Street Fighter Zero 3 | July 8, 1999
Street Fighter Alpha 3, released as Street Fighter Zero 3 in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D fighting game originally released by Capcom for the arcade in 1998. It is the third and final installment in the Street Fighter Alpha sub-series, which serves as a sequel to Street Fighter Alpha 2 and ran on the same CP System II hardware as previous Alpha games. The game was produced after the Street Fighter III sub-series had started, being released after 2nd Impact but before 3rd Strike. Alpha 3 further expanded the playable fighter roster from Street Fighter Alpha 2 and added new features such as selectable fighting styles called "isms."
Alpha 3 has also been released on a variety of home platforms, starting with the PlayStation version in 1998, which added an exclusive World Tour mode and brought back even more characters, with further versions on the Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Game Boy Advance, and PlayStation Portable.
Gameplay
Street Fighter Alpha 3 discards the "Manual" and "Auto" modes from the previous Alpha games and instead offers three different playing styles known as "isms" for the player to choose from. The standard playing style, A-ism, is based on the previous Alpha games, where the player has a three-level Super Combo gauge with access to several Super Combo moves. X-ism is a simple style based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, in which the player has a single-level Super Combo gauge and access to a single powerful Super Combo move. The third style, V-ism (variable style), is a unique style that allows the player to perform custom combos similar to the ones in Street Fighter Alpha 2 but cannot use Super Combos. In X-ism, the player cannot air-block nor perform Alpha Counters and can only use one powerful Level 3 Super Combo move. To activate V-ism's Custom Combo, the player must press both kick and punch of the same strength. X-ism has the highest attack power but the least defense, while A-ism has more attack power than V-ism and similar defense. All three modes have variations of movesets for each character, adding considerable depth to the gameplay. In addition, there are hidden modes that add handicaps and benefits to the player (for example, Classic mode, which prevents the use of Super Combos but also makes the character unable to be knocked in the air and juggled).
Alpha 3 also introduces a "Guard Power Gauge," which depletes each time the player blocks – if the gauge is completely depleted, the player will remain vulnerable to an attack. When broken, the bar shrinks and is refilled to its new maximum; this can happen several times. Notably, while in X-ism, the character has the least defense of all modes, it also has the largest guard bar, while V-ism has the smallest guard bar, with A-ism in the middle. The guard bar varies between characters; for example, Zangief has a very large guard bar. The guard bar does not exist in Dramatic Battle matches, so no guard crushing is possible there.
I-ism is a customizable style exclusive to the Dreamcast version's World Tour and Saikyo Dojo modes and the PSP version's World Tour mode.
The controls for several actions have been modified from the previous Alpha games. For example, the level of a Super Combo move in A-ism is now determined by the strength of the attack button pressed (i.e., Medium Punch or Kick for a Level 2 Super Combo), and throwing is now done by pressing two punch or kick buttons simultaneously.
Characters
The game brings back all eighteen of the characters that appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 2. As with the previous Alpha titles, several characters were added to the game: Cammy, who was previously featured in the console-exclusive Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold; E. Honda; Blanka; Balrog (who is an unlockable character); and Vega. New characters introduced in Alpha 3 include R. Mika, a Japanese female wrestler who idolizes Zangief; Karin, Sakura's rival who was first introduced in the Street Fighter manga "Sakura Ganbaru!" by Masahiko Nakahira; Cody from Final Fight, who has since become an escaped convict; and Juli and Juni, two of Shadaloo's "Dolls" who serve as Bison's assassins and guards, and who are unlockable characters.
The PlayStation version makes Balrog, Juli, and Juni immediately playable and adds the remaining characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II: Dee Jay, Fei Long, and T. Hawk, along with Guile from Street Fighter II, and Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma from Street Fighter Alpha 2, the latter three being unlockable. The Dreamcast and Saturn versions move Guile, Evil Ryu, and Shin Akuma to the default roster (although the latter shares a slot with his regular counterpart and is playable via a special button combination). The more powerful version of M. Bison, who is the true final boss of Alpha 3 with the special Shadaloo-ism meter, Final M. Bison, is also made playable in these Sega versions via a code.
The Game Boy Advance version contains all of the characters from previous versions, as well as three additional characters: Yun from Street Fighter III, Maki from Final Fight 2, and Eagle from the original Street Fighter, all three based on their incarnations from Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001. The PlayStation Portable version, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, also adds Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution, bringing the total playable character count to 39.
