GO FOR BROKE
This one, oh boy this one. Countless hours spent. I’ve rarely gone a week without playing this damned game at least a little bit. Street Fighter Alpha 3 to this day is still one of the most unique but also divisive entries in the entire series, and my opinion has changed on it like 800 times. It’s good? It’s GOAT? Favorite fighter of all time? Second favorite? IDK. But what I DO know is that this game is awesome, and that I haven’t shut up about this thing for over a year now. I feel it is finally time to just barf out why I love this game so much, I am so motivated to get this message out to the world.
Alpha 3 to me perfectly encapsulates what the Alpha series is all about. It’s absolutely SEEPING with energy and aesthetic. Greatest character select screen in existence maybe. Fonts of like 5 different sizes scrolling all over the top and bottom of this thing, you’d think it would be clunky and incomprehensible but nah, it works. I always loved the character portraits and how they line up with both the character select and versus screen, courtesy of my man BENGUS. And man the VERSUS SCREEN??? The way the text for your name and ism pops in is literally genius, who animated this? This is combined alongside one of the coolest transitions I’ve ever seen in a video game, with the shape of the “door” closing being based on whatever ism you picked (A/Z-ism, X-ism, V-ism), and it’s also just so satisfying to watch.
The UI and just general aesthetics of Alpha 2 have been completely overhauled here. All of these thick fonts and colors are simplistic but somehow also very detailed and intricate. For me, anyway, they scream 90’s COOL aesthetic. Your health and super meter bars change color (and shape) based on your ism, and just generally the amount of effort put into the differences of isms here are very commendable. Honestly on the topic of that, I should discuss the gameplay.
The gameplay in this one is sick. There are three different fighting styles you get to pick, first there’s X-ism, which is a giant Super Turbo homage which limits your moveset but gives you insane damage output. A-ism is essentially the mechanics introduced from the first Alpha game (and also the best for beginners), and V-ism is the custom combo shit from Alpha 2 now made into it’s own fighting style. This is great, and for casual play makes the game more fun and diverse. Competitively… Everyone just picks V-ism because of the juggle combos here. On the topic of combos, Alpha 3 is THE most juggle heavy entry in the entire series, disregarding the EX lineup. Even without V-ism, so many moves will just LAUNCH your opponents which gives you time to followup and increase that combo count, it’s so fun to mess with. Alpha 3 generally just encourages aggressive gameplay, and it’s accentuated by the guard crush feature. Essentially, now the game will punish you if you try to just block constantly, as the guard meter being emptied leaves you vulnerable for attack. Did I mention I love this game because it’s fast? Once you get those turbo settings on, the matches in this game are t-i-g-h-t and lightning fast, which makes good play super rewarding. It’s my absolute favorite aspect of the Alpha series.
Alpha 3’s roster only introduces like- four new characters, with the rest of the roster additions being veterans from previous games. That being said, 25 (28 if you include secret characters, 29 counting Shin Bison) in the vanilla roster is nothing to scoff at. What’s even better is that every character has a bio whenever you pick them (only game in the series to do this from what I remember), along with three scripted fights in the arcade ladder, each with dialogue to boot. But to get even CRAZIER, the revisions of this game had even more. PS1/Dreamcast/Saturn added SIX extra characters, as well as making the secret characters properly integrated into the game with their own campaigns and portrait art, the GBA version added THREE characters from Capcom Vs SNK 2, and the PSP version added ONE character from Capcom Trashy Evolution! Meaning that Alpha 3 went from 29 fighters to THIRTY NINE CHARACTERS. Insanity. Now, for the newcomers, were they good? Karin was a great addition to the roster, her fighting styles and combos are fun, AND she’s a fun rival for Sakura. R. Mika is great and fits the energy of Alpha 3, sadly she’s low tier in terms of playability. Juli and Juni are mainly Cammy clones, but they’re great for expanding the lore, and really help establish the pure EVIL M. Bison is in this series. This roster is just fantastical every time I think about it, and I've even started trying out more of the characters I'm not used to for fun! Maybe someday I'll even become a world warrior.
I have countless memories of fighting the boss, Shin Bison. I remember thinking this guy was like, the hardest thing ever, but once you understand the rules of this fight, it’s not nearly as difficult. That being said, he’s still super annoying. Try to jump in? Stand HK or air grab. Whiff? Punish by sweep. Aaaaand he’s teleported behind me hasn't he [gets thrown which does a ton of damage in this game for some reason]. Everyone brings up that STUPID super move, but honestly the AI is so predictable with this. If his meter is full and he does that air dive move, 90% guarantee he will do it. Just block. Everything else about this fight is more difficult anyway. In the arcade version specifically, getting a game over to this dude was painful, you’re locked into a bad ending and that’s it, no second chances, back to the beginning of the arcade ladder for you. It’s surprisingly punishing, but in the age of save states and the console versions removing this “feature”, it’s not too big of a deal.
The music is great, unsurprisingly. This game’s soundtrack goes for an entirely different vibe from the previous entries, and it fits the tone of Alpha 3 for me. The amount of electronic instruments and guitars are blood pumping and just get you ready to go crazy on your opponent. Brave Or Grave is honestly one of THE best final boss themes in fighting games period, and it gets you SO hyped to wipe the floor with Shin Bison fr fr. Honestly just listen to the music yourself, it’s worth the time.
I’ve played this game’s arcade mode like over 30 times at this point, it’s so addicting. I love this game, so many memories to share honestly. I’ve even considered buying a physical copy of EVERY version of this game (yes, including the Saturn one, I’m THAT insane). I love this game so much I literally have like probably 5 more paragraphs of things I could write about this game because it has SO MUCH POLISH and SO. MUCH. CONTENT. There are like- 10 or 15 extra modes in the console versions I could write about, almost all of which I have played just for the heck of it. I sat down and did the 100 kumite mode which is 100 FIGHTS BACK TO BACK and I did the entire thing which took me almost an hour. I actually can never tire of this game, it’s so special and unique to me. I couldn’t even think of a proper closer for this review because I want to just keep typing about it!!! Who knows, maybe I could write a third review that covers what stuff I missed!!! But in the end, can I recommend this game to anyone? Well…
“IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOUR SKILL… GO FOR IT, MAN!!!”

After sucking Alpha 2's dick for a long time, I've to appreciate this more nowadays. Especially since this is Street Fighter's last hurrah to its Hyper Fighting roots that isn't the billionth Super Turbo rerelease.

Its probably the most juggle heavy SF and its the first fighting game to have "styles". A-ism is the most balanced while V-ism(too good) & X-ism(eh) aren't but thankfully got better in updates which nobody played. But I appreciate the crazy options

In general, I see this as the final evolution to THE 90s style of capcom fighter which I classify as fast as fuck with insane combos ala Marvel series, Darkstalkers and SF before 3.

So long, fast SF. I will miss you dearly.

i'm in an extremely weird place with this game. i think, if i'm being honest, i had a better time with both alpha 1 and alpha 2 as games, but i think alpha 3 is inarguably better than both of them. in a sense, this rating feels a bit insincere.

to start with the good, alpha 3 has the largest roster of the three games, and it brought back some favorites like e. honda and cammy while introducing some fun new characters like karin and cody. i know quantity isn't always better than quality, but every addition to this roster has iterated on itself, and i really enjoy how meaty the game got compared to alpha 1's paltry cast.

alpha 3 also introduces isms, which are 3 different ways of building super and using it. i'll be honest, all i know about this is that A is the default one you had in the past two games and one of them (i think V?) breaks the game on a competitive level. i respect this system more than i actually like it, and it feels very proto-CVS2 (aka my favorite fighting game ever), which is ultimately a good thing. i will say i'm slightlyyyyyyy not a fan of Aism starting you at full super meter every match, it makes the first super feel unearned and like you can just throw out a random level 3 and see if it sticks.

on the downside... holy shit is this game a step back from the balancing that alpha 2 brought back. remember how bison was actually fairly reasonable to fight against in alpha 2 and got toned down from his aggressive AI? well alpha 3 fixes what wasn't broken and now makes bison better. now both of his supers do like 60-70% of your HP, and one of them hits full screen. important things to note: bison is a CPU so he doesn't need to charge at all for those supers despite the inputs being charges and also he starts with a full meter as a result of how the game handles isms. okay fine this sucks but let's get to the worst part: if you lose to bison... you just CANNOT even continue. like you get auto game over'd. what a bafflingly terrible decision. even as a flagrant quarter-eater design choice, that's gonna burn a lot of good will with people who play this game ignorant of that.

i should disclose that i'm playing the SF anniversary version of this game rather than the home console release, which apparently means that the AI is ludicrously more difficult and that "can't continue after losing to bison" thing happens. it's also shitty how if you switch characters in arcade, your run restarts from the very first fight with no warning, demotivating you from trying other characters. this is almost a review for SF anniversary at this point, but god damn i wish that they had given the home console releases in the collection rather than just slapdashing the arcade modes into one package. i appreciate it either way but it's a mess, if only for reasons like this.

back to positives, i really enjoy the introduction of the guard meter here, it adds a layer of strategy to the offense vs. defense approach and makes footsies more tense. another thing: the arcade modes have more story and characterization to them, which is a nice touch. i'm not a super big fan of "now EVERYONE'S final fight is against bison", if only for aforementioned reasons, but the characters get dialogue w/each other and you get more of a feel for who these people are, if only a little bit. again, it's nothing groundbreaking, but for the late 90s, this is treading new ground and i respect what this game did for fighting games.

as a last major point, this game doesn't recycle the old themes in alpha 1 and 2, and instead opts to just redo the entire OST... which fucks outloud. alpha 3's OST blows the prior two out of the water and i cannot get enough of some songs present here (as i'm typing this review, i've had https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5JFGrysqm8 playing in the background, which has to be easily one of my new favorite final boss themes). let it be said: street fighter has some songs that bag severely, and this game gives you plenty of examples to work with.

i still feel sort of... weird giving this a 4.0/5.0. it feels a bit cognitive dissonance-y, because i did get genuinely frustrated while playing this game, but i appreciate so much of what it did and i've enjoyed watching high level competitive play of this game so it's like... i can't help but have a fondness for this game in spite of its egregious flaws. a large part of why i didn't enjoy this is more rooted in SF anniversary than alpha 3, so it feels unfair to dock it for that. if i had been playing this with friends, i'd have had a blast. this is a quintessential street fighter game to play, and i think it should be one of the first in the series that you play if you're looking to see what makes SF so much beloved.

SF Alpha 3

Por algum motivo não consigo gostar desse jogo. Vai ver é o fato que toda personalidade dos anteriores foi pro agua abaixo, a OST parece um peido dubstep, a jogabilidade é menos impactante, e o sistema d 3 barras é zoado. Além do final boss ridículo. Sla...

Ainda é Street Fighter Alpha, e adiciona uma cacetada de personagens novos e interessantes, e o narrador é um dos melhores da série, então 👍

(Karin ❤)

7/10

At this moment in time, this is my favorite fighting game. I'm an extremely casual beginner who is slowly building up their skill, and despite its weird little mechanics, this is my favorite game to practice on. The presentation is great, the gameplay is smooth, and the roster size is worth dying for.

Gameplay:
I don't have anything insightful to say here as I'm not a pro and the gameplay is pretty standard. It plays like Street Fighter. You press the buttons. You punch the guy. You move the joystick around a fireball comes out. Alpha 3 does have a few interesting things going on though. Firstly, the giant roster of 28 characters is awesome. All the characters seemed pretty balanced too, or at least I haven't run into any unfair matchups. I could be wrong about that though. Second, the guard meter is something I wish more games had. It doesn't become a factor often, but when it does, I'm glad it's there. It prevents an overreliance on blocking for both you and your opponent by causing them to be stunned once a threshold is reached. The threshold is quite generous and therefore not too annoying or exploitable so it's a welcome little mechanic. Thirdly, the "-isms", probably the game's weirdest mechanic and the biggest sore spot for balancing. You can pick between three "-isms" when selecting a character. A-ism is the standard option where you do normal damage and have three super bars.
X-ism is supposed to sort of mimic SF2, I think, with only one super bar, but it does boost your damage to try to balance it out. V-ism turns your super meter into a custom combo meter and I don't even know what that means in my little fighting game pea brain. I guess the "ism" system is kind of neat, but it probably didn't really need to be there.

Though I love this game, I do have one massive qualm with it, that being the fight M.Bison at the end of the arcade ladder. You get one shot at it. If you lose to Bison, it's game over. You're sent right to the results screen. I just think that's so frustrating and unnecessary. It wouldn't be so bad if Bison didn't have ridiculously BS moves that covered the whole screen and ate 50% of your health. I know arcade games are meant to be unfair to eat your quarters but JEEZ. I did play this game on the SF 30th Anniversary Collection which does have save states, but it would be nice to not have to be required to use them. It just puts a big damper on the singleplayer content considering the fun of arcade modes is to see the endings.

Sound and visuals:
There isn't too much to note about the music and sound design. It's all pretty solid. However, I do absolutely love the announcer. The announcer puts all other fighting game announcers to shame.

The visuals are stellar. The whole Alpha series' art style is just so good. The characters are animated well, the stages look super nice, and the UI feels appropriately energetic. It's a seriously good looking game, though I will say that some of the character portraits can look pretty weird.

Conclusion:
Street Fighter Alpha 3 is a great fighting game. It's got some downsides, but overall, it's a lot of fun. It's simply just so fluid and high-energy, and there's a lot to explore with the mechanics and roster. It'll be hard to top this game for me, and I definitely recommend it (and the whole SF Alpha series in general) to any fighting game fan who hasn't tried it yet.

Simplesmente o jogo de luta definitivo, que dispensa quaisquer comentários, a unanimidade porradeira hoje e sempre.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 é um daqueles clássicos que não há quem discorde da qualidade, seja pela fluidez da gameplay, beleza dos sprites, ou simplesmente a grande variedade de personagens que temos aqui.

O game é bem balanceado, tanto na questão da movimentação, que se não for perfeita, é algo bem próximo de ser, e também na constituição dos bonecos: não visualizo um que seja notoriamente pior que outro, a questão aqui é se saber usá-los da forma correta, qualquer personagem pode vir a ser uma apelação pura, o sistema tá ali, vai depender mesmo é do jogador.

O estilo da série alpha dispensa comentários também, eu sempre curti bastante esse traço, porém não é apenas isso que é digno de destaque, cito também as trilhas sonoras realmente muito boas que temos por aqui. No geral é um game bem rico artisticamente, pago pau mesmo.

A barra de dificuldade no modo arcade no geral é bem linear também, porém eu acho que ela vai de 0 a 100, começando bem fácil, e terminando como o inferno na terra, então tenha em mente de que não é um jogo fácil de se dominar, principalmente se for jogar com um personagem que não tenha as manhas e as estratagemas preparadas.