"There's no reason to play this game when Alpha 2 exists"
That's so true! But honestly I still play this game anyway. Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams was pretty much the game to kickstart a whole era of Capcom fighting games alongside Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors. The game introduced a new visual style to the franchise, emphasizing a more anime-like look. It added Alpha counters, more refined chain combos, multi-level super combos, and air blocking. Even with this game being the first to introduce these concepts, I still feel that this entry has a lot of polish to it.
The roster is smaller compared to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, yes, but it's still a fair amount considering every character has been redrawn, including some veterans from Street Fighter (1987) and Final Fight (1989). We also were introduced to the top-tier all powerful shoto to ever shoto, Dan Hibiki, who is a VERY subtle jab at SNK's Ryo Sakazaki. M.Bison and Akuma/Gouki are also present as secret characters and bosses.
It's so funny that this game basically exists because of the Street Fighter II movie of all things. You can see a poster for the film in Ryu's stage, alongside Ryu and Ken's designs being adjusted to look like the flashback scene from the movie. There's a hidden "dramatic battle" mode where Ryu & Ken face M. Bison, and in the Japanese version the music playing is LITERALLY the final battle song, "Itoshisato Setsunasato Kokoro Tsuyosato". This might seem like criticism, but honestly I LOVE this stuff, especially as someone who enjoyed the source material.
Alpha 1 however does have some content technically not in later games. Like I said, there's three hidden boss fights, and the dramatic battle mode, both of which are nice secrets to unlock. NONE of the stages in this game would return in Alpha 2/3 which sucks, especially the loss of the one that is an obvious homage to the Chuck Norris vs Bruce Lee fight. The PS1/Saturn versions also have a jazzy arranged soundtrack that didn't come back in Alpha 2 either.
In my opinion, ignoring a game's existence because something better exists is unfortunate. I like to revisit "games that aren't worth playing anymore" because I respect the legacy and integrity of these titles. Yes, they get improved upon eventually so later entries body it, but I honestly don't care? I will continue to play games/ports of games "not worth playing anymore" for as long as I live. At the end of the day I still prefer Alpha 2/3, but I still LOVE this game regardless. It's a classic.
EDIT: this cover is horrendous. PLEASE change it to the JP cover in some form IGDB ARRRGHHHHH (https://www.mobygames.com/game/playstation/street-fighter-alpha-warriors-dreams/cover-art/gameCoverId,272932/)
That's so true! But honestly I still play this game anyway. Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams was pretty much the game to kickstart a whole era of Capcom fighting games alongside Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors. The game introduced a new visual style to the franchise, emphasizing a more anime-like look. It added Alpha counters, more refined chain combos, multi-level super combos, and air blocking. Even with this game being the first to introduce these concepts, I still feel that this entry has a lot of polish to it.
The roster is smaller compared to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, yes, but it's still a fair amount considering every character has been redrawn, including some veterans from Street Fighter (1987) and Final Fight (1989). We also were introduced to the top-tier all powerful shoto to ever shoto, Dan Hibiki, who is a VERY subtle jab at SNK's Ryo Sakazaki. M.Bison and Akuma/Gouki are also present as secret characters and bosses.
It's so funny that this game basically exists because of the Street Fighter II movie of all things. You can see a poster for the film in Ryu's stage, alongside Ryu and Ken's designs being adjusted to look like the flashback scene from the movie. There's a hidden "dramatic battle" mode where Ryu & Ken face M. Bison, and in the Japanese version the music playing is LITERALLY the final battle song, "Itoshisato Setsunasato Kokoro Tsuyosato". This might seem like criticism, but honestly I LOVE this stuff, especially as someone who enjoyed the source material.
Alpha 1 however does have some content technically not in later games. Like I said, there's three hidden boss fights, and the dramatic battle mode, both of which are nice secrets to unlock. NONE of the stages in this game would return in Alpha 2/3 which sucks, especially the loss of the one that is an obvious homage to the Chuck Norris vs Bruce Lee fight. The PS1/Saturn versions also have a jazzy arranged soundtrack that didn't come back in Alpha 2 either.
In my opinion, ignoring a game's existence because something better exists is unfortunate. I like to revisit "games that aren't worth playing anymore" because I respect the legacy and integrity of these titles. Yes, they get improved upon eventually so later entries body it, but I honestly don't care? I will continue to play games/ports of games "not worth playing anymore" for as long as I live. At the end of the day I still prefer Alpha 2/3, but I still LOVE this game regardless. It's a classic.
EDIT: this cover is horrendous. PLEASE change it to the JP cover in some form IGDB ARRRGHHHHH (https://www.mobygames.com/game/playstation/street-fighter-alpha-warriors-dreams/cover-art/gameCoverId,272932/)
Reddish
1 year ago