Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

A modest Review

By Robert V Aldrich

            Let’s cut right to the chase: The Street Fighter franchise is one of the biggest names in all of video games and for good reason. These games are an absolute blast to play. Street Fighter II was and is the standard by which all fighting games are measured. From the game’s controls to its diversity of characters, it set the bar for all to come after it.

However, after Street Fighter II and then Street Fighter II Championship Edition, and then Street Fighter II Turbo, and then Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, then Super Street Fighter II, and finally Super Street Fighter II Turbo, fans were beginning to wonder if Capcom could in fact count to three without having to put the words ‘Mega Man’ in front of the number.

Capcom did a little shuffle, though, and went back in time. The Street Fighter Alpha series, taking place chronologically between the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter II satisfied fans and moved the franchise forward. With cel-shaded fighters (as opposed to digitized ones found in Mortal Kombat or 3D fighters of Virtual Fighter) and a host of new toys to work with (including the super combos and new characters), the Alpha series took fighting games to a whole new level.

            Now, with the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, you’ve got the chance to own the entire Alpha series on one disc. Each of these games is directly ported onto the PS2, giving you a dead-on recreation of these legendary games.

Street Fighter Alpha is a fantastic bridge between the two generations of fighters. If you haven’t played any of the recent games and still pound away with your Super Nintendo copy of Super Street Fighter II, then this game will feel new enough to challenge you, but familiar enough to keep a handle on.

            Alpha II and Alpha III only up the ante, with Alpha III probably being one of the granddaddies of modern fighting games, having just about every character and every technique ever found in the Street Fighter franchise to this point. Included in this collection is also the ever-elusive Street Fighter Alpha II Gold, which has a host of hidden gems and improvements from Alpha II.

            There’s also a really adorable game called Super Gem Fighter Mini-Mix . . . oh, who am I kidding? It’s called Pocket Fighter, no matter what they want to slap on the box. This game is almost painful it’s so cute. You take command of a super-deformed fighter Ryu, Chun-Li, or other Street Fighter character (or a few from the Dark Stalker’s franchise) and beat the ever-loving crap out of everyone else. Simple, yes, but the spin is that all the characters are absolutely adorable, both winning and losing. Seriously, you will laugh until it hurts watching two of these little scrappers go at it.

            Now, to be fair, these games are not going to blow away everyone. The four Alpha games really aren’t all that different (especially Alpha II and Alpha II Gold) for the casual gamers to warrant the purchase. Also, there’s really not a lot here that modern marvels like Guilty Gear X or Capcom versus SNK don’t have. However, it can be a lot of fun to see how what are now staples of the genre developed. Also, these games have been directly ported, so the graphics and sound haven’t been updated. If you’re a fan of the series, that’s fine (preferable even). But if you’re trying to prove to your friend that the PS2 is better than the XBox, this probably isn’t the game to grab.

            At the end of the day, this collection is the type of thing that many a Street Fighter fan has been waiting for. It really feels complete; having all the Alphas together, while the Super Gem Fighter is just a delightful added bonus. This game is definitely worth picking up as it’s a solid addition to any serious gamer’s library. We can only hope to see more collections like this in the future, collections this complete and this well preserved, from other companies.

I’m looking at you, Konami.