''Street Fighter Alpha 3'', released as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D fighting game originally released by Capcom 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 s ...

. It is the third and final installment in the '' Street Fighter Alpha'' sub-series, which serves as a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to ''

Street Fighter Alpha 2 ''Street Fighter Alpha 2'', known as in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 1996 fighting game originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware by Capcom. The game is a remake to the previous year's '' Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' ...

'', and ran on the same

CP System II The or CPS-2 is an arcade system board that Capcom first used in 1993 for '' Super Street Fighter II''. It was the successor to their previous CP System and Capcom Power System Changer arcade hardware and was succeeded by the CP System III hardw ...

hardware as previous ''Alpha'' games. The game was produced after the '' Street Fighter III'' 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 port in 1998, which added an exclusive World Tour mode and brought back even more characters, with further versions on the Sega Saturn,

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

and PlayStation Portable.

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, 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'' as part of the starting lineup, he has appeared in ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'', ' ...

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 subs ...

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 encounter a Balrog known as Durin's Bane in the Mi ...

, 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, a ...

. New characters introduced in ''Alpha 3'' include R. Mika, 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's rival who was first introduced in the ''Street Fighter'' manga ''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 R ...

;

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, ...

from ''

Final Fight ''Final Fight'' is a series of beat 'em up video games by Capcom, which began with the arcade release of ''Final Fight'' in 1989. Set in the fictional Metro City, the games focus on a group of heroic vigilantes who fights against the control and ...

'', 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 is a competitive fighting game produced by Capcom and originally released as an arcade game in 1993. It is the fourth game in the ''Street Fighter II'' sub-series of ''Street Fighter'' games, following '' Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting''. It ...

'':

Dee Jay 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 Jamaican kickboxer and karateka ...

Fei Long is a fictional character in the ''Street Fighter'' series. He made his first appearance in ''Super Street Fighter II'' in 1993 as one of the four new characters introduced in the game. In the series, he is a martial artist and action movie star ...

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 Guile may refer to: * Astuteness, deception. * GNU Guile, an implementation of the Scheme programming language * Guile (''Street Fighter''), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series * Guile (''Chrono Cross''), a video game chara ...

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

port contains all of the characters from previous versions, as well as three additional characters: Yun from '' Street Fighter III'',

Maki Maki may refer to: People *Mäki, a Finnish surname (includes a list of people with the name) *Maki (name), a Japanese given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) Places *Maki, Ravar, Kerman Province, Iran *Maki, Rigan, Ke ...

from ''

Final Fight 2 is a 1993 side-scrolling beat 'em up video game released by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (known as the Super Famicom in Japan). It is the direct sequel to the 1989 coin-operated arcade game '' Final Fight'', which was pr ...

'', 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, j ...

from the original ''

Street Fighter , commonly abbreviated as ''SF'' or スト (''Suto''), is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by six ...

'', all three based on their incarnations from '' Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001''. The PlayStation Portable 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'', 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 The PocketStation is a memory card peripheral by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation home video game console. Categorized by Sony as a combination of a Memory Card and a miniature personal digital assistant, the device features a monoc ...

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 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 shoot ...

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 S ...

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 Sega Saturn 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 mode Survival mode, or horde mode, is a game mode in a video game in which the player must continue playing for as long as possible without dying in an uninterrupted session while the game presents them with increasingly difficult waves of challenges ...

s 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 PlayStation Portable 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 under the title ''Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper'' (officially promoted as ''Street Fighter Zero 3↑''). The game was released for the Dreamcast-based

NAOMI Naomi or Naomie may refer to: People and biblical figures * Naomi (given name), a female given name and a list of people with the name * Naomi (biblical figure), Ruth's mother-in-law in the Old Testament Book of Ruth * Naomi (Romanian singer) (bor ...

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 was released in 2002 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,

, and Yun, all of whom were characters from '' Capcom vs. SNK 2'' (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

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

s voice for Sakura's attack calls. * 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 2006 and features the additional characters from the GBA version as well as Ingrid from '' Capcom Fighting Evolution''. 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 Zero: Fighters' Generation'' in Japan) was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2. 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'' for the PlayStation 4,

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 & Steam. 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 f ...

'' 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 ...

'' said that the game would outlast ''

Tekken 3 is a fighting game, the third entry in the ''Tekken'' series. It was released to the arcades in 1997, before being ported for the PlayStation in 1998. The arcade version of the game was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of ''Tekke ...

'', 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'' 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