A complete package of 2D fighting for the PSP. Tons of characters, strategy, modes, fighting and fireballs. Hadoken!
First, the characters: SFA3Max has every character from Super Street Fighter 2 and many from the original SF1. It has every character from Street Fighter Alphas 1, 2, and 3. It has Guy and Cody and several evil thugs from old beat-'em-up Final Fight (but where's Mike Haggar?). And it even throws in a few more characters for good measure, like Yun from SF3 and Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution. This brings the grand total of Street Fighters up to 37 (if--of course--you count Ryu and Evil Ryu as two different characters).
For each character, when you start the game, you can choose one of three ISMs, which fine tunes that character's strength, moves, and abilities, adding subtle but consequential layers of strategy to the gameplay. Simply put: X-ISM makes the character offensively strong but defensively weak. A-ISM balances offense and defense and offers more super combo moves. V-ISM is the weakest offensively, but allows players to create their own punishing custom combos. For beginners, it really helps to have the game manual handy to see which moves are available for which characters using which ISMs. Certain game modes even permit a fourth, customizable, ISM, called I-ISM, which can be developed and refined through the game's World Tour Mode.
Speaking of modes, the game offers a ton of them (2-on-1, 1-on-2, 100-round kumite, survival, and team battle to name a few), although the novelty of many of these will quickly wear off. The best modes--the modes you are most likely to keep coming back to--are the good old-fashioned Arcade Mode for a straightforward set of brawls strung along a loose storyline for each character, ad-hoc Versus Mode for putting the beat-down on your friends, Training Mode for special move and strategy practice, and the aforementioned World Tour Mode for the Street Fighter equivalent of a multi-stage Quest Mode.
SFA3Max's decade-old anime-inspired graphics have aged gracefully and are colourful, crisp, and clear on the PSP screen (sure they aren't as refined as Guilty Gear and Naruto nor are they as fluid as SF3, but they're still respectable). The arenas, music and sound effects competently add to the intensity of the action. The PSP's D-pad, although not the best controller for fighting games, is responsive enough that fireballs, uppercuts, sonic booms, and spinning bird kicks can all be dealt with reasonable accuracy. Some of the more intense action though--for example, a battle against Final M. Bison on the hardest difficulty--can suffer from the awkwardness of the D-pad.
The most notable downside to the game is its lack of unlockable content. Unlockable characters, costumes, and artwork have become almost standard incentives to replay fighting games that can otherwise become repetitive for some gamers. The reward of unlocking items that add new elements to the game, even if only superficial, can make a big difference. About the only unlockable content in SFA3Max are fighting upgrades for your customized I-ISM fighter, and those are few and far between.
That aside, SFA3Max provides a complete 2D fighting package, PSP-styles. It has the moves. It has the looks. It packs a punch (and a fireball). Now, all I want to know is: Where's PSP Street Fighter 3?