Despite being marketed as a Sequel, Streetfighter Alpha 2, or Zero 2 as it is known in Japan, is actually a remake of the original Alpha/Zero game. Capcom probably chose to do this due to the criticism they got for the constant versions of Streetfighter 2. the game takes place in between the events of the original Streetfighter and the hugely successful second game. For a more in depth look at the characters, I suggest reading over my review of the Saturn version.

For those who don't know, Streetfighter games are one-on-one fighters where the idea is to win 2 out of three rounds of fantasy martial arts fighting in a 2D enviroment. You and your opponent each have a health bar, the idea is to beat theirs down to empty before he or she does it to you. You can do this with straightforward punches and kicks, with the series signature special moves or with the new Super moves, performed by building up a second bar of energy by landing hits, and entering the correct button combination to unleash a super-powerful special move. You also have new features to the series, such as Alpha Counters, which allow quick special move counters to moves, and Custom Combo's which allow the player to chain together attacks that wouldn't normally combine.

Graphically, Alpha 2's PSX conversion is decent, but a lot of things have been lost in the transfer to Sony's notoriously 2D ufriendly console. First of all, the characters are not animated anywhere near as well as in the arcade or Sega conversions, and a lot of minor things have been removed to allow the game its PlayStation 15 minutes. While these aren't major losses like a character missing or anything, if you are used to one of the other versions of the game they soon become apparent.

The music and voice work in the is pretty good, with the game using remixed versions of character's music from their previous videogame appearances, providing they have any. So the Final Fight characters, such as Guy and Rolento, feature songs from Capcom's landmark Beat 'em Up, but updated, and the SF2 veteran characters feature their SF2 tunes modified, sometimes for the better, Ryu and Chun Li for example, and sometimes for the worse, Ken and Sagat would be examples here.

The controls are as follows:

Square:Light Punch(LP)
Triangle: Medium Punch(MP)
X:Light Kick(LK)
Circle:Medium Kick(MK)
L1:Hard Punch(HP)
L2:All 3 Punch buttons at once
R1:Hard Kick(HK)
R2: All 3 Kick Buttons at once

As I mentioned in my review of Capcom's Darkstalkers, the PlayStation controller is plain terrible for Capcom fighters, and sadly this is also the case here. While the button responses are fine, the PlayStation D-Pad is terrible, it doesn't catch the motions needed for this type of game very well, and the pad only features 4 face buttons, making performing hard strength special moves, especially those with HP, an incredibly frustrating experience, and not one I would wish upon anyone.
I do have both a licenced by Sony fighter pad and a decent arcade stick, which when played with, the game becomes slightly better, it certainly enables you to at least control your fighters well, but unlike the monster based fighter, controls aren't the only issue with Alpha 2's PSX conversion.

While DS had bad loading times, the loading times in Alpha 2 are quite frankly disgusting. Seriously, you could probably boil a kettle and make yourself a cup of tea in the time it takes the game to load up a fight. With the exception of maybe Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 on the Saturn, which comes close, this is head and shoulders above all competition as the worst loading times I have ever seen in a game. And this is a cut down version!

The title screen makes it hilariously obvious that the PSX and Alpha 2 were two things that probably weren't meant to be. While the options for gameplay, Arcade, Vs. etc are all there in their friendly text from the arcade and Saturn games, the PSX port has no background. A black screen with these options.While this doesn't affect the gameplay, it makes the game look like there is something wrong with the cable putting the picture to the TV.

To be honest, I could forgive the game if it wasn't perfectly animated, or if the standard controller wasn't perfect and there was some loading times, but the loading times actually offended me they were so bad at times, and that just put me in an exceptionally bad mood, where neither animation faults or controller gaffes could be forgiven.

The game does have the Streetfighter Alpha 2 engine within it though, and it is a perfectly good fighting game beneath all of these faults, and this, along with the good sonic aspects of this port, ensured that the game did at least get an average score.

But do I recommend buying it?, to put it bluntly, no. I suppose if you are minus a Saturn, you may find worth for it, and it may even be more enjoyable for you, given that you won't have played that console's stellar port of the game, so if this applies to you, then Alpha 2 is a decent purchase if it is going cheap.
But if you have had any other experience with the game on another format, which I have, then chances are you won't enjoy the PSX conversion, and there is no reason for you to own it, unless you are a Streetfighter collector or something.

Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo
Streetfighter 2: Turbo for Super Nintendo
Streetfighter 2:Special Champion Edition for Sega Genesis
Super Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo
Super Streetfighter 2 for Sega Genesis
Super Streetfighter 2 Turbo: Revival for Gameboy Advance
Streetfighter Alpha 2 for Sega Saturn

Recommended: No