The game is based on the Alpha 3 version that appeared on the Dreamcast a couple of years ago, was brought to the arcades, and was renamed Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper. It contains some very big gameplay changes that some people hate and some people like. V-ism combos have changed or are now unusable, and the speed and power of certain characters have been dramatically changed. You can pretty much think of SFA3 Upper as a revision of the game in order to fix some gameplay issues that Capcom saw the need to address. The core gameplay of Alpha 3 stays the same in Upper; most people needn’t worry.

For the uninitiated: SFA3 Upper allows you to choose from a cast of 36 characters (31 selectable, 5 hidden) and three different playing modes called ISMs. Each ISM is a representation of previous Street Fighter games. X-ism represents Super Turbo, with one long super combo meter and no air-blocking; Z/A-ism represents Alpha 1, with its Alpha Counters and three-level super meter; and V-ism represents Alpha 2, with its very powerful Custom Combo meter. Each ISM offers different options for your characters (some lose or gain moves) and really does triple the character count in the game, since some characters do play very differently depending on what ISM you select.

The biggest change that SFA3 Upper has is the control layout, which is compromised due to the GBA only having 4 buttons. Instead of the tap/hold layout that Super Turbo Revival had, Crawfish opted to make players press two buttons at the same time instead. This effectively changes a lot in Alpha 3, such as throws being performed by pressing towards/back+button instead of pressing two punch or kick buttons at the same time. Fortunately you’re given a lot of flexibility when tinkering with the controls. You have all of the options that the console versions had (such as choosing between long and arcade input) as well as changing how super moves are performed. Crawfish realized that doing supers such as Charlie’s Flash Kick super or Chun’s Lightning Kick super would be really hard for some people, so you can change the controls to have easy supers. In this easy mode, instead of having to do complex motions on the tiny GBA pad, you can do very simple motions. For example, pressing QCF+ Any Punch+ Any Kick performs Ryu’s Shinkuu Hadoken in Easy Mode. When you think about, it’s staggering how much Crawfish crammed into the game. The entire front end of the game, win screens, everything is intact in Upper. This includes all of the little extras in the game, with the exception of World Tour mode. In fact, even the hidden ISMs are included in the game, as are special modes such as Final Battle, Dramatic, and Survival modes.

What’s even more startling are the graphics, which are absolutely stunning. Unlike Alpha 1 for the Game Boy Color, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t find Upper’s graphics impressive and very close to the original. In fact, many of the animation sequences that weren’t even in the Saturn and PlayStation versions of the game (such as Cody’s alternate intro pose) are in here. Heck, they even managed to cram Mika’s wrestling ring in the game for both her intro and her super combo. Every background is in the game too (the US version will be getting 2 additional backgrounds), although if you play in Arcade mode, you’ll find that every stage is randomized, and not selected based on who you are fighting.

The only thing that took a real hit in the conversion is the sound. While the background music attempts to be faithful to the original version, the sound effects have been cut back a lot. You’ll hear a lot of characters shout out their normal sayings, but the announcer has been taken out (good or bad, that’s up to you to decide) and all of the voice samples before and after a match have been axed. However, most of these cutbacks were most likely due to Crawfish wanting to put more emphasis on the animation, so a loss in sound isn’t too bad.

Finally, those who won’t be playing against friends often will be happy to know that unlike most Street Fighter games, the computer opponents are absolutely lethal here. Sure, some of them can be a pain in the butt on the console, but they got nothing on their handheld counterparts. Characters such as Gen, Guy and Maki will bust out their chain combos, while others such as Zangief will use tactics such as tick-hit-into-SPD. It’s absolutely amazing that an external developer can make the computer Street Fighter opponents more deadly than Capcom can!

Whether you like the series or not, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper has instantly become the fighting game to beat on any handheld. Not only does it stay faithful to its earlier manifestation, but also offers so many extras and secrets that it’ll keep you playing for months on end. This is the new standard that every game company (including Capcom) will have to live up to when it comes to handheld fighters.

· · · Reno