"2D Beat 'em' Ups at Their Best."

I remember when everyone used to go around shouting "Hadoken". People would argue who was the better fighter, Ryu or Ken, and people would play for countless hours trying to perfect their favorite character until they were unbeatable. I played against such a player and he whooped my ass over and over. Despite the constant losing, SFA3 still had me coming back for more.

Story 5/10
Typical Street Fighter story. Fighters trying to be the best they can be, have to take out M-Bison who wants world domination once again.

Gameplay 9/10
There are tons of modes available in SFA3, you have Arcade, Survival, vs, team battle. The most interesting though is World Tour mode. WTM is a large gaming experience and has you fighting opponents of increasing difficulty across the world, continent to continent. WTM features numerous battle styles including: Survival matches, 2 against one battles, and even team battles. The last continent requires some serious skill.

There is a massive collection of fighters to choose from all from various past SF games. You have all the regulars Ryu, Ken, Bison, Akuma and past others to make a whopping collection of about 35 (not quite sure).

Visuals 8/10 Audio 8/10
Visuals are impressive for a 2D game. The background animations look terrific and are painstakingly detailed. Backgrounds flash, shine, move. They truly are wonderful. Character models are well made as well though a little dated. They look a hell of a lot like they did in SFA on the Sega Saturn.

Music may have been OK if I could remember it. Sound effects though were average, for a DC title the voiced just seems all fuzzy, like your playing a pirated copy of the game, so even simple phrases like Hadoken sound strange.

Replay Value 10/10
There is infinite replay value here. SF never grows old. This game came out newly 10 years ago and still plays like dream. This is arcade conversion at its very best and you'd be a fool to miss out on this.

Overall I'd have to say that SFA3 is one of the best SF games to ever be released, and is by far the best of the Alpha series. It has so much to offer and in more ways than one it's like a mixture of all the best pieces of past SF games. Its fun, its challenging is got everything you want from a fighter except online play. SFA3 is a classic and is well worth the pick up.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/09

Game Release: Street Fighter Alpha 3 (EU, 09/29/00)