Street Fighter: Alpha Anthology [PS2]

Street Fighter Alpha came out at a time when the world was waiting for Street Fighter 3. No matter, as gamers ate up all the spot-on gameplay and retro-fabulous vibe. Capcom has been gracing us with a lot of compilations lately, and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology follows in their fantastic footsteps. It will leave you wanting in a few categories, but it's still a no-brainer for brawler fans.

This collection packs in Street Fighter Alpha, Alpha 2, Alpha 2 Gold, and Alpha 3. It even throws in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix as a bonus, which some of you may remember on PSone as Pocket Fighter. Amazingly, the Alpha trilogy varies enough from iteration to iteration to warrant playing all three. That's ignoring Alpha 2 Gold, however, which is a superfluous addition that only the most dedicated player will find different from the standard Street Fighter Alpha 2.

You can't fault the gameplay of this series. It took all that was good about Street Fighter II, and inserted a lot of much-needed strategy into things. Alpha counters, rolls, and fall breaks all added depth to the combat, though players can be perfectly fulfilled never learning these techniques. The combo gauge brought super moves to a whole new level, allowing you to control a variety of visually stunning and life-meter sucking attacks. It was one of the most important additions to the fighting game genre.

Street Fighter Alpha also brought forth Dramatic Battle mode. Here, you and an AI partner take on a lone opponent. Depending on which version you play, you either pick your teammate and share a life bar, or you forfeit your pick for separate health meters. It's a great time, and a really different dynamic to Street Fighter.

These ports are essentially arcade perfect, which is visually a good thing. The pixels are pixilated as they should be, keeping the image pure and beautiful. It's funny how 2D games hold up much better to early 3D from the same time, isn't it? A downfall of using the arcade versions, however, is that Alpha 3 suffers immensely. It's criminal for Capcom not to include World Tour mode -- one of the best modes in all of fighting games -- or the multiple-enemy survival mode. It's also kind of silly to omit a moves list either in the pause menu or the instruction book. If there was a wish-list, the ability to save fight replays would be on it; it can't take too much space to record bouts, can it?