Streetfightin' men take a turn for the more boring
Written: Jan 08 '05 (Updated Jan 06 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Huge cast,lots of game types
Cons: Rather generic,sound,controls not as good as usual,old sprites
The Bottom Line: For Streetfighter die-hards only.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Street Fighter Alpha 3 for Dreamcast |
After it proved a success on the PlayStation, Capcom further cemented their backing of Sega's Dreamcast console as the premier outlet for fighting games with a port of Streetfighter Alpha 3.
Like all the Streetfighter games before it(except horrid NES title 2010), Alpha 3 is a 2D one-on-one fighter where the basic idea is to defeat your opponent in two rounds out of three in martial arts combat. You do this by emptying their energy bar, which is done by performing throws, punches,kicks,special moves and super moves.
Where Alpha 3 decided it was going to stand out from the pack of 2D fighters on the console, was the sheer number of gameplay options and variants on offer.
First off, the ones that affect the way the game plays. After you select your character, from a huge range including every fighter to appear in every version of Streetfighter 2 as well as the Alpha games, as well as bringing in some new characters of it's own, you are prompted to pick the speed, which is the norm for a Capcom 2D fighter, but then you have to choose between A,V and X-isms and several play types, Normal,Classic,Mazi and Saikyo. These each have different effects on your characters, Classic forces you to use X-Ism, and robs you of any play features added since Streetfighter 2, whereas Mazi heightens your strength, but lowers your defence and means that if you lose a round you lose the match. For those wondering about 'Isms', they refer to how your super meter works,for example X-Ism only allows you one Super move to be stored, whereas A allows you to bank up to three. While these add a lot of depth to the game, it can also prove to do nothing but confuse people who aren't in it for the unbreakable combos and tournament mentality of things, and are just looking for a fighter. While I usually just stick with playing Normal>A-Ism and recommending all my friends do the same, it serves as nothing but a block of confusion for them, because most of the titles don't really say much about how it shapes the character.
Additions in terms of modes is where Alpha 3 really earns some points in my eyes, as well as the regular arcade mode, where you fight ten opponents, one of which is a sub boss, and the last the mighty (read:cheap as all hell) M.Bison to see your character's ending, we are also treated to the other staple mode, Versus as well as World Tour,Dramatic Battle,Survival,Team Battle and Final Battle, which just lets you take on Bison to see your character's ending. World Tour mode refers to one of the game's biggest drawers, a mode where you have to win fights under certain circumstances to build up your character and earn new moves and such. It's comparable to the Quest mode in Soul Calibur. This certainly does add some single player appeal to the game, but personally I wasn't overly taken in by the feature. While it's cool that Capcom put it in, none of the challenges ask for anything that really tries the player, and the only reason it will keep you occupied for a lengthy timescale is due to how many fights you must take part in, rather than the difficulty.
Dramatic Battle is a rather nifty mode which allows you and another player to Co-Op against an enemy, or you to take on two enemies at once. This is a rather quirky and fun mode, if it hasn't been put together with much effort, given how tough it is to play if you get an opponent on either side of you, but once again it is nice to see they at least put some effort in. You can also do a 'Vs.Dramatic Battle', where three human players can square off, two against one.
Survival and Team Battle are fairly self explanatory, and there is also a training mode to boot.
While Alpha 3 cannot be faulted for the sheer amount of options and tweaks on offer, the fact is that the gameplay, while not by any stretch of the imagination bad,just seems so generic and subdued in comparison to the other Streetfighter titles Capcom were putting out at the time. We had Marvel Vs. Capcom providing sheer carnage onscreen with player,projectiles and god knows what else flying around, and on the other side Streetfighter 3, where the classic gameplay saw the additions of new features, and was as solid and complete as you could ever hope a Streetfighter game to be. Alpha 3 just sort of falls somewhere between the two poles of Capcom's quality 2D fighting series, and it just comes accross as rather bland by contrast.
That's not to say you can't have fun with it, especially on two player, the fact that nigh on the entire SF cast appears in the game, as well as the introduction of Cody from Final Fight, means that there certainly is a fighter for everyone here, and player who haven't played a Streetfighter title since the heyday of 2 will find everyone they know and love included. In this aspect the game does win some points, because friends who didn't keep up with the series were a lot more negotiable on playing this than any of the Streetfighter 3 games, due to how familiar they were with the cast. However, when I finally did persuade them onto the other Capcom fighters, this was quickly forgotten, simply due to the fact it just doesn't do enough to stand out on merits of the gameplay, and instead opts to confuse people with it's Mazi V-Isms and moves that can only be performed in certain Isms and so on.
Graphically, the game is good, but I never did totally warm to it, due to the Streetfighter 3 games and Capcom Vs. SNK being played on the Dreamcast first in my hands. The sprites are all well animated, and drawn in vibrant colours in the anime style of the Alpha series, and it has to be said that some of the backgrounds are just spectacular(Adon's Thai temple ruins spring to mind). While it isn't the best Capcom pulled off on the DC by a long shot, and some of the sprites are starting to show their age from Alpha 1, on the whole it looks good enough, and no-one plays 2D fighters for the visuals anyway.
The sound is a major pitfall for the game. The music is mostly generic rubbish, and really is sad when you consider how good music in past Streetfighter games has been. The only music to really catch my attention was Dan's theme, which really does have a cool sound to it that fits in more with the older proper themes than this horrible techno rubbish.
The voices of the fighters are decent enough, but the announcer will have you reaching for the mute button, or in some cases in stitches, within seconds.
The controls for the game are standard for the Dreamcast:Buy an arcade stick!. While the game can be attempted on the controller, anyone who really wants the most out of any Capcom fighter on the DC will want to invest in a good arcade stick, on which the controls for games like this were designed to hold. It features the usual three punch attacks(weak,medium and fierce) as well as the same three definitions for kicks, as well as the usual methods of performing special attacks, tapping a button,smooth D-Pad motions and charging one direction before quickly pressing another.
While the controls for the standard attacks brought me no problems of response, for some reason I found pulling off Special Moves under pressure to be a whole lot less reliable in Alpha 3 than in other Capcom titles. With Guile, I often play a risky game of waiting until the exact second to perform his somersault kick. In Alpha 3, a shocking amount of times I ended up on the recieving end of an attack due to the controls not responding correctly and Guile simply jumping upwards and kicking.
On the whole, while Alpha 3 is certainly a game I don't regret buying, it just doesn't do enough for me to be as memorable, or as much of a mainstay in multiplayer sessions, as Capcom's other Dreamcast fighters. It certainly isn't a bad game, it just pales in comparison to the 3 series and the Vs.Games, and simply finds itself as a sort of middle ground that seems rather generic.
If you like Streetfighter,chances are you probably already own this, but if you don't, then it is worth picking up if it's pretty low in price, but I would definitely opt for any version of Streetfighter 3 before it for a slice of Dreamcast Streetfighting action. Three stars and a recommended is about fair for the game. It's a decent fighter, and certainly not bad, but it just seems so ordinary in comparison to what Capcom was putting out at the time.
The Dreamcast was a console that was possibly the greatest system for fighting games ever made, and while Alpha 3 contributes to the solid backbone of the fighter collection on the console, it simply cannot compete to be one of the best when up against such stiff competition.
Other Streetfighter Reviews
Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo
Streetfighter 2: Turbo for Super Nintendo
Streetfighter 2:Special Champion Edition for Sega Genesis
Super Streetfighter 2 for Sega Genesis
Super Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo
Super Streetfighter 2 Turbo: Revival for Gameboy Advance
Streetfighter Alpha 2 for Sega Saturn
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Streetfighter for PlayStation
Related Reviews
Saturday Night Slam Masters for Super Nintendo
Marvel Super Heroes for Sega Saturn
X-Men: Children of the Atom for Sega Saturn
Final Fight One for Gameboy Advance
Review also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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