Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
Arcade nitpickers, this is the game you have been waiting for.
Published: June 26, 2006
There's been plenty of evidence to suggest that Sony Computer Entertainment -- and the US wing in particular -- is rather anti-2D. In the old days, this was sort of understandable; the PlayStation was devised to be the be-all end-all 3D gaming platform, and 2D games were seen as "old" 16-bit technology. 3D was the future, all hail 3D! Oh, and the original PlayStation was rather skimpy on memory, something that the competitor, the Sega Saturn had in comparative droves.
This meant the Saturn managed to nail arcade-to-home conversions far, far better than the PlayStation, which often had to strip out frames of animation or outright ditched characters. Considering that US arcades were already in decline, it didn't help that Capcom's efforts when it came to PlayStation conversions of 2D fighters were understandably crippled.
But then came the PlayStation 2, with more RAM, and more power. Surely it could handle such games with the kind of aplomb that one would expect from a 128-bit monster, right? Right? Except that it hasn't really happened -- at least not on a scale that most would hope. Until now. Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is, in no unequivocal terms, one of the most arcade-perfect collections ever released for the home.
Five (or five-ish if you count Alpha 2 Gold) arcade games are replicated perfectly, plus Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (nee Pocket Fighters), plus two hidden games, including Alpha 3 Upper (which includes Super Street Fighter 2 characters) and an Alpha fan's wet dream: a mashup of every character in the game using the Alpha 3 engine as the base, plus "ism" styles from Darkstalkers, Street Fighter III, the Vs. games and Street Fighter II. It is about as awesome (and slightly unbalanced) as you'd imagine.
Each of the normal games available at the start of the game, Street Fighter Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 2 Gold (which basically tweaked things for balance and added some secret characters and original Street Fighter II versions of familiar characters) and Alpha 3 all have the ability to play in Versus, Training and Arcade modes, but they also offer a couple other hidden bonuses, including an option screen that allows for dip switch settings to control which arcade board revision to use, and turn off various options for some characters' moves and such. In addition to being arcade perfect (this means, none of the home additions like World Tour Mode in Alpha 3 are here), you're also getting multiple arcade versions.
The Alpha series is a little tough to describe to anyone who hasn't played them before -- if there even are people that haven't touched a single Alpha game before. Best thought of as a slightly more technical version of Street Fighter II, the series has aged beautifully, especially Alpha 3, which is my personal favorite. Though I'll never be more than a casual player, and thus can't make tournament-level calls on what is better, it's obvious to anyone who spent time with some of the more crippled releases of the past that Capcom took the time to give this game some love.
What's more, being arcade-perfect that same goofy rush I got from finding hidden stuff like mid-bosses and hidden characters is here. There's something so stupidly fun about selecting a hidden character just by holding the selection cursor over a character for a few seconds and then pushing some buttons or moving things around, but this feeds that so nicely that I couldn't help but grin. Then I remember that we have no more arcades with hardcore players in 'em save for bowling alleys and more "grown-up" arcades like Dave and Buster's.
Like the recent PSP retro release Gradius Collection, Alpha Anthology is a bit of a bare-bones approach. There's nothing that chronicles that original development staff's journey into making the games, no mention of how the ideas came about, and no discussion on why things were changed going into the sequels. Even something simple like advertisements or sell sheets for the older games would have been nice, though that seems reserved for truly old-school arcade compilations.
Some may also feel a little ripped off when seeing how many versions of the games were included with the Japanese release of Street Fighter Zero -- Fighters Generation, which actually included a ridiculous number of hidden games and even a US version of Alpha 3. And others will most certainly wish the games had some form of online play (though that may be something saved for Xbox Live Arcade on the 360), but this is an amazing collection, featuring some games that are arcade perfect for the first time at home.
The bottom line here is that you're getting five games in pristine condition, with so many tweaks and little hidden tidbits that it's a joy just to find them all. It's always a fight to keep from wishing there could be more (like, say online play?), but the key thing to remember here is that you're getting five excellent games for $30. Thirty friggin' bucks! Sony may not be all that 2D friendly, but if you want to tell them with what matters (greenbacks) that you still love 2D, there's no better way out there to do it than this.
This meant the Saturn managed to nail arcade-to-home conversions far, far better than the PlayStation, which often had to strip out frames of animation or outright ditched characters. Considering that US arcades were already in decline, it didn't help that Capcom's efforts when it came to PlayStation conversions of 2D fighters were understandably crippled.
But then came the PlayStation 2, with more RAM, and more power. Surely it could handle such games with the kind of aplomb that one would expect from a 128-bit monster, right? Right? Except that it hasn't really happened -- at least not on a scale that most would hope. Until now. Capcom's Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is, in no unequivocal terms, one of the most arcade-perfect collections ever released for the home.
Five (or five-ish if you count Alpha 2 Gold) arcade games are replicated perfectly, plus Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (nee Pocket Fighters), plus two hidden games, including Alpha 3 Upper (which includes Super Street Fighter 2 characters) and an Alpha fan's wet dream: a mashup of every character in the game using the Alpha 3 engine as the base, plus "ism" styles from Darkstalkers, Street Fighter III, the Vs. games and Street Fighter II. It is about as awesome (and slightly unbalanced) as you'd imagine.
Each of the normal games available at the start of the game, Street Fighter Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 2 Gold (which basically tweaked things for balance and added some secret characters and original Street Fighter II versions of familiar characters) and Alpha 3 all have the ability to play in Versus, Training and Arcade modes, but they also offer a couple other hidden bonuses, including an option screen that allows for dip switch settings to control which arcade board revision to use, and turn off various options for some characters' moves and such. In addition to being arcade perfect (this means, none of the home additions like World Tour Mode in Alpha 3 are here), you're also getting multiple arcade versions.
The Alpha series is a little tough to describe to anyone who hasn't played them before -- if there even are people that haven't touched a single Alpha game before. Best thought of as a slightly more technical version of Street Fighter II, the series has aged beautifully, especially Alpha 3, which is my personal favorite. Though I'll never be more than a casual player, and thus can't make tournament-level calls on what is better, it's obvious to anyone who spent time with some of the more crippled releases of the past that Capcom took the time to give this game some love.
What's more, being arcade-perfect that same goofy rush I got from finding hidden stuff like mid-bosses and hidden characters is here. There's something so stupidly fun about selecting a hidden character just by holding the selection cursor over a character for a few seconds and then pushing some buttons or moving things around, but this feeds that so nicely that I couldn't help but grin. Then I remember that we have no more arcades with hardcore players in 'em save for bowling alleys and more "grown-up" arcades like Dave and Buster's.
Like the recent PSP retro release Gradius Collection, Alpha Anthology is a bit of a bare-bones approach. There's nothing that chronicles that original development staff's journey into making the games, no mention of how the ideas came about, and no discussion on why things were changed going into the sequels. Even something simple like advertisements or sell sheets for the older games would have been nice, though that seems reserved for truly old-school arcade compilations.
Some may also feel a little ripped off when seeing how many versions of the games were included with the Japanese release of Street Fighter Zero -- Fighters Generation, which actually included a ridiculous number of hidden games and even a US version of Alpha 3. And others will most certainly wish the games had some form of online play (though that may be something saved for Xbox Live Arcade on the 360), but this is an amazing collection, featuring some games that are arcade perfect for the first time at home.
The bottom line here is that you're getting five games in pristine condition, with so many tweaks and little hidden tidbits that it's a joy just to find them all. It's always a fight to keep from wishing there could be more (like, say online play?), but the key thing to remember here is that you're getting five excellent games for $30. Thirty friggin' bucks! Sony may not be all that 2D friendly, but if you want to tell them with what matters (greenbacks) that you still love 2D, there's no better way out there to do it than this.
