Street Fighter Alpha 3

Street Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Composer(s)	Takayuki Iwai; Yuki Iwai; Isao Abe; Hideki Okugawa; Tetsuya Shibata
Platform(s)	Arcade; Sega Dreamcast; Game Boy Advance; PlayStation; PlayStation 2; PlayStation Portable; Sega Saturn (Japan only)
Release	Arcade ; PlayStation ; Dreamcast ; Saturn ; Game Boy Advance ; PlayStation Portable ;
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Arcade system	CPS-2

Street Fighter Alpha 3, known as Street Fighter Zero 3 (ストリートファイターZERO 3, Sutorīto Faitā Zero 3) in Japan and Asia, is a Template:Vgy fighting game by Capcom originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware. It is the third game in the Street Fighter Alpha series, following Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams and Street Fighter Alpha 2. The gameplay system from the previous Alpha games was given a complete overhaul with the addition of three selectable fighting styles based on Street Fighter Alpha (A-ism), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (V-ism), and Super Street Fighter II Turbo (X-ism), new stages, a much larger roster of characters, and for the first time since the original Street Fighter II, new theme music for all the returning characters.

Gameplay

Street Fighter Alpha 3 discards the "Manual" and "Auto" modes from the previous Alpha games by offering the player three different playing styles known as "isms". The standard playing style, A-ism (or Z-ism in Japan), is based on the previous Alpha games, in which the player has a three-level Super Combo gauge with access to several Super Combo moves. X-ism is a simple style based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, in which the player has a single-level Super Combo gauge and access to a single (but powerful) Super Combo move. The third style, V-ism (or "variable" style), a unique style that allows the player to perform custom combos similar to the ones in Street Fighter Alpha 2. In X-ism, players cannot air-block nor use Alpha Counters. Alpha 3 also introduces a "Guard Power Gauge" which depletes each time the player blocks - if the gauge is completely depleted, then the player will remain vulnerable for an attack.

The controls for several actions has been modified from previous Alpha games. For example, the level of a Super Combo move in A-ism is now determined by the strength of the attack button pressed (i.e Medium Punch or Kick for a Lv. 2 Super Combo), rather than the number of buttons pushed; and throwing is now done by pressing two punch or kick buttons simultaneously.

Characters

As with the previous Alpha titles, several characters were added to the game: Cammy, who was previously featured in the console-exclusive Alpha 2 Gold, makes her official Alpha debut in the game along with several characters from Street Fighter II including E. Honda, Blanka and Vega. Characters new to the Street Fighter series includes R. Mika, a Japanese female wrestler who idolizes Zangief, Karin, Sakura's rival who was first introduced in the Masahiko Nakahira manga Sakura Ganbaru, and Cody from Final Fight, who was transformed from a vigilante into an escaped convict, makes his Street Fighter debut.

The single player mode consist of ten or eleven matches against computer-controlled opponents. The fifth and ninth opponent is a rival of the player's character who exchanges dialogue before and after the match. Unlike previous Alpha games, the final match for all the regular characters is against a more powerful version of M. Bison (officially known as "Final Bison") who uses a more powerful version of the Psycho Crusher as a Super Combo. When playing as Bison, however, Ryu becomes the final opponent.

Depending on the player's character, the final match with Bison will be preceded with either: a one-on-two match against Bison's female bodyguards Juni and Juli (who uses the same techniques as Cammy), or the boxer Balrog. In the arcade version, Balrog, Juni and Juli were secret characters.

Returning characters

Character	Origin	Stage^[1]	Voice actor
Ryu	Street Fighter	Genbu Plains, Japan	Toshiyuki Morikawa
Chun-Li	Street Fighter II	Zhidan Plaza, China	Yuko Miyamura
Charlie (Nash in Japan)	Street Fighter Alpha	Frankfort Hangar, USA	Toshiyuki Morikawa
Ken	Street Fighter	Hotel Masters, USA	Tetsuya Iwanaga
Guy	Final Fight	Overhead under 22nd Street, USA	Tetsuya Iwanaga
Birdie	Street Fighter	Train Junkyard, England	Wataru Takagi
Sodom	Final Fight	Manhattan Building 49F, USA	Wataru Takagi
Adon	Street Fighter	Historic Ruins of Khmer, Thailand	Wataru Takagi
Rose	Street Fighter Alpha	Palazzo Mistero, Italy	Michiko Neya
Sagat	Street Fighter	Resting Place of OgNagpa in front of the Gautama Buddha statue, Thailand	Miki Shinichiro
M. Bison (Vega in Japan)	Street Fighter II	Secret Point 48106	Tomomichi Nishimura
Akuma (Gouki in Japan)	Super Street Fighter II Turbo	Oni Fang Cave, Japan	Tomomichi Nishimura
Dan	Street Fighter Alpha	Hinode Park, Japan	Osamu Hosoi
Zangief	Street Fighter II	Akademgorodok Blast Furnace, USSR	Wataru Takagi
Dhalsim	Street Fighter II	In front of the Jaunpur Monument, India	Yoshiharu Yamada
Rolento	Final Fight	Camouflaged Subway, New York City, USA	Jin Yamanoi
Gen	Street Fighter	Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong	Wataru Takagi
Sakura	Street Fighter Alpha 2	Hana Shoutengai, Japan	Yuko Sasamoto

New characters

Character	Origin	Stage^[2]	Voice actor
Cammy^[3]	Super Street Fighter II	Mykonos, Greece	Akiko Komoto
E. Honda	Street Fighter II	Higashi-Komagata Katomi Kontou, Japan	Masashi Sugawara
Blanka	Street Fighter II	Swampland Branch of Madeira River, Brazil	Yuji Ueda
Vega (Balrog in Japan)	Street Fighter II	Requena Spiral Tower, Spain	Yuji Ueda
Cody	Final Fight	Metro City Police Detention Center, USA	Koichi Yamadera
Karin	Sakura Ganbaru! (manga)	Queen of Victoria Ship, Japan (console only)^[4]	Miho Yamada
R. Mika	First Appearance	Wrestling Ring at Sardine Beach, Japan	Junko Takeuchi
Balrog (M. Bison in Japan)	Street Fighter II	Fremont Street, Las Vegas, USA (console only)^[5]	Koichi Yamadera
Juni	First Appearance	Secret Point 48106	Akiko Komoto
Juli	First Appearance	Secret Point 48106	Akiko Komoto

Home version additions

In the home versions, Balrog, Juni and Juli became regular characters with their storylines, win quotes and endings. An extra version of Balrog, called "EX Balrog", is featured in the home versions as well. The home versions also added the remaining three characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II, T. Hawk, Dee Jay and Fei-Long, to the selectable roster. In the PlayStation version, the player can also gain access to Guile, as well as Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma, by fulfilling certain prerequisites in World Tour mode. In the Dreamcast and Saturn versions, Guile, along with Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma, became regular characters.

Character	Origin	Stage^[6]	Voice actor
Dee Jay	Super Street Fighter II	Port Antonio, Jamaica	Yoshitada Ohtsuka
Fei-Long	Super Street Fighter II	Kowloon Park, Hong Kong	Kousuke Toriumi
T. Hawk	Super Street Fighter II	Monte Alban Plains, Mexico	Shozo Iizuka
Guile	Street Fighter II	Nevada Ghost Valley, USA	Toshihide Tsuchiya
Evil Ryu	Street Fighter Alpha 2	Oni Fang Cave, Japan	Toshiyuki Morikawa
Shin Akuma^[7]	Street Fighter Alpha 2	Gokuento Island, Japan	Tomomichi Nishimura

Portable version additions

The Game Boy Advance version contains all the additional characters from the console versions, as well as three additional characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2: Yun, Maki and Eagle. The PlayStation Portable version, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, contains the same additional characters, as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Character	Origin	Stage^[8]	Voice actor
Eagle	Street Fighter	Train Junkyard, England	Jin Yamanoi
Maki	Final Fight 2	Overhead under 22nd Street, USA	Miki Nagasawa
Yun	Street Fighter III	Kowloon Park, Hong Kong	Kentaro Ito
Ingrid (PSP only)	Capcom Fighting Jam	N/A	Masako Jo

Versions

Street Fighter Alpha 3 was initially ported in Template:Vgy for the PlayStation. This version replaced "hit" sprites with "hit" polygons in order to focus more memory on character animations. T. Hawk, Fei Long, and Dee Jay (the remaining "New Challengers" from Super Street Fighter II, who were not in the original arcade version) were added to the roster. Balrog, Juni and Juli were also added to the immediate regular roster, and they were given new character portraits and their own storylines. Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma, and Guile were also added as secret characters in the World Tour mode, a mode that allows players to strengthen and customize their chosen character's fighting style while traveling around the world. An additional feature in the Japanese version also made use of the PocketStation peripheral, which allows players to build up their character's strength. In this version, Shin Akuma serves as the final boss for Evil Ryu, as well as a secret boss in Final Battle. Due to RAM limitation, the only unique pairings available for a complete campaign in the Dramatic Battle Mode are Ryu & Ken or Juni & Juli; other character combinations can only be used for one match battles. This version will be re-released in the near future on the PlayStation Network.

The Template:Vgy Dreamcast version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3: Saikyo Dojo (or Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō in Japan), retains all the added features from the PlayStation version of the game, but features a different World Tour mode. An online mode was added that allowed players to display their high scores. In addition, a Saikyo Dojo mode was added which pits a very weak character of the player's choice against two very strong opponents. This Dreamcast port was re-released in Japan in Template:Vgy as Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō for Matching Service, which was released as a mail order title via Dreamcast Direct. The Matching Service version differs from the original due to the addition of an Online Versus Mode.

A Sega Saturn version of Street Fighter Zero 3 was also released in 1999 shortly after the initial Dreamcast version in Japan only. The Saturn port makes use of Capcom's 4-Mega RAM cart and utilizing all of the features added to the PlayStation version with the exceptions of the polygon usage and the PocketStation mode - that said, the Saturn version uses the extra RAM to include more frames of animation than the PlayStation version. Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma and Guile are immediately selectable. While the World Tour and Survival modes are virtually unchanged from the PlayStation version, Dramatic Battle received major improvements with the addition of Reverse Dramatic Battle and allowing three different characters to be used.

Street Fighter Zero 3 was re-released for the arcades in Japan in Template:Vgy under the title of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper (officially promoted as Street Fighter Zero 3↑). The game was released for the Dreamcast-based NAOMI hardware (rather than the original game's CP System II hardware) and features all the added characters from the console versions of the game. Upper also allows player to upload any customized characters from the Dreamcast version of the game by inserting a VMU into a memory card slot on the cabinet.

A Game Boy Advance version developed by Crawfish Interactive was released in Template:Vgy. The GBA version is titled Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper on the title screen. The port is compressed and lacks several stages and music from the previous arcade and console versions, although all characters were present. In addition, Eagle, Maki and Yun, all whom were characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2 (released during the previous year), were also added to the game. Only a small amount of character voices were ported over to this version and the developers raised Ken's voice to a higher pitch and used it as Sakura's voice.

The PlayStation Portable version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX (Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper in Japan, officially promoted as Street Fighter Zero 3↑↑), was released in Template:Vgy and features the additional characters from the GBA version as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution. The game is a near faithful port of the arcade version with minimal (almost non-existent) loading times and all graphics intact. All the added characters now feature their own in-game storylines and endings.

Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for the PlayStation 2 (Street Fighter Zero: Fighters' Generation in Japan) was also released in 2006. It contains the arcade version of Alpha 3 as one of the immediately available games, along with a revised version of Alpha 3 Upper as a secret game. The World Tour Mode that was featured in the previous home versions is not included in this compilation, nor are the extra characters introduced in the portable versions of the game.

References

^ The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.
^ The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.
^ While Cammy was included in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the home version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, this was her first full fledge appearance in the Street Fighter Alpha series.
^ In the arcade version, Karin's home stage was originally Hana Shoutengai set at nighttime.
^ In the arcade version, Balrog's stage is Secret Point 48106.
^ The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.
^ Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma were not in the arcade version of Street Fighter Alpha 3.
^ The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.

Sources

Studio Bent Stuff (2000). All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Games 1987-2000. A.A. Game History Series (Vol. 1) (in Japanese). Dempa Publications, Inc. ISBN 4885546761. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

[1] The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.

[2] The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.

[3] While Cammy was included in X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the home version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, this was her first full fledge appearance in the Street Fighter Alpha series.

[4] In the arcade version, Karin's home stage was originally Hana Shoutengai set at nighttime.

[5] In the arcade version, Balrog's stage is Secret Point 48106.

[6] The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.

[7] Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma were not in the arcade version of Street Fighter Alpha 3.

[8] The characters' stages are given specific names in the Japanese version, whereas in the English version they're simply referred by the country where they're set.

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