Street Fighter Alpha Anthology Review

By Luke Albiges Published 25 July, 2006

One for all you alpha males out there.

Version tested: PlayStation 2

Compilations are ten a penny these day, but it's rare to find one with more than two or three games worth playing.

It's a cunning ruse though. Twenty-odd games for twenty-odd quid? Bargain! Except it isn't always, is it. Because once the excitement's died down, you're only going to be playing a couple of them, and bargain status is revoked. Often too late for your twenty-odd quid. Kudos to Capcom, then, for collecting five games which are all worth playing, and charging us just four quid a pop for the privilege. (And what with some very reasonable conversion rates for odd-quid and quid-a-pop at the moment, all the better.)

Alpha Anthology brings together arcade conversions of all three Street Fighter Alpha titles (as well as Alpha 2 Gold for the completists) and offers Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix as a bonus. That they're derived from the coin-op versions seems somewhat double-edged to begin with, in that while it does mean you get the optimum version of each game technically, additions made over the last few years - characters added to Alpha 3 for the PSP and GBA versions, for example - are sadly omitted. Or so it first appears. Luckily, Capcom has had the grace to include Alpha 3 Upper as an unlockable when you beat Alpha 3 (extra character ahoy) and if you finish each of the games once, you're given a brand new remix known as Hyper Street Fighter Alpha. This is where the real fun is at.

Hyper Street Fighter Alpha, like Hyper Street Fighter 2, allows you to pick any character from the huge Alpha 3 Upper roster and use them in whatever guise you'd like. Want to use Alpha Ryu? Go for it. Prefer your Isms? Take an Alpha 3 character and you're all set. Also, on top of the three regular Isms for Alpha 3 characters, there are four entirely new options tucked away that draw upon other games such as the Versus series for chain combos and even 3rd Strike with a parrying option for the more technically-minded among you. With so many characters and so many variations, this mode alone will never fail to present interesting match-ups - once you unlock it, Hyper Street Fighter Alpha becomes pretty much the only thing you need on the disc. For versus play at least, as there's no single-player options to be found in this new mode. What's more, there's a certain purity and charm to the arcade originals and you will find yourself drifting back to them from time to time.

'Street Fighter Alpha Anthology' Screenshot 1

Of course, these ageing games aren't without their faults - Alpha's lack of characters, Alpha 2's chronically overpowered counters and Alpha 3's comparative lack of balance due to its huge roster and different play modes are the key points to mention here. But nitpicking is pointless when you've been given so many quality games for so small a price. If one of these in particular bugs you, you can always move onto another game in the pack and continue to get your street fighting fix.

Of the original games, it's Alpha 3 that really wins through - Capcom's crowning glory sits alongside 3rd Strike as the pinnacle of the series and twenty notes is a fair price to pay for this one game alone. But with the added bonus of four other titles (plus some awesome extras like Hyper Street Fighter Alpha) also residing on the disc, you'll be able to go back to older versions to either overdose on nostalgia or learn how the series progressed, depending on your experience of the series. And play Gem Fighter, which is always good for a laugh.

Indeed, where each title on the disc has its own relative strengths and weaknesses, every one of them is perfectly playable and enjoyable even alongside more recent releases. Your choice of character will also probably influence which game you play most - any Birdie players out there (massive respect to you all) will likely plump for Alpha 2 before he was messed about in 3, while those that use newer characters have no choice but to go for Alpha 3. Or indeed Hyper, the glorious culmination of the entire Alpha series. Give Capcom your money. Do it. You will seldom see a better investment of twenty quid and whether you have fond memories of the Street Fighter series or (somehow) you're just getting into it, Alpha Anthology is about as essential as beat-'em-ups come.

8 / 10

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About Luke Albiges

Read more articles from Luke by visiting the Luke Albiges archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • neuroniky #1 6 years ago

    I was an avid Street Fighter player, but Alpha, while being graphically stunning and very challenging to master, was far from perfect for me. The original was far more balanced, expecially if you played the most refined versions. Yes, there were clearly better characters, but the roster was much more focused and aside from some problems of over and under powerfulness of the bosses the "standard" fighters were much more near in strenght than the Alpha ones. Also the controls in Alpha for some character became too complicated, bringing the series more near to the SNK style than ever IMHO. Still, I could be dusting off my metal PS joystick soon... SF has just too much of an appeal to me...

  • DDevil #2 6 years ago

    I love the Alpha Anthology. For £20 it's an absolute bargin! Kudos for mentioning the hidden games and fighting styles in the review. You're basically looking at arcade perfect versions of each one here.

    Also - Gem Fighters is pretty original and funny, a worthy addition.

    By the way, the list of games available are (from Memory)

    Street Fighter Alpha
    Street Fighter Alpha 2
    Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold
    Street Fighter Alpha 3
    Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper (complete Alpha 3, then hold select while choosing to play Alpha 3)
    Super Gem Fighters
    Hyper Street Fighter Alpha (complete all games, inc A3Upper then hold select while choosing to play SFA)

  • Laserbream #3 6 years ago

    It's like a circle only faster, and it holds many more doubts than your average geometry.

  • AcidSnake #4 6 years ago

    But is it better than Super Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES?

  • space_ace #5 6 years ago

    everybody was 2d fightiing

  • ilmaestro #6 6 years ago

    Okay, okay, I'll buy it already. :)

    They could have included Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo though, just for me.

  • Schiraman #7 6 years ago

    I'd be tempted to buy this, except I still own a copy of Alpha 3 for the PlayStation and what with backwards compatability and all that makes this re-release a bit less essential. ;)

  • Hog-lumps #8 6 years ago

    except I still own a copy of Alpha 3 for the PlayStation

    Out of interest, is there much difference graphically between ps and ps2 SFA3?

  • DDevil #9 6 years ago

    Yeah. The sprites are smaller, have a lot less animation. Everything generally moves smoother on the PS2 version.
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/06 @ 10:45

  • afray #10 6 years ago

    dem sprites was fast as lightenin'

  • pacrifice #11 6 years ago

    hog-lumps

    once you've selected what alpha you wanna play, there's no load times at all.

  • neuroniky #12 6 years ago

    @Hog_lumps: I don't like much the PS1 SF Alpha 3 graphics. They lack too many animations. That also introduces a gameplay problem since it is harder to pull some combo if you're used to pull 'em in the arcade game. Can't comment on this one, but I guess it is arcade perfect.

    @AcidSnake: I'd say it is better than the SNES game you mention, but SSFII on the PS1 (or on MAME) is a better game overall in my opinion.

    @ilmaestro: Super Puzzle Fighter is one of the best puzzle games I've ever played. Too bad some characters were much more powerful than others. Including the ubiquitous Dan which released only Red gems that allowed the opponent to get some massive comboes was just classy too.


  • marc_si #13 6 years ago

    I agree with neuroniky the first couple of versions were the best balanced (SF2-Turbo being my favourite) ... as the series went forward it seemed to be less about strategy and style and more about repeating combo's until one of the fighters dropped.

    (that being said I'll probably get it ... if only to try and persuade publishers to keep 2D fighters alive)

  • President_Weasel #14 6 years ago

    In fact, it was a little bit fright'nin

  • Hog-lumps #15 6 years ago

    @pacrifice

    Well that's a huge relief! - the load times on the PS1 SFA-3 drove me mad! (although admittedly they could be significantly reduced by turning off the 'snazzy' character select screen)

  • skillian #16 6 years ago

    Well I loved SF2 as a kid and I thought I knew a bit about StreetFighter.

    Obviously not - with all the talk of isms and alphas this review went totally over my head.

  • Bezzy #17 6 years ago

    but they fought with X and A-ism

    (half rhyme there)
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/06 @ 11:51

  • Riggers #18 6 years ago

    Tempted to get this - the fella has all the arcade Street Fighter games emulated on his X-box (pikey sod!), but trying to play Street Fighter on an X-Box pad is like trying eat soup (perhaps Heinz Cream of Tomato) with chopsticks.

  • bumgut #19 6 years ago

    One word: J-ism

  • neuroniky #20 6 years ago

    @Riggers: I agree. Only the Snes pad up until now was good enough for playing 2d fighters. On the PS there are a lot of very good joysticks around, but I don't know if something similar is available for the XBox too.

  • fawe3 #21 6 years ago

    One very important thing not explined in review, does this compilation has online mp? If it does it deserves those 8/10.

  • DDevil #22 6 years ago

    No, it's offline only I'm afraid.

  • #23 6 years ago

    Alpha 3 pwns SFIII

    /runs

  • Pacman8MyGhostkart #24 6 years ago

    neuroniky there's a xbox arcade stick in the same vein as the saturn ones (which are great btw) seen it on play-asia works out about £36 with P&P http://ww w.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-2a-4...

  • theiceman #25 6 years ago

    Everybody is street alpha fightin'

  • Arwin #26 6 years ago

    ... except me, I'm Tekken PSP fightin' ... 8)
    Edited by 1 at 25/07/06 @ 17:29

  • theiceman #27 6 years ago

    Arwin, whats tekken 5 on the psp like? is it worth me getting it?

  • HIGHVOLTAGE #28 6 years ago

    Eh "only the SNES pad is good enough for 2D fighters" are you having a laugh? The SNES pad was great for many things but 2D beat 'em ups weren't one of them. THE BEST pad for beat 'em ups was either the Megadrive six button or the standard Saturn pad. Why? Well for starters you had all six buttons on the face of the pad. I'm sorry but shoulder buttons are cack for this game I don't know anyone who honestly prefers using awkwardly positioned L+R for Hard Punches+Kicks rather than having all the buttons infront of you. The other beauty of these pads-the D button which (1) had proper 8 way D-pad intead of the awful ninty 4 way cross key that often gave a suspect response when pressed diagonally and (2) was mounted on a rollerball so it spun round effortlessly when doing those fireball motions. I believe Capcom themselves had a hand in designing it with Sega which may explain why the resurrected the design for their own Street Fighter anniversary pads for the PS2 which are ace, even better than an arcade stick-erm dunno if they did X-box versions but hey you just gave me a chance to cream myself over those lovely pads again....

  • Jimmy__Fury #29 6 years ago

    I have a question. In Hyper Street Fighter Alpha, can you use ANY background from any game in the series?

  • SlackMaster #30 6 years ago

    What the fuck's an ism?

    Hah, that was my question as well... I didn't really get into Alpha series that much and SFIII I couldn't get into at all. A lot of people really like the SFIII games but by that point I was far more heavily into the KOF series and just found the new characters in SF a bit shit.

    Anyway I picked up Alpha Anthology to give the series another try, but much prefer Alpha 2 to 3...

  • SlackMaster #31 6 years ago

    @ HIGHVOLTAGE

    Agreed... the best pads for 2d fighters had to be the MD 6 button pad and the Anniversary pads.

    The best arcade sticks had to be the Hitori pads and the DC arcade stick.

    The xbox d-pad has to be the worst but is light years ahead of the PSP d-pad. The PS2 d-pad is so so but I'd prefer to use an Anniversary pad.

  • neuroniky #32 6 years ago

    @HIGHVOLTAGE: surely the shoulder buttons were a little bit less responsive than the face buttons, and so you had to readjoust slightly your timing in pressing them, but the D-Pad is much better than the one found on the Saturn or MD pad. Also, the buttons were much more responsive, giving the Snes pad it's unique "speed" that is what you really needed to pull the most fast combos out of SF2. I think the pad was the best for me because of its responsiveness, it was just so close to the arcade in that regard.

  • PhakeDC #33 6 years ago

    Does anyone know which PS2 compilation contains SF III 3rd Strike? CPS3 encryption is seemingly impossible to crack, and I was thinking about giving SF III a go since I never did so.

  • HIGHVOLTAGE #34 6 years ago

    Mmmmm gotta totally disagree about the d-pad thing, like I say the Sega style pad rolled in its socket, it was just sooooooo so so easy to do all those special moves that required 90/180 degree spins of the d-pad. But hey its all personal preference at the end of the day. If you can kick more butt with the SNES joypad then who am I to argue.