Alpha Anthology is a great collection of old Arcade 'classics' that remain virtually intact for this outing.
Street Fighter Alpha was the step after the remarkable Street Fighter 2, however the series served as a prequel. Capcom has little idea on how to progress after SF2, and despite much demand for SF3 they went the route of Alpha. Although the Alpha games are generally of good quality, sometimes you can’t help but feel that if SF3 was made instantly after SF2 then it would have given the series another stand up title.
Alpha changes very little about the game play of SF2, however now you have gauge that will fill throughout the battle to allow you to do a “Super Combo”. Super Combos basically cause you character to constantly rush the enemy, while you input moves. As your moves are faster you can deal a lot more damage. You also get 3 levels to the gauge, with each giving you more time than the last.
Each game in the Alpha series improves upon the last. While game play and, for the most part, game modes stay the same, the number of playable characters is greatly increased. You will see some old favourites from SF2, SSF2 and even some Final Fight veterans in there, along with some new characters. Each character uses a different fighting style from the others, with a couple of notable exceptions. This means that you get a lot of depth in the type of moves characters use, while the each have certain attacks that are “similar”, such as a projectile attack.
The version of the games in Alpha Anthology are as near to perfect Arcade ports as you are going to get. So for those of you without such luxuries as the whole set of Alpha Arcade machines, which is a lot of us to be honest, this games will definitely quell any thirst you may have for Street Fighter Alpha. The one glaring omission is Alpha 3’s World Tour mode. Although not a great loss that devalues the game completely, it would still have been nice for the game to include this feature.
Something which has almost become a trend recently is updating versions of old Arcade games, mostly thanks to Xbox Live Arcade. We saw this with Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting which was updated with a few new features that would have made the game great had it not failed to get the basics right. Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is not updated in the slightest. Those looking for online play better go elsewhere. When you re-release ‘classics’ such as these it is always nice for people to have online play or other small features to make the game feel new again to hardcore.
Street Fighter has always been a mixed bag of the fantastic and the lacklustre, however the Alpha series has always been a slight high point. Although it is nowhere near the quality of Street Fighter 2, it is a far cry from the lows that some 2D fighters have sunk too. This Anthology is something which will be on any Street Fighter fans list regardless, but for those who wouldn’t necessarily turn to the series for some much needed fighter action, I would definitely recommend you give Alpha Anthology a try.