Street Fighter Alpha 3
Monday May 22, 2023
I want to start off by saying I don’t know anything about this game. I know the rules of Street Fighter and I know the mechanics of Alpha, but it’s all pretty surface level. I think a good way to summarize it is that I know why people don’t like this game but I’m nowhere near the skill level where any of that matters.
The Alpha series always sat in the back of my mind as a group of games that could be fun to learn if I had someone else to play with. I played a little bit of Alpha 2 on Fightcade but my brain is too chimpy to play fighting games online and I figured my time would be better spent playing Third Strike. I tried Alpha 2 because I heard that’s the one people like more. Recently I tried Alpha 3 because Cammy is in it and I’m gay as fuck. I was hoping my friends would like to play it but the only thing they play on my Versus is Ice Hockey for the NES. I had a feeling those fags wouldn’t play fighting games with me so I was also kind of banking on the guys I play Third Strike with coming over to play. It turns out all of them think Alpha sucks. Now I just smoke the shit out of my girlfriend until she doesn’t want to play anymore and that isn’t fun for either of us. Going easy on her isn’t fun either. This is getting depressing so maybe I should actually talk about the game.
Presentation
I really like the art style of this game. All the big character select portraits are great and the colors/shading on sprites give this game a unique look. The chunky font used all over is very charming.
I don’t think I’ve heard a song I didn’t like. The final round music slaps my dick off. If I heard this while in an intense game with a friend I would be shitting my pants, but I’ve only heard it after 2 characters stood still for 3 rounds while I was troubleshooting buttons.
Mechanics
So I guess this game’s “thing” is alpha counters. They’re done by pressing forward + punch and kick while in blockstun. You have no idea how long it took me get a recording of this. The easiest part was actually doing the alpha counter and just about every other step was hell.
Seems pretty cool but I’m not sure if it’s used much at a high level. I didn’t realize until recording the clip that the input is different in Alpha 2 but it looks like they function the same.
In the Alpha series you can block in the air which is pretty weird for Street Fighter. You can only do it if you haven’t already thrown out a move. Blocking a tatsu looks cool as shit.
Alpha 3 has “ISMs” and I think they’re a big reason people prefer Alpha 2. I’m a dumb idiot and I just pick A-ISM every time and I tell the button mashing scrubs I play with to pick X-ISM. You choose your ISM after you pick a character.
Here’s a summary of each that I pretty much stole from the Street Fighter Wiki.
X-ISM
- Bigger guard bar
- More damage
- No air blocking, recovery rolls, alpha counters, or taunting
- One level 3 super
- Less defense
A-ISM
- Has air blocking, rolls, alpha counters, and taunting
- Super meter fills faster and all supers are available
- Less damage
- Shorter guard bar
V-ISM
- Has air blocking, rolls, alpha counters, and taunting
- Custom combos, no supers
- CC gauge fills fast
- Lowest damage
- Shorter guard bar
I pick A-ISM because I’m too stupid for V-ISM. I tell the scrubs to pick X-ISM because there is no way they give a shit about the different super levels or alpha counters. They care about pushing hard punch as fast as they can and never blocking ever. One day I’ll try V-ISM. That could be the day I experience why my Third Strike friends don’t like Alpha.
One thing I really like about Alpha is the air recovery. When pressing 2 punches in the air you do a little flip and land on your feet. I do it almost every time because nobody knows how to punish it, but juggling the shit out of mashers who are accidently doing it and giving me free heavy punches in the corner feels sick. I’m not getting a video of it because I don’t feel like wrestling with 3 different annoying programs again.
Final Thoughts
I think it’s fun and I’m gonna play it until it isn’t fun anymore. I think my friends could have fun with it too if they decide to learn the super basics (they won’t) and I think watching low level dickheads get competitive would be very hype. Maybe some day. Until then I guess my cab will be a huge fucking Ice Hockey machine.