additional characters in the English localization of Alpha 2, Capcom produced this update specifically for the Japanese and Asian market. Zero 2 Alpha is slightly enhanced, giving some of the characters a number of new moves, while additional game modes were also added, such as 'Dramatic Battle' (the 2 on 1 game mode from the original Alpha), 'Shin Gouki Mode' and 'Survival'. This update also added classic versions of Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sagat, and M. Bison (in addition to the classic versions of Zangief and Dhalsim featured in the localized Alpha 2) and the Japanese debut of "Evil Ryu".

This game reached North America and the PAL region in the form of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (or Street Fighter Zero 2 Dash in Japan), which, until the release of the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, was only available on Street Fighter Collection for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, and further presented the first Alpha appearance of Cammy, previously introduced in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, but lacks the 2-on-1 Team Mode from the arcade game.

The version of Alpha 2 Gold in Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is actually a combination of both, the arcade and console versions, retaining the arcade version's 2 on 1 Dramatic Battle (which is retroactively added to the original Alpha and Alpha 2 as well) and features Cammy as a fully playable character with her own full fledge storyline.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
North American promotional flyer for Street Fighter Alpha 3, depicting character artworks of all the new fighters, including Cammy.
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	June 29, 1998
Genre(s)	Versus Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade Dreamcast GBA PlayStation PlayStation 2 PSP Sega Saturn (Japan only)
Input	8-way Joystick, 6 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	CPS-2
Arcade display	Raster, 384 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors

[edit] Street Fighter Alpha 3

This game was released in 1998, with updated graphics and characters compared to Alpha 2, and a new fighting style system. When selecting a character, the player chooses not only his or her character, but the character's fighting style. The three styles to choose from are X-ISM, A-ISM (Z-ISM in Japan), and V-ISM. The X-ISM style is similar to the system used in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which was called Super Street Fighter II X in Japan (hence the "X"): each character has only one super combo move and it can only be executed at maximum power, and some newer game features, such as blocking in midair, are unavailable. To compensate, X-ISM fighters deal more damage and take less damage. X-ISM also changed the appearance and move-sets of certain characters. Sodom for example, had two katanas instead of his Jutte sais, and Chun-Li was wearing her Street Fighter II costume and had the Spinning Bird Kick. Some characters had less obvious changes in X-ISM. A-ISM (named after "Alpha", in the Japanese version Z-ISM is named after "Zero") is similar to the system used in the other Street Fighter Alpha games, with each character having multiple super combo moves and with most of them having three intensity levels. Finally, V-ISM is the most flexible system, as players can make their own super combos by chaining attacks together. However, V-ISM fighters deal less damage. There are other, more minor differences among the styles as well. Besides these three, there are other hidden fighting modes.

Alpha 3 reintroduced many characters from previous Street Fighter II games. The most notable absence (and indeed, the only one out of the eight World Warriors) was Guile, although he was available for use in the home versions, starting with the PlayStation version. The remaining "New Challengers" (Dee Jay, Fei Long, and T. Hawk) were also reintroduced for the home versions. Shin Akuma and Evil Ryu return from Alpha 2 in the console versions.

The most notorious new character in the game is Shin M. Bison. He is the final boss for every character in the game except himself and Evil Ryu. Fighting him in his normal form was not necessarily enough to appeal to a player who went through 10 stages (eight in the previous games) to face him, so he was made stronger, and given a new "Super Psycho Crusher". If he hit the player with this attack, it would take away about three quarters of the character's health meter, just about killing them. Another new feature for Shin M. Bison was his -ISM type. He did not have A-ISM, V-ISM, or X-ISM, but instead a totally new -ISM called Shadowlaw-ISM by most fans, since it has the symbol of Shadowlaw in it. It was an -ISM that filled up quickly in comparison to the other 3 -ISMs. In the arcade and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology version of the game, if a player loses to Final Bison even once, the player is not allowed to continue. The player is shown an ending of M. Bison using the player's character to devastate a city. In arcade mode of the home versions other than in Alpha Anthology, however, the player may continue after losing to Shin M. Bison, but should the continue timer reach zero, a "bad" ending akin to the one mentioned above will be shown. There is a Final Battle mode in each home version, where the player can go right up to facing Shin M. Bison (or Ryu in M. Bison's case, or Shin Akuma in Evil Ryu's case). And should he lose in that mode, the player will automatically receive the "bad" ending, as in the arcade version.

In Japan, an update of the game called Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper (which was based on the Sega Dreamcast version) was released featuring many gameplay tweaks, with a port to the Game Boy Advance that included three Street Fighter/Final Fight characters that later appeared in Capcom vs. SNK 2 (Eagle, Maki and Yun), none of them appearing in the original version of Alpha 3.

A second update, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX (a.k.a. Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper), was made for the PSP, which also includes the characters that were introduced in the GBA port, and introduces the crossover character Ingrid to the Street Fighter canon. This game was released on February 9, 2006 and is currently only available for the PSP. This game is very much like the other games but has featured every single fighter plus additional ones totaling 37 different fighters. The game contains the World Tour mode carried over from the PSX and DC versions, where the player can create their own custom fighter with raised abilities of attack and defense. The game also has some bits redesigned and has new features of gameplay such as controls and combos.

SFA3 is considered by many fans to be the best Street Fighter game (to date), containing almost every character to date (excluding many Street Fighter III characters). The Sega Saturn port (released only in Japan, as one of the last games for the system) is notoriously hard to find but is often considered to be superior, surpassing even the Sega Dreamcast version. The Sega Saturn version of Street Fighter Zero 3 remains the best version available graphically, even when compared to much later releases such as the PSP version (Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX) and the version in Street Fighter Alpha 3 on Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2.

A direct arcade port of SFA3 has been released for PS2 Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on June 13 2006. This version of Street Fighter Alpha 3, although it omits the characters added in the handheld ports, includes a secret version of the game that features the console's characters (Guile, Dee Jay, T-Hawk, Fei-Long, Evil Ryu, and Shin Akuma), but plays exactly the same as the arcade version. This is a good way to see what Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper would have been like were it released in US arcades.

[edit] Alpha 3 Gameplay changes

Street Fighter Alpha 3's gameplay was drastically changed from the first 2 games. The following is a list of significant changes.

• Alpha 3 introduced a guard meter underneath the player's vital bar. This meter drained when the player 'blocked' their opponent's attacks. If the meter was completely drained, the player's defence would be broken and they would become stunned for a second, granting the opponent a free attack or combo. The meter will refill after this occurs but the whole meter will be shorter than when it started. A small chunk will deplete every time the meter drains, eventually leaving the player with a very small guard meter. This whole concept meant that players were forced into a more offensive style of play.
• Projectile attacks (such as Ryu's Hadouken), do gradually less damage to the opponent the further they travel. Making fireball attacks to keep an opponent at a distance less useful.
• The default speed of the American version of the game was set to Turbo 2, making the game faster than the prequels.
• Alpha/Zero Counters were rendered weaker than in previous Alpha games. The command to execute the alpha counter was easier but they now do very little damage to the opponent (similar to a blocked special move) and waste a chunk of the player's guard meter.
• Players could be "juggled" after certain moves while still in the air. Due to this, there was a new command allowing the character to flip away mid-air to avoid further damage (similar to Fighting Vipers).
• Throws were made more difficult to perform. The player must press toward the opponent and push 2 punch or kick buttons simultaneously. This in turn made throws harder to 'tech hit'. Each character was also given a grab animation similar to Zangief's missed Spinning Piledriver animation from previous games.
• Many characters were given new basic attacks. Ken for example had a close range headbutt and some new kicks.
• Super combos were generally weaker, giving the normal and special attacks more priority. For example, many level 1 super combos drain the same amount of vital as a regular fierce punch and Ryu's level 3 Shin-Shoryuken wastes about as much energy as a regular dragon punch. If perfomed at the right distance, though, the Shin-Shoryuken will actually be a Mestu-Shoryuken, dealing high damage and be a 4-hit super combo compared with the Shin-Shoryuken's 3-hit combo.
• Both players start (as a default option) the match with a full super bar.
• Level 2 and 3 super combos are easier to perform. Instead of pressing 2 or 3 punch buttons simultaneously, different attack strength buttons perform the different levels. For example, jab punch does a level 1 super combo and fierce punch performs a level 3.
• The high score table was improved drastically. Every single character had their own score meaning that popular characters could not 'dominate' the table. Not only this, but there was a separate score for each 'ISM' used, making a possible 3 top scores per character. This was rendered almost pointless however, as the arcade didn't contain any back-up RAM to save the scores, meaning that switching the machine off overnight wiped the memory.
• Every character was given an air throw. In all previous Street Fighter games, only a handful of characters had the ability to throw mid-air opponents.
• Players can 'mash' the buttons (similar to how dizzies are recovered from) to reduce the damage taken during multiple hit combos. The player will flash red while taking damage if performed.
• Blocking attacks right before it hits your character will result in a blue flash and less guard bar damage and chip damage.
• Dizzies occur less frequently than in other Street Fighter games.

[edit] New characters

• Blanka (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Cammy (returns from Super Street Fighter II)
• Cody (returns from Final Fight)
• E. Honda (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Karin
• R. Mika
• Vega (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Balrog (returns from Street Fighter II)
• Juli
• Juni
• Shin Bison

[edit] Additional characters after the arcade release

• Dee Jay (returns from Super Street Fighter II)
• Evil Ryu (returns from Street Fighter Alpha 2)
• Fei Long (returns from Super Street Fighter II)
• T. Hawk (returns from Super Street Fighter II)
• Guile (returns from Street Fighter II)

[edit] Characters introduced in the Game Boy Advance version

• Eagle (returns from Street Fighter)
• Maki (returns from Final Fight 2)
• Yun (returns from Street Fighter III)

[edit] PSP-exclusive

• Ingrid (returns from Capcom Fighting Evolution)

Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
Developer(s)	Capcom Production Studio 2
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Release date(s)	May 25, 2006 June 13, 2006 July 07, 2006
Genre(s)	Versus fighting game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Platform(s)	Playstation 2

[edit] Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

Released in 2006 for the Playstation 2, known as Street Fighter Zero: Fighter's Generation in Asia, this compilation includes all three games in the Alpha series (as well as Alpha 2 Gold), along with Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix (the US arcade name for Pocket Fighter), ported from their original arcade releases. In addition to the five default games, completing the single player mode of Alpha 3 unlocks Alpha 3 Upper (which includes the added character roster and new fighting styles from the previous console versions). Likewise, completing each game (including Alpha 3 Upper) unlocks the all-new Hyper Street Fighter Alpha (or Hyper Alpha for short), a Versus Mode-only version of Alpha 3 that allows players to select from every incarnation of the 34 characters in the series. Hyper Alpha also features new ISMs that mimics the playing style of other Capcom fighting games. The first ISM mimics the game mechanics of the Darkstalkers series by adding chain combos and the advancing guard. Another ISM is based off of Street Fighter 3 and includes the parrying system associated with that series as well as the ability to cancel special moves into super moves. The third ISM makes some the characters retain all of their move variations from the Marvel vs. Capcom series of video games. The game also features a colour edit mode allowing players to change each character's default colour scheme in each different version of the game.

The game was released in North America on June 13, 2006 and has so far received mainly positive feedback by fans of the series because of the accuracy of the Arcade conversions, the ability to customise gameplay options (which help to emulate the different revisions of the games that the Arcade cabinets received) and the absence of in-game "load time screens" present in the previous PlayStation and Saturn versions. Also, Alpha 2 Gold has Cammy fully selectable in every mode, including Arcade mode, where she has her own ending.

Fighters Generation, the Japanese version of Anthology, differs slightly in its lineup of games, featuring the English version of Alpha 2 and the console game Zero 2 Dash as hidden game modes for Zero 2 and Zero 2 Alpha respectively. Because the English localizations of Alpha 2 and Alpha 2 Gold already featured added content, their hidden game modes were omitted from the localized Anthology.

[edit] External links

• Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX Review (VGCritics)
• Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams at the Killer List of Videogames
• Street Fighter Alpha 2 at the Killer List of Videogames
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 at the Killer List of Videogames
• Shoryuken.com (the online center of competitive Street Fighter)
• Evolution Fighting Game Championships (largest annual fighting game tournament in the Western Hemisphere)

[edit] References

1. ^ (September 2000) in Studio Ben: All About Capcom Fighting Games 1987~2000. Denpa Shinbunsha, 37. ISBN 4-88554-676-1. 

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