Street Fighter Alpha 3

The other option is to play Alpha 3 Upper, which not only includes Guile, but 33 other fighters. In this version not one face goes missing. Every SF2 character is here, as well as former unlockables Juni and Juli and Evil Ryu. To me, this version is just too much. The roster is cluttered with a lot of useless characters that get in the way more than anything.

Juni and Juli are quite the lookers, but they fight as poor imitations of Cammy, and their sprites aren’t exactly the most breathtaking. And while he may be a longtime character, does anyone really care about DeeJay? The original roster alone is verging on fairly large, but with Upper they have completely disregarded balance in favor of cramming everyone possible into the game. I understand why, as this is meant to be the big, last shebang for the classic Street Fighter Universe, but it still aggravates me.

Keep in mind that if all you really care about is serious, competitive play, you probably won’t care about Upper’s larger roster. You’ll simply ignore the new additions and just keep using your best fighters. My issues stem from the fact that I mostly do single player, and have a hard time getting friends to play 2d fighters. When I go through arcade mode I’d rather not wade through a bunch of useless enemies I have no desire to practice against, and when I finally persuade a buddy to play, I don’t like seeing them give up after two or three bouts because they are scared away by a massive cast that they can’t navigate through.

Again, I appreciate what Alpha 3 is trying to do, but everything about it is so big and brash. Even the announcer and pre fight music is just so… flamboyant? No, more like decadent. On one hand it’s great to have such a big Street Fighter love fest, but it isn’t something I can stick with for long. Alpha 2 is just a more focused fighting game that looks and sounds better. If I want a big cast, I much prefer the personalities and charm found in the King of Fighters series.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with my complaints. In fact, I anticipate most people to appreciate all the goodies. Whatever the case, you now know what to expect. To use the promised analogy, I consider Alpha 3 to be the all you can eat Chinese buffet. You sacrifice quality for quantity, gouge yourself silly, and in the end feel a bit bloated. You probably also stick to your favorite foods despite the huge amount of choices, and after a while you may get sick of them. Yet you’ll always come back for more, just not very frequently.

With Alpha 2, we have the local Chinese take out joint. It looks humble, almost simple at first, but then you find out they make some of your favorite dishes better than anyone else. Sure, it isn’t quite the same amount of food, but its enough, and it is so good that you keep coming back for more.

Its up to you whether you feel the same way, but ultimately Alpha 3 serves up just about everything you could possibly want in a Street Fighter game. “Go for broke” indeed.

Christian Wolfe is the kind of guy who is glad they removed the World Tour mode. His views should not be trusted.