Street Fighter Alpha Anthology

"Can't...resist...Street Fighter..."

How many times will I buy the same game? I already own all the titles included on this complete Street Fighter Alpha collection- Street Fighter Alpha (the Japanese Saturn version and the American Playstation version), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (the American Saturn version), Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (the Japanese Saturn version from the Street Fighter Collection), Street Fighter Alpha 3 (the Japanese Playstation version, the Japanese Saturn version, the American Dreamcast version, the American Gameboy Advance version and the American PSP version), and finally Pocket Fighter Mini-Mix (the Japanese Playstation version). So do I really need the same games all over again?

If there was a central storyline for the Alpha series, it would be M. Bison's rise to power, how he has affected the lives of the other fighters and Rose's attempt to stop him. For them most part though, many of the characters have their own stories to follow, some interesting, some not. Many of the individual plots don't even contribute to the overall Street Fighter "universe", so you're left scratching your head after the credits have rolled. There are a few interesting tales to be heard though, so it's actually worth the handful of pointless ones to see all the series has to offer.

Graphically, each game varies slightly from the one before it- Character sprites are the same, but often newer characters look slightly better than the older ones that have carried over. The backgrounds are the most noticeable difference from title to title, with Street Fighter Alpha 3 having the slickest looking stages of the series. Since these are pixel-perfect arcade ports, you can expect to see the best that each game has to offer, unlike older versions for the Playstation and Saturn (though the Japanese Saturn port of Street Fighter Zero 3 was damn-near perfection).

Again, this is a collection of arcade ports, so the sound is only as good as it originally was when each of the games came out. This really isn't a bad thing since all the titles in the Alpha series not only had good audio effects but also great soundtracks. Not every song is noteworthy, but when you examine the sheer number of Street Fighting tunes available, the good far outweighs the bad for what could be the greatest collection of beat-em-up tunes ever assembled on to a single disc.

It's Street Fighter. If you haven't played it by now (or any of the dozens of rip-offs that Street Fighter spawned), then my description of the controls probably won't do you much good. Essentially, there are six attack buttons- three punches and three kicks each of varying degrees of strength. By a combination of control-pad manipulations and button presses, you can launch special attacks. It goes deeper than that with custom combos, super moves, counters, etc. but the core gameplay revolves around that base concept. The port to the Playstation 2 more or less left the controls unmutilated, but the Dual Shock 2 controller wasn't designed with 2D fighters in mind, so you may want to at least invest in one of the 10th Anniversary Street Fighter controllers that has a D-pad similar to that of the Japanese Saturn controller, not to mention all six attack buttons are on the face of the pad.

It's really hard to talk about the design of the individual games (they are, quite simply, nothing more than 2D fighters and therefore fairly straight-forward), so instead I'll mention two things that really stood out in the overall design of the anthology- First, the menu for accessing the games is interesting, showing posters of the games that you rotate through to make your selection. Second, and this is really the most impressive bit of all, you can opt to install the game to the HDD (should you own one). I know Capcom had this option for both of the Outbreak games, but there have been other games that featured this in the Japanese release but was subsequently removed in the North American release. Installing Street Fighter Alpha Anthology to the hard drive severely decreases load times, thus giving you a more realistic arcade experience.

There are a plethora of unlockables tucked away in all corners of this collection- Aside from the hidden characters, special boss battles, various gameplay modes, and alternate "costumes" for the characters in nearly every game on the compilation that you've come to expect in a Street Fighter title (particularly the Alpha series), you can actually unlock other games like Hyper Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper as well. Street Fighter Alpha 3 also has hidden "isms" to unlock that are nods to other Capcom fighting games. Basically, you're going to be playing this one for a long, long time.

So do I really need the same games all over again? Apparently the answer to that question is "Yes" as I now own this collection. If nothing else, it's worth having for that very reason- It's a great anthology of an incredible fighting series loaded with enough extras and unlockables to keep even the most rabid fan happy. If you're new to Street Fighter and you like fighting games you owe it to yourself to check out Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/09

Game Release: Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (US, 06/13/06)