December 13, 2002 - Street Fighter Alpha 3 can definitely go down in history as one of the longest games in development for the Game Boy Advance. This title was announced a month before the system made its debut in June 2001, and it was promised as a Fall 2001 release even though Capcom Japan was also in the works with a conversion of Super Street Fighter II for the handheld at exactly the same time. The GBA version of SFA3 saw delay after delay, but its release date has finally come...more than a year and a half since Capcom first revealed that it was coming.

The extra time in development has definitely worked to Street Fighter Alpha 3's favor, as the GBA game is an excellent conversion of an already outstanding fighting game. The only real downsides are on a physical level, most notably the system's button layout. The Nintendo handheld can't accurately portray the original fighter's gameplay with only four action buttons, no matter how much the development team worked the controls. That complaint aside, Capcom has itself one excellent looking and playing 2D fighter for the Game Boy Advance. We've been waiting a long time for this one.

Features

• More than 30 different fighters (3 unique to the GBA game)
• Custom controls
• Unlockable extra modes
• Link cable support for two players (multiple cartridge)
• Cartridge save (one slot)
• Only for Game Boy Advance

Street Fighter Alpha 3 is an amazingly fun fighter simply because it subtly branches out the tried and true Street Fighter II-style gameplay with elements that keep the pace intense and energetic. There are more than 30 different fighters in this game, which is actually an amazing feat for a Game Boy Advance game considering the limited cartridge space and the incredible amount of animation frames per individual character. Each of these fighters has his or her own distinct fighting style; you may master one fighter, but the same techniques can't be moved to the other guys (or gals). This is the case with most fighting games nowadays, but it's noticeable moreso in SFA3 because characters are of drastically different designs; the controls differences between a little, nimble fighter and a massive, muscle-bound guy is black and white. Players can also customize their fighting styles with SFA3's Isms. There are three different Isms to choose when selecting your fighter: X-ism basically give players one type of Super Combo move, while A-isms offer a range of different combos depending on how full the power bar is filled. The V-ism is for players who want to create their own combos, demonstrated with a series of shadows that follow your front character's every move.

The downside to the portable fighter -- and it is a serious one -- is that the GBA system can't quite cut it in the controls department. The developer was set to the task of porting a fighter to hardware that's technologically possible, but definitely not cosmetically possible. The Street Fighter series, since the first game hit arcades well over a decade ago, has always featured a six-button layout for its fighter kicks and punches, three different strengths in each kind of attack. Home systems have always had to fight with this arcade design, with varying results, and in the case of Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the Game Boy Advance, the development team had to work with the two button, two trigger formation for the six-button controls. The controls are entirely customizable, so if you feel more comfortable putting the heavy attacks on the triggers instead of the thumb buttons, you have that ability. But players are forced to put two attacks in button combo motions. By default, the medium attacks are performed by hitting the R and B or L and A buttons at the same time, and to be honest that control is a little awkward for those looking to dial-in the combo attacks from the arcade game simply because pressing two buttons at the same time can't offer a 100% success rate. This game's more user-friendly to those who haven't mastered the six-button arcade layouts; Street Fighter Alpha purists will probably complain about the controls until the cows come home.

The only other downside is in the game's audio department. It's no surprise that the development team had to shave a few corners to get the arcade fighter into a GBA cartridge, but the soundtrack and digitized audio is probably the area that the team hacked the most bits. Music is a mixed bag depending on the location, but on the whole it's only marginally better than what's possible using the Game Boy Color soundchip in the system. The game features a handful of digitized samples of the many different characters in the game, but the announcer calling the rounds or victory, something that's been a staple in the Street Fighter series for years, is nowhere to be found. But because the game looks and plays so darn close to the original arcade version, the obviously necessary sacrifices are acceptable since their edits were important to the handheld conversion of the game.

And even though the game really shines in its two-player link cable mode, the development team encourage fighting the computer AI by locking away characters and hidden gameplay modes that are only revealed as players finish the game with a specific character. It's not an easy task to do this, so it'll be a while before you can unlock the survival and time attack modes, or the cool Dramatic Battle where two fighters team up against other opponents (this mode can be used with the link cable as well). There are also a ton of gameplay options tucked away in the cartridge, too, so don't think for a second that this game's a lame single-player fighter.

Closing Comments
There are some little elements that certainly could have been addressed before the game shipped, like the hard-to-see powerbar during sunset levels, or the awkward, unlabeled fighter list during the Vs. and Training Mode, but I don't want to close this review off on a list of negatives. Street Fighter Alpha 3 is definitely one of the best fighters on the Game Boy Advance to date, and shouldn't be missed if you're a GBA owner that has the taste for the successful Street Fighter action.

Rating	Description
out of 10	click here for ratings guide
8.0	Presentation More than 30 selectable characters and quite a few unlockable modes, too. It's as close to the arcade as you're going to get on the GBA.
9.0	Graphics Some of the best 2D graphics seen on the GBA system. A few special effects from the original don't come off quite as dynamically, and some health bars are near impossible to see, too.
6.0	Sound Definitely the short end of the stick. While not bad, the game's audio lacks a whole lot of "punch."
8.0	Gameplay If only the GBA had the proper button configuration...combos are a lot more difficult to pull off in the four-button layout. But it's still one of the best GBA fighters to date.
9.0	Lasting Appeal You'll need an extra copy of the game for two-player bouts, but it's worth it. The single player encourages multiple play throughs with different endings and unlockable modes and characters.
9.0 Outstanding	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)