Street Fighter Alpha / Street Fighter Zero - TFG Review (2025)

While not actually a sequel in terms of storyline (since StreetFighter Alphaactually takes place before SF2), Street Fighter Alpha brings back a few ofthe original Street Fighter (1) characters previously not seen in Street Fighter 2, such as Adonand Birdie. SFA also hosts the first big "crossover" in thefighting game genre, bringing Guy and Sodom from Capcom's classic arcade beat-em-up Final Fight(1989) over to Street Fighter. The epic "merging of theuniverses" was surely appreciated by Final Fight and StreetFighter fans, alike. On the flipside, several familiar StreetFighter 2 favorites, such as: Dhalsim, Zangief, E. Honda, andBlanka are M.I.A. this time around (but thankfully, they end up returning laterin the series).

SFA's gameplay mechanics are traditionalenough to please fans of Street Fighter 2, but also introduce severalenhancements to keep things fresh and attract new players. "ChainCombos" (introduced in Darkstalkers) make their debut in StreetFighter Alpha, and are performed by interrupting the animation ofone priority move by performing another of equal or greater strength. "AirBlocking" also makes an appearance in Street Fighter for the firsttime. Lastly, fighters can also perform a quickcounter attack technique known as an "Alpha Counter," whichcan be initiated immediately after blocking an opponent's attack if the playerhas enough energy in their Super Meter.

The Super Meter / Super Gauge returns from SuperStreet Fighter 2 Turbo - but now contains three levels instead of one. Whenfull, fighters can unleash a devastatingsuper combo for serious damage! Comparatively to other 2D fighters, the damage level inthis game is definitely"harsh" to say the least. Ken's fierce shoryuken = OUCH!!! Thedamage is probably my main gripe about the gameplay. Otherwise, SFA was a solid andstraight-forward 2Dfighter for the time.

Visually, Street Fighter Alpha/ Zero was very impressive when it debuted. All of the returning Street Fighterswere completely re-drawn, re-colored, re-animated... and now look like theycould be ripped straight from a Japanese anime. If you ask me, the new charactersprites look at least 10 timesbetter than their classic Street Fighter 2 counterparts.

The hand-drawnstages are nicely detailed, but a few are a bit sleepy, dreary, and/or a bit too"barren" for their own good (this flaw was remedied in SFA2).In typical Street Fighter tradition, each stage features brand new theme songs for every character for thegame, which is always an appreciated feature in a fighting game sequel. On thatnote, Street Fighter Alpha's soundtrack was excellent for thetime... hearing those remixed classic SF2 tunes for the firsttime was simply epic (Chun-Li's, Ryu's, & Sagat's are among my favs)... notto mention Guy's & Sodom's badass remixed songs from Final Fight! Such ahuge fan service!!!Finally... just to state the obvious, the artwork for Street FighterAlphawas (and still is) totally and utterly badass. Bengus reinvented the art styleof the Street Fighter series, and simply "raised the bar" forfighting game artwork. Thanks to all of these elements coming together brilliantly, Capcom delivereda solid successor to the groundbreaking and hugely-influential Street Fighter 2 saga... demonstrating to the world that the Street Fighter series is just getting started.

Page Updated:	January 25th, 2024
Developer(s):	Capcom
Publisher(s):	Capcom
Designer(s):	Noritaka Funamizu Haruo Murata Hideaki Itsuno Akiman Character design
Artwork by:	Bengus (CRMK), Dai-chan
Platform(s):	Arcade, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Game Boy Color,Windows, PSN
Release Date(s):	June 5th, 1995 Arcade June 27th, 1995 Arcade Dec. 29th, 1995 PS1 Jan 1996 PS1 Jan. 26th, 1996 Saturn Feb. 1996 Saturn Feb. 29th, 2000 GBC Mar. 30th, 2001 GBC
Characters:	Ryu,Ken Masters,Adon,Chun-Li,Guy,Charlie Nash,Birdie,Rose,Sodom,Sagat,Akuma, M.Bison,Dan Hibiki
Featured Video:
Related Games:	Street Fighter Alpha 2, StreetFighter Alpha 3, SFA3: Upper,SFA3: Max, SFA Anthology, StreetFighter, Street Fighter 2, SF2: Champion Edition,SF2 Turbo, Super SF2,Super SF2 Turbo, SSF2 Turbo: Revival, SSF2T HD Remix, Ultra SF2, SFIII: New Generation,SFIII: 2nd Impact, SFIII: 3rd Strike, Street Fighter 4, Super SF4, Super SF4: 3D Edition, Super SF4: Arcade Edition, Ultra SF4, Street Fighter V, SFV: AE, SFV: CE, Street Fighter: Anniversary Collection, Street Fighter EX,SFEX2, SFEX3, SF: The Movie,Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, PocketFighter, The King of Fighters '95, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, Fatal Fury 3, Marvel Super Heroes, Mortal Kombat 3, Killer Instinct 2, Final Fight Revenge, Fighter's History
GameplayEngine 8.5 / 10 Story/ Theme 9.5 / 10 OverallGraphics 9.0 / 10 Animation 9.5 / 10 Music/ Sound Effects 8.5 / 10 Innovation 8.5 / 10 Art Direction 9.5 / 10 Customization 7.0 / 10 Options / Extras 7.0 / 10 Intro / Presentation 8.5 / 10 Replayability / Fun 8.5 / 10 "Ouch" Factor 8.5 / 10 Characters 8.0 / 10 BOTTOM LINE 8.7/10 Review based on Arcadeversion
Final Words:	Overall, Street Fighter Alpha was an arcadeclassic that brought the Street Fighter series into a new light. It wouldeasy to say that SFA "isn't as good" as the many iterations of StreetFighter 2, but many fans that played the hell out of the SF2 gameswere growing a bit tired of the look and feel of those games. Thus, SFA was the start of a fresh chapter in the Street Fighteruniverse, introducing some truly memorable characters and gameplay systems. No doubt fans of the original Street Fighter Alpha were ecstatic when StreetFighter Alpha 2 hit the arcades (and later to consoles). StreetFighter Alpha 2 would turn out to be a much better (and morebalanced) playable game, overall. However, it's important to remember that SFA1 still made a great artisticimpact upon its arrival! It was very pretty game, indeed. Overlooking itsshortcomings and small roster, this was obviously the step the series needed tobe going in. SFA2 would pave the way for the epic StreetFighter Alpha 3, which had numerous title updates. ~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen
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