Street Fighter Alpha 3 - PlayStation

Street fighter Alpha 3 for the Sony PlayStation is the ultimate anthology of this incredibly successful fighting series. Street Fighter 2 is the game that is almost single-handily popularised the beat-em-up genre. Alpha 3 has nearly all of the characters from every version of Street Fighter 2 released. All of your old favourites are here plus a few new faces like R. Mika and Karen. The graphics are beautiful, stylised and perfectly suited to this kind of game.

There should be warning on the box of this game. Alpha 3 is just far too addictive for it’s own good. The gameplay is perfectly balanced and refined. This game just flows and two-player session can last until the early hours of the morning.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 is about strategy, timing and skill. Special moves and super combos require combinations of button presses and joystick motions to be executed. These moves do more damage but are harder to pull off. If you are good enough you can link your normal moves into your supers for massive damage combos. If you finish a round with a super move the screen explodes with fantastic visual effects. The player with energy left at the end of the round wins.

In Alpha 3 there are three different ISM’s that you can choose for your fighter that alters the fighting style of your character. So not only can you create those classic match-ups you have always dreamed about, but you can play classic style (Super Turbo), Alpha style, or variation style. In addition there is a World Tour mode that allows you customise your character with special abilities like cancelling a super move into another super. Three characters fighting on screen at the same time is one of the best features of Alpha 3, Dramatic battles are sweet.

If you like fighting games, Street Fighter Alpha 3 is one of the best.

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