On July 22nd, it'll be one year since I got my Xbox
(and since then, I have only played 5 perfectly working games on it).
While I may not like the Xbox, I'll give it credit for one thing: If it
wasn't for it, I wouldn't have been a Capcom fighting game fan. Enter
Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I played it, and automatically wanted to play MvC
again. Then, I learned about the Dreamcast's... shall we say,
capabilities, and instantly got to play MvC 2 again (I'm still trying
to buy every character and beat my high score), and play MvC for the
first time since... the year it came out.
Then, when I got my
new computer, things got interesting. I got a MAME emulator and for the
first time in my life, played a Street Fighter Alpha game (Which of
course, was SFA3). Since then, I have played almost every Capcom
fighting game (except for the Vampire Savior series) that uses the
CPS-2 (or 3?) engine. When I got my new PS2 two days ago, the first
game I wanted to play on it was Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, but had
to settle for... I can't remember the name of the game. Anyway, I've
pretty much completed every aspect of the collection, so let me break
it down for you.
Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams
I
played this after I played SFA3, and I was first shocked at how slow
the game was. Then, I amped the speed, so it was okay in the end. I
played it a couple times since then (First to get it out of the way,
then to beat it with Guy), and I believe back in 1994, I would've been
blown away by it, considering I was brought up on Mortal Kombat.
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Still,
SFA2 was better than the first. I'll probably never appreciate the
newer characters (Considering I only play with Ryu, Guy, and Charlie),
but it was interesting to see how many of the characters looked and
played outside of the ISM system.
Quick Note at this point: I'm
one of the many that uses MUGEN on the web, and of course, after seeing
the amazing Evil versions of characters (Trust me: Go to YouTube and
look for Evil Ryu or Evil Ken), you could imagine my disappointment at
Evil Ryu. He's just a pallete swap. None of his moves are even
different either (Unless he can do the Shun Goku Satsu). No pallete
changes there or nothin. To tell you the truth, Akuma doesn't impress
me either...
Street Fighter Alpha 2: Gold
For
some reason, I can't get the Custom Combo to work in SFA2, so for that
reason alone, I like SFA2: Gold better. At the first glance, there is
nothing special about SFA:2G, but when you press start on characters on
the Character Select Screen, then you have something. All the Super
Street Fighter 2 characters available have SSF2 versions of themselves,
and if you press start twice on Bison, you can get the only COMPLETELY
(I say completely because there's also EX versions of characters, Evil
Ryu, and Shin Gouki) secret character of the game, Cammy.
Street Fighter Alpha 3
I
can go on and on about SFA3. I just recently planned how to use ISMs on
certain characters, and I'm still planning on how to kick Shadaloo-ISM
Bison's ass (I beat the game, but lost against Bison). All the
characters are here from the other two games, including some new faces
(The only other character I use besides the three mentioned above:
Cody) and secret characters, Balrog and the Dolls (Juni and Juli). As
you may have noticed by the sentence before the last one, all you have
to do to beat the game is beat the ninth person you fight (at least,
that's how it worked for me). Then, you fight Bison (or Ryu, if you ARE
Bison), and win or lose, the game ends. Either way, Street Fighter
Alpha 3 is the best game on the collection if you're playing by
yourself. BUT WAIT!
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
If
you DO beat SFA3, you're presented with a secret game: Street Fighter
Alpha 3 Upper. Basically, the same game except you choose two styles.
The second is the standard ISM selection. The first are other fighting
styles. Normal, which is the normal selection (Obviously), Saiyko,
which is pretty much limiting your abilities, Mazi, which is a damage
mulitplier pretty much, and Classic, which basically breaks you down to
the level of Street Fighter II. There's also the hidden Shadaloo-ISM,
which is a very souped-up version of X-ISM (and trust me, if you're
playing with Bison, you're pretty much unstoppable with that damn
Psycho Crusher). Also, you get a couple new characters: Guile, and the
other three New Challengers from SSF2 that... aren't well, Cammy. Also,
the three hidden characters are added to the normal roster.
Street
Fighter: Chibi Style! Frankly, I like Pocket Fighter as a name anyway.
Pretty much, you know, an easier and more arcadey version of Street
Fighter, with Darkstalkers characters tacked on. Well, that's it for
the collection. OR IS IT? Once again...
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!
Hyper Street Fighter Alpha
Holy
crap! The second Hyper Street Fighter game, and it's WAY better than
the other one (Hyper Street Fighter II: Anniversary Edition). Like the
other Hyper, you can choose any character, also from any game in the
series. However, there are some add-ons to it.
-I'm not sure if this
is in SFA3: Upper, but if you choose a SSF2 character in Alpha 3 style
and give them the Classic style, then the Classic stage music for that
character will play.
-Best part of the game: SFA3 ISMs. Now I know
what you're thinking. But the ISMs are in SFA3, so why is it the best
part of THIS game? Easy. If you hold down start while selecting the
first fighting style of a SFA3 character, and press left or right, the
cursor will disappear, and boom. You have a brand new ISM. The ISMS
boil down to this.
If you select Normal, then you get Vampire Mode, making it a little like Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers).
If
you select Mazi, you get Street Fighter 3 mode, which gives you the
parrying system (along with effects added to Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and
Akuma).
If you select Saiyko, then you get Street Fighter II:
Champion Edition mode, destroying some Street Fighter Alpha 3 rules
from Classic mode. Catch: You can only use characters from SFII'.
There's also a Classic Mode, which makes things a bit like the Versus Series. This one's a little hard to describe, so I won't.
In the end, Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is pretty much worth
it. Street Fighter fans will not be disappointed. Damn Marvel and
Activision for making it so Capcom can't release any Vs. games on a
complilation...
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