''Street Fighter Alpha 3'', released as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D

fighting game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a video game genre, genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappli ...

originally released by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

for the arcade in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. It is the third and final installment in the ''

Street Fighter Alpha ''Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams'', known as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D arcade fighting game by Capcom originally released in 1995 for the CP System II hardware. It was the first all new ''Street Fighter'' game p ...

'' sub-series, which serves as a sequel to ''

Street Fighter Alpha 2 ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'', known as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 1996 in video gaming, 1996 fighting game originally released for the CP System II, CPS II arcade hardware by Capcom. The game is a Video game remake, remake to ...

'', and ran on the same CP System II hardware as previous ''Alpha'' games. The game was produced after the ''

Street Fighter III is a fighting video game in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series, originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1997. The game's name as it appears on the cabinet is ''Three: A New Generation of Street Fighters''. ''Street Fighter III'' w ...

'' sub-series has started, being released after '' 2nd Impact'', but before '' 3rd Strike''. ''Alpha 3'' further expanded the playable fighter roster from ''

'' and added new features such as selectable fighting styles called "isms". ''Alpha 3'' has also been released on a variety of home platforms starting with the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

port in 1998, which added an exclusive World Tour mode and brought back even more characters, with further versions on the

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance and

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

Gameplay

''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' discards the "Manual" and "Auto" modes from the previous ''Alpha'' games and instead offers three different playing styles known as "isms" for the player to choose from. 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'' (the term "X-ism" being a reference to that game's Japanese title, ''Super Street Fighter II X''), 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), is a unique style that allows the player to perform custom combos similar to the ones in ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'', but cannot use Super Combos. In X-ism, the player cannot air-block nor perform Alpha Counters, and can only use 1 Super Combo move in its powerful Level 3 version. To activate V-ism's Super Combo, the player has to press both kick and punch of the same strength. X-ism has the highest attack power but least defence, A-ism has more attack power than V-ism and a similar level of defence. All three modes have variations of movesets for each character, adding considerable depth to the gameplay. In addition, there are hidden modes that add handicaps to the player as well as benefits (for example, Classic mode, which prevents the use of Super Combos but also makes the character unable to be knocked in the air and juggled). ''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 to an attack. When broken the bar shrinks and is refilled to its new maximum, it can be shrunk a number of times. Worth noting, while in X-Ism the character has the least defence of all modes it also has the largest guard bar, vice versa for V-ism with A-Zism being in the middle. Also the guard bar varies between characters, Zangief e.g. has a very large guard bar. The guard bar does not exist in Dramatic Battle matches so no guard crushing is possible there. I-ism is a customizable style exclusive to the Dreamcast version's World Tour and Saikyo Dojo modes and the PSP version's World Tour mode. The controls for several actions have been modified from the 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

The game brings back all eighteen of the characters that appeared in ''Street Fighter Alpha 2''. As with the previous ''Alpha'' titles, several characters were added to the game:

Cammy , also referred to by her codename , is a fictional character in the ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series. She debuted in 1993 as one of the four new characters in ''Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers''. She has also been featured in ...

, who was previously featured in the console-exclusive ''Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold'',

E. Honda , more commonly known as E. Honda, is a fictional character created by Capcom for the ''Street Fighter'' series of fighting games. Introduced in ''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Street Fighter II'' as part of the starting lineup, he has #App ...

Blanka also known by his birth name Jimmy (ジミー Jimī) is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series. He first appeared in the 1991 video game ''Street Fighter II'' as one of eight playable characters, and was subsequ ...

Balrog A Balrog () is a powerful demonic monster in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. One first appeared in print in his high-fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings'', where the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of the Ring encounter a Bal ...

, and

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, an ...

. New characters introduced in ''Alpha 3'' include

R. Mika , known as and more commonly as , is a fictional character and professional wrestling, professional wrestler from Capcom's ''Street Fighter (series), Street Fighter'' fighting game series. She was introduced in the 1998 game ''Street Fighter Al ...

, a Japanese female wrestler who idolizes

Zangief , based on Russian Зангиев, often called the , is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series. Considered to be the first controllable fighting game character whose moveset is centered on grappling, he made his first appeara ...

; Karin,

Sakura A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...

's rival who was first introduced in the ''Street Fighter''

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

''Sakura Ganbaru!'' by

Masahiko Nakahira is a manga artist from Kōchi City, Japan. He is best known for his numerous manga adaptations of the popular fighting game series ''Street Fighter''. Two of Nakahira's original concepts for his ''Street Fighter'' manga, the character of Evil Ry ...

;

Cody Cody may refer to: People *Cody (given name) *Cody (surname) * Cody (wrestler), a ring name of Cody Runnels Places Canada *Cody, British Columbia United States * Cody, Florida *Cody (Duluth), Minnesota *Cody, Missouri *Cody, Nebraska *Cody, Wyo ...

from '' Final Fight'', who has since become an escaped convict; and Juli and Juni, two of Shadaloo's "Dolls" who serve as Bison's assassins and guards. The PlayStation version adds the remaining characters introduced in '' Super Street Fighter II'': Dee Jay, Fei Long and

T. Hawk , commonly known as T. Hawk, is a fictional character in the ''Street Fighter'' series. He made his first appearance in the 1993's ''Super Street Fighter II'' as one of the four new characters introduced in the game. In the series, he is a Native ...

, along with Guile from ''Street Fighter II'', and Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma from ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'', the latter three being unlockable. The Sega Saturn and Dreamcast versions move Guile, Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma to the default roster (although the latter shares a slot with his regular counterpart and is playable via a special button combination). The more powerful version of M. Bison who is the true final boss of Alpha 3 with the special Shadaloo-ism meter, Final M. Bison, is also made playable in these Sega ports via a code. The Game Boy Advance port contains all of the characters from previous versions, as well as three additional characters: Yun from ''

'', Maki from '' Final Fight 2'', and

Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

from the original '' Street Fighter'', all three based on their incarnations from '' Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001''. The

version, ''Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX'', also adds

Ingrid Ingrid may refer to: * Ingrid (given name) * Ingrid (record label), and artist collective * Ingrid Burley, rapper known mononymously as Ingrid * Tropical Storm Ingrid, various cyclones * 1026 Ingrid, an asteroid * InGrid, the grid computing project ...

from ''

Capcom Fighting Evolution , released in the US as ''Capcom Fighting Evolution'', is a 2004 head-to-head fighting game from Capcom. It was originally released as a coin-operated arcade game for the Namco System 246 hardware and ported to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The g ...

'', to bring the total playable character count to 39 characters.

Versions

* ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' was initially ported in

to the PlayStation, selling a million copies. This version replaced the "hit" sprites with "hit" polygons in order to focus more memory on character animations. Juli, Juni and Balrog were added to the immediate regular roster, and they were given new character portraits and their own storylines. Dee Jay, Fei Long and T. Hawk (the remaining "New Challengers" from ''Super Street Fighter II'') were also included in the roster. Guile, Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma (the latter sharing a slot with his regular counterpart) were also added as secret characters that can be unlocked through the World Tour mode, a mode that allows the player to strengthen and customize their chosen characters fighting style while traveling around the world. An additional feature in the Japanese version also made use of the PocketStation peripheral, which allows the player 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 limitations, the only unique pairings available for a complete campaign in the Dramatic Battle mode are Ryu & Ken and Juli & Juni; other character combinations can only be used for one-match battles. The AI for the Dramatic Battle and Survival modes is exceptionally poor with the CPU neglecting to defend against sweep attacks, perhaps due to RAM again. As is frequently the case with home ports of arcade games, the lesser amount of frames allows for certain combos, often infinite, that are not possible in the arcade version (particularly when using V-Ism mode and in Dramatic Battle and Survival stages). *This version was re-released for download on the North American

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

on October 18, 2011. * The

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Dreamcast version, titled ''Street Fighter Alpha 3: Saikyo Dojo'' (or ''Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō'' in Japan), uses all the added features from the PlayStation version of the game, but features a different World Tour mode. Guile, Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma are immediately selectable, although the latter still shares a slot with his regular counterpart and is playable via a special button combination. An online mode was added, allowing the player to display their high score. In addition, a Saikyo Dojo mode was added, which pits a character that the player has built up in World Tour mode against a very strong opponent who had to be downloaded from the Internet and changed every week. The Dreamcast version was re-released in Japan in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

as ''Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō for Matching Service'' as a mail order title via Dreamcast Direct. The ''Matching Service'' version differs from the original with the addition of an Online Versus mode. * The

version of ''Street Fighter Zero 3'' was released in 1999 in Japan only, shortly after the initial Dreamcast version. This port makes use of Sega's 4-MB RAM cartridge and uses all the features from the PlayStation version except for the polygon usage and PocketStation mode. The Saturn version uses the extra RAM to include more frames and sprites, making it near arcade-perfect. Similarly to the Dreamcast version, Guile, Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma are immediately selectable, with the latter sharing a slot with his regular counterpart and playable via a special button combination. While the World Tour and Survival modes are virtually unchanged from the PlayStation version, the Dramatic Battle mode received some improvements with the inclusion of a 2-player mode and the addition of the Reverse Dramatic Battle mode, in which the player faces two computer-controlled characters simultaneously. This and the

versions are also the only ports to feature the Dramatic Battle mode against the entire roster of characters, as all other versions limit this mode to boss characters only. The AI for the Dramatic Battle mode is far superior to the PlayStation version. Another minor change is the revised scoring system for some moves in the game: for example, many characters that earn 3000pts per hit from a grab move (a very important fact to exploit for the World Tour mode, where the score is the player's experience points) do not receive as much in the Saturn version. The features, characters etc. of the first home port on the PlayStation are available straight away in the Saturn version. * ''Street Fighter Zero 3'' was re-released for the arcade in Japan in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

under the title ''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 six characters from the home console ports as well as some balance changes, most notably the removal of the "crouch canceling" glitch which allowed for V-ISM infinite combos. ''Upper'' also allows the 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 Crawfish Interactive was a video game developer based in Croydon, London, United Kingdom. The company was founded in March 1997 and closed in November 2002. The company specialised in games software for the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance for ...

was released in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

under the title ''Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper'' (''Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper'' in Japan, officially promoted as ''Street Fighter Alpha 3↑'' and ''Street Fighter Zero 3↑'' respectively). The port is compressed and lacks several stages and music tracks from the previous arcade and console versions, although all of the characters are present. In addition,

, Maki, and Yun, all of whom were characters from ''

Capcom vs. SNK 2 ''Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001'', known in Japan as , is the sequel to the fighting game ''Capcom vs. SNK''. It was originally released on NAOMI hardware in arcades. As in the original, players select a team of fighters from vario ...

'' (released in 2001), were added to the game. Only a small number of character voices were included in this version due to storage limitations, which the developers worked around by having characters share voice samples, modified with real-time pitch shifting, such as using a higher pitched version of Kens voice for Sakura's attack calls. * The

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

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and features the additional characters from the GBA version as well as Ingrid from ''

''. This version is a near-faithful port of the arcade version with minimal (almost non-existent) loading times and all frames and sprites intact. All of the added characters now feature their own in-game storylines and endings. The Dramatic Battle mode in this version is the only one where both the player and partner characters can be selected individually (allowing for any character pairing). It also includes the Reverse Dramatic Battle mode from the Saturn version, an exclusive tag mode called "Variable Battle", which is similar to the Dramatic Battle mode but in which the player can tag in and out their partner, and a mode called "100 Kumite" (a 100-fight series). * ''

Street Fighter Alpha Anthology ''Street Fighter Alpha Anthology'', released in Japan as ''Street Fighter Zero: Fighters Generation'', is a 2006 fighting game compilation that collects the ''Street Fighter Alpha'' series. The game also includes a remixed version of the consol ...

'' (''Street Fighter Zero: Fighters' Generation'' in Japan) was released in 2006 for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

. It contains the arcade version of ''Alpha 3'' as one of the immediately available games, along with a revised version of ''Zero 3 Upper'' called ''Alpha 3 Upper'' as a secret game. Both games feature Dramatic Battle and Survival modes in addition to the Arcade, Versus, and Training modes, but not the World Tour mode that was featured in the previous home ports nor the extra characters introduced in the portable versions of the game. In ''Upper'', all six characters that were added in the home console ports are readily available. *''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' has an arcade-perfect inclusion via ''

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection ''Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection'' is a compilation of fighting games from the ''Street Fighter'' series developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Capcom in celebration of the series' 30th anniversary. The collection was released f ...

'' for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. The original 28 characters appear in the title, but those introduced in the home console, Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable versions are not included due to the game being an emulation of the original arcade. Save states are available to allow the player to resume from where they left. The game, along with ''Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting'', ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' and ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Fight for the Future'', has online functionality.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' on their September 1, 1998 issue as being the second most-successful arcade game of the month. On release, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' magazine scored the Sega Saturn version of the game a 32 out of 40;''Weekly Famitsu''
No. 405
/ref> they later scored it 30 out of 40. The PlayStation version also scored 32 out of 40 on release.''Weekly Famitsu''
No. 400
/ref> The Dreamcast version scored slightly better, receiving a 33 out of 40.''ドリームキャスト – ストリートファイターZERO 3 サイキョー流道場''. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.36. June 30, 2006. The ''

Official UK PlayStation Magazine An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their s ...

'' said that the game would outlast '' Tekken 3'', and stated "the only thing to tarnish this is the graphics. So if you think gameplay is more important than texture-mapped polygons, consider the score to be a ten." ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' reviewed the PlayStation version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Capcom may have outdone itself with the most playable and innovative fighting game since the original ''Street Fighter II''." ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

'' gave the PlayStation portable version of the game an overall score of 7.75 out of 10 praising how the game being a great port of the classic fighting game and the gameplay and loading times as being seamless and stating “a perfect arcade port that will please Street Fighter fans.” By 2003, the Game Boy Advance version had sold over 30,000 copies. Meanwhile, the original PlayStation version sold a million units as of June 2016. In 2019, ''Game Informer'' ranked it as the 18th best fighting game of all time.

References

Sources

External links