Tuesday, February 14 2006 @ 12:15 AM CST
Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter 2; which arcade game took more of your money? I can recall it being a tough choice on which to play. Few games have been mimicked as much as the Street Fighter series in the fighting genre and can still be spotted in even today’s fighters.
So Capcom brings us Street Fighter Alpha 3 to our PSP. The game features 40 playable contestants along with plenty of game modes to help the time pass with your PSP.
Training mode will allow you to learn the combatant’s moves. The most basic mode is the Arcade mode. Pick a character and play through 10 rounds of combat to be rewarded with that characters ending. Edit mode lets you modify and tweak characters basic stats and also their special moves. World Tour is the last mode and brings you through several battles and gives you a chance to really see how much this portable fighter has to offer.
What is a great portable fighter without great controls? This is the question we ask ourselves while playing Street Fighter Alpha 3. While not horrid, the controls do leave something to be desired. I found myself missing moves constantly because the D-Pad was not responsive enough. After a short time of muscling through and still playing I got the hang of it. I may be getting a case of carpal-tunnel, but I eventually got the controls feeling fairly fluid.
The top row of face buttons controls punches, while the lower row handles kicks. Heavy punch is mapped to the left shoulder button and heavy kick uses the right.
Graphically speaking Alpha 3 is gorgeous. It is a perfect port of the original. Audibly speaking too the game just hits the nail on the head and does a great job making this a perfect port. Your eyes and ears will be quite pleased with what Street Fighter Alpha 3 brings to your handheld.
What would Street Fighter be without someone to play? Street Fighter Alpha 3 takes advantage of the PSP’s Ad-Hoc (no infrastructure mode). In VS Mode, you can go head-to-head. Team Mode lets you form a group of three characters and then fight someone else's party. Variable Battle lets you take three players into a fight, two controlled by human players and the third under CPU control. The coolest of the modes is Dramatic Battle, where three players can throw down simultaneously. This mode really adds a new dimension to the 2D fighter and is worth checking out if you can arrange two other friends with PSP’s.
Overall despite some control issues, I eventually got used to Street Fighter Alpha 3 and it is a perfect port. The game is a blast to play and brings some quality 2D fighting to the PSP. If the controls were a bit easier to pick up and play I would have no problem rating this game higher. Unfortunately I’m not sure how many readers will be willing to contort their wrists badly enough to secure each move. Even with the occasional control issue though, this game is worth picking up. Just make sure you find others with this game because missing out on the multiplayer would just be a waste.
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