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»Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
"Fix your D-Pad!"
The Street Fighter series is as big a part of our gaming history as the
Mario, Sonic, and Pac-Man franchises are. Without Street Fighter, we
probably wouldn’t have Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, or even Soul
Calibur, Tekken, or Virtua Fighter. Capcom brought on a change in the
genre that was as significant as what Nintendo did with Super Mario
Bros. and the NES. Prior to Capcom’s involvement, the best gamers had
to play was Yie Ar Kung Fu and Karate Champ.
Street Fighter has come a long way since its debut. We’ve waded through
the many iterations of Street Fighter II, the EX series, the entirety
of the Alpha series, and even the three iterations of Street Fighter 3.
While not the newest of the Street Fighter games, Alpha 3 has the most
complete roster of characters. Just about everyone from Street
Fighter’s history is present – even Eagle from the first game is a
playable character. He joins the cast along with Maki, Yun, and Ingrid,
making the largest character list in Street Fighter History.
The “new” characters each add a good amount of diversity to the mix.
Eagle uses a lot of reversal moves while Maki is a mobile character
much like Guy. Yun plays just as he did in Street Fighter 3, and Ingrid
plays much like she did in Capcom Fighting Evolution—a game fighting
fans would like to forget ever existed. That’s not to say that she’s a
bad character. In fact, she is quite the compliment to the rest of
characters. Perhaps I like her because she feels like a King of
Fighters character. Whatever the reason, I appreciate her presence in
the game.
Characters aside, what everyone wants to know is how well the game
plays. To be honest, I can’t stress enough how important it would be to
either obtain Capcom’s directional pad cover that was released only in
Japan with pre-orders or to mod your PSP so the diagonals work. Capcom
did add a bunch of control options and was a little more lenient with
exact diagonals than their last PSP entry. Even with the modifications
Capcom made to the controls, certain moves are incredibly hard to pull
off consistently. This is, of course, a hardware problem, but Arc
Systems managed to make the PSP work for Guilty Gear.
Even though the controls could be better, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
seems to be the most complete version of the game. With over a dozen
modes of play, including an extended World Tour Mode and Reverse
Dramatic Battle, you’ll find quite the game here. All the animations
are here and look amazing on the PSP’s “mini hi-def screen”. People
have said that this is a perfect Dreamcast port, while others claim it
to be a perfect Arcade port. Regardless of who is right; this is by far
the best fighter on the PSP to date.
To analyze the sound of this game, we have to first analyze what makes
for great audio in the fighting genre. Is the stage music memorable?
The music is memorable, but it's not on the level of games like Guilty
Gear. Do the hit noises match up to the hit detection? Absolutely! Are
there multiple stages with distinct music for each? Each character has
their own stage complete with it's own unique background music. For a
sequel like this, are there remixed versions of classic stage music? Of
course! Lastly, we come to the question, "If there is voice acting, can
you hear it clearly? Street Fighter games have always had a great sense
quality when it comes to spoken dialog, and this game is no different.
Every “Sonic Boom”, “Shoryuken”, “Tiger Knee”, and “Kikoken” is
represented in full stereo. Even the hit sound effects have a good
amount of bass to them to make you “feel” the hit when wearing some
earphones.
Graphically speaking, Street Fighter games haven't gotten past the
lower-resolution sprites that plague SNK and Capcom fighters. I would
really like to see a game with the detailed sprites one would find in
Guilty Gear XX, coupled with the animation of Street Fighter 3. Sadly,
this game doesn't match either. Because of the PSP's smaller screen,
however; Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max looks really good on this platform.
It’s truly astonishing that Capcom managed to port this game so
flawlessly on the PSP. I was expecting something a bit watered down.
Instead, I was treated with extra modes, 3-player dramatic battles, and
an extended World Tour mode. Some of the challenges are genuinely
difficult and add a good amount to the game, but ultimately, without
another person with his own PSP and game, you’ll grow tired of the game
after only a short period.
Article by: Bloodspoor
Posted on: Feb. 28th, 2006 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Due to the d-pad on the PSP, I can’t, in good conscience, give it a higher score. It really puts a hamper on one’s enjoyment of the game. |
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Graphics |
| Bright and vibrant colors allow you to see the game well on any screen brightness level. Still at a lower resolution, the sprites look really good on the smaller screen. |
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Sound |
| It’s crisp, clear, and sounds great on either the PSP speakers or through headphones. |
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Replay Value |
| Fighting games rely heavily on the multi-player aspects, but even without a friend or two to play with, World Tour mode is longer and offers some really cool challenges that will keep you playing for awhile. |
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