Back to the Past: Street Fighter Alpha 2 & 3

In Back to the Past back to put on the kimono to continue paying homage to Street Fighter, the most renowned franchise as far as the fighting genre is concerned. This time we stop at Street Fighter Alpha 2 & 3. Versions of recreational, conversions and revisions, curiosities ... Hadoken!

That the Street Fighter series has been, is and always will be one of the ten most important franchises in pc game history is something that can not be discussed. This one you have before your eyes is the third story we devote to such a great and long series. In the first round we reviewed in detail the original Street Fighter and its legendary sequel (along with countless revisions thereto), as well as paying attention to the various entries in the anime world that has had the saga of struggle for excellence. The second round focused on the first Street Fighter Alpha, but also devoted a number of paragraphs to tell the curious history of Gouken, Ryu and Ken's teacher since he emerged as a false rumor of a famous work by reason of the specialized publication April Fools' Day (the equivalent of our Holy Innocents) from 1992 until his final appearance as a character real hidden in the arcade version of Street Fighter IV (2008) and playable in the game's namesake domestic conversions appeared a year later.

And speaking of Street Fighter IV, we can only rejoice because their popularity, instead of forward, still more in vogue than ever. The final installment of SF remains by far the game of its kind most played online (with all that means to a pc game, and if you tell it to World of Warcraft or Modern Warfare 2), all while Capcom's latest preparations for a review, with the name of Super Street Fighter IV offers many new features that would almost be worthy of consideration as a new installment of the long numbered franchise. But this section does not look to the future, so will our faithful old DeLorean lead us to take a quick look at the history of the franchise until we stop at the final two installments of the trilogy, Street Fighter Alpha for testing all detail.

The Street Fighter series debuted in the world of pc games in 1987 by a recreational curious that broke the mold in a genre (versus control) until then not very popular recurring or face the fans. This first SF was fairly criticized for its nefarious control (run a Hadoken was tremendously difficult, let alone a Shoryuken), but managed to corner the successful enough that Capcom decided to plan the creation of a sequel. That game came in 1991, was called Street Fighter II and revolutionized the world of videogames as a few titles they had done before. SFII became an immense success both in leisure and in their subsequent adaptations to home, so much so that Capcom simply throw in the following years various revisions (SFII Champion Edition, Turbo Hyperfighting SFII, Super SFII ...) clearly aimed at further squeezing goose that lays the golden eggs with a minimum expenditure of resources in the process.

While Capcom was asleep on his laurels, his main rival in the genre of the fight vs, SNK, gave birth to a juegazo after another: Fatal Fury Special, Art of Fighting 2, Samurai Shodown, The King of Fighters '94 ... It was precisely this last game that shook the foundations on which sat the throne of the creator of Street Fighter, forcing her to stop navel-gazing to get back to work. Thus, in 1995 it was Street Fighter Alpha, the first SF created from scratch since the release of SFII. The game exploited to maximum advantage CPS2 recreational plate to put on display a dramatic and colorful graphical section, clearly inspired by the superb film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994). The character designs also received inspiration from the film, as in Street Fighter Alpha we met with some Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li in youth versions. That is why the SFA is arguably talking about was between the first two Street Fighter numbered.

While Street Fighter Alpha was excellent in all sections, fans viciously criticized the limited roster of playable characters (ten plus three hidden) and the small number of existing scenarios (many characters share the same decor). And is that after taking a look at the game fairly quickly and is sensed precipitation in its market launch, probably because Capcom wanted to put an entirely new delivery of his most famous saga of struggle in the market as soon as possible so that SNK, its main rival, has not taken more advantage in the genre that the creator of Street Fighter had raised to the altars in the early 90s. SFA was a success, so Capcom, and more calm and patient, began to call to schedule a sequel outdo the original Street Fighter Alpha in each and every one of its sections. Well, once made a brief summary in the style of "In previous episodes ..." it is time to move on. The proud SFA 2 and 3 ahead.