Remembering The Street Fighter Alpha Series For The Fifth Generation Consoles

While I'm probably glad that I didn't buy Street Fighter V - I'm still willing to reminiscence the time when Capcom still did it right or had good games. The Street Fighter series has had been divided into the II series, the Alpha series, the III series, and the IV series back then. I don't know what was the logic of creating Street Fighter II porting it with several updates that allowed us to play as the overpowered Shadaloo kings and the Turbo edition which ended up also having Super later on. Then there was the Street Fighter Alpha series which was called Street Fighter Zero in Japan. We're introduced to younger-looking characters (hence explaining why Ryu looks younger) or why the first game was called Warriors' Dreams.

So, what made the first two Street Fighter Alpha game entries' arcade modes a little different from the SFII series? I could remember how the game would arrange a story mode for the characters which each character has a different final opponent to face. For instance, if you were using Ken then your final opponent will be Ryu, and vice-versa. In Street Fighter Alpha 2 - Ryu's final opponent would be Akuma. I felt the concept was innovative in contrast to the cliche of the big, cheating boss at the end. It also allowed us to at least learn some stuff about the characters such as when Ken manages to defeat Ryu or vice versa. It was only in Street Fighter Alpha 3 when M. Bison (super form) was the final boss for most characters except for Evil Ryu. Evil Ryu fought against Shin Akuma instead.

What's ironic about the SFA series is that it takes place BEFORE SFII - the gameplay is more advanced. Granted, chronologically the SFA series came years after SFII was released as a prequel. SSF2T introduced a one-level super meter while SFA introduced a three-level meter and supers can be executed on different levels. We got to see different Super Combos from the characters unlike in SSF2T where we only saw one per character. Then again, some moves were lost like how the first SFA game where Ryu has no red fireball but later had it in the upgrade of SFA2 and SFA3. Also, Bison's trademark psycho crusher was powered up and turned into a super move while he had a projectile move instead. The controls were considerably smoother and moves were easier to execute too. Not to mention, I always felt Charlie was better than Guile. We got the chance to play Charlie who would just die later on letting Guile be the replacement. I do feel sorry for Guile though being the butt monkey. Sure, I prefer Ryu over Guile but still, poor Guile. 

SFA2 introduced a concept (love it or hate it) called the Custom Combo. It required you to press two punch buttons and a kick. The effect was that you moved super fast and uncontrollably while you string punches, kicks, and moves. However, if you fail to connect - you end up losing it. It was preferable to do it at MAX LEVEL so you'll have more time. It was an alternative to the Super Combo for some players. It was a cool addition but the fact you had limited control can make it frustrating. SFA3 managed to work around the Custom Combo as a V-Ism exclusive and made it easier to control. The concept was ported into Capcom vs. SNK 2 available for the A-Groove. Hopefully, this concept can be evolved over time in future installments. 

For me, the best of the SFA series was SFA3. It's basically a compilation of the SFII series and SFA series. You also got to play your characters in three variations X-Ism was similar to SSF2T while A-Ism was standard. V-Ism replaced Super Combos with Custom Combos - something I did with some characters because of the difficulty of entering their Super Combos during the fifth-generation era. For instance, I always hated using the Delta Motion charge for characters like Charlie and Guile or doing Zangief's two full circle motions to do his Final Atomic Buster. Though, I tend to prefer using X-ism for some characters due to the flashy effect it had while it restricted you to only ONE Super Move. Still, I can't deny the third game was truly a classic. Though it also did have one weird plot that revealed that Cammy is a modified female clone of Bison. How is that possible? Again, science fiction logic is probably that Cammy is probably Bison's artificially created daughter like X-23 was in X-Men. Cammy probably had a British surrogate mother for all we know. 

What are your memories of this classic series?