Street Fighter Alpha 3

Street Fighter Alpha 3, known as Street Fighter Zero 3 (ストリートファイターZERO 3) in Japan and Asia, is a 1998 fighting game by Capcom originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware. It is the third game in the Street Fighter Alpha series, following Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams and Street Fighter Alpha 2. The gameplay system from the previous Alpha games was given a complete overhaul with the addition of three selectable fighting styles based on Street Fighter Alpha (A-ism), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (V-ism), and Super Street Fighter II Turbo (X-ism), new stages, a much larger roster of characters, and for the first time since the original Street Fighter II, new theme music for all the returning characters.

Gameplay
Street Fighter Alpha 3 discards the Manual and Auto modes from the previous Alpha games by offering the player three different playing styles known as "isms." The standard playing style, A-ism (or Z-ism in Japan), is based on the previous Alpha games, in which the player has a three-level Super Combo gauge with access to several Super Combo moves. X-ism is a simple style based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, in which the player has a single-level Super Combo gauge and access to a single, but powerful, Super Combo move. The third style, V-ism (or variable style), a unique style that allows the player to perform Custom Combos similar to the ones in Street Fighter Alpha 2. In X-ism, players cannot air-block nor use Alpha Counters. Alpha 3 also introduces a Guard Power gauge which depletes each time the player blocks - everytime the gauge is completely depleted, the player suffers a "guard crush" (in which the gauge itself decreases in size, thus causing the player to gradatively lose ability to block attacks as the guard gauge keeps decreasing) which leaves him/her temporarily vulnerable for an attack.

The controls for several actions has been modified from previous Alpha games. For example, the level of a Super Combo move in A-ism is now determined by the strength of the attack button pressed (i.e Medium Punch or Kick for a Lv. 2 Super Combo), rather than the number of buttons pushed; and throwing is now done by pressing two punch or kick buttons simultaneously.

Characters
As with the previous Alpha titles, several characters were added to the game: Cammy, who was previously featured in the console-exclusive Alpha 2 Gold, makes her official Alpha debut in the game along with several characters from Street Fighter II including E. Honda, Blanka, and Vega. Characters new to the Street Fighter series includes R. Mika, a Japanese female wrestler who idolizes Zangief; Karin, Sakura's rival who was first introduced in the Masahiko Nakahira manga Sakura Ganbaru!; and Cody from Final Fight, who was transformed from a vigilante into an escaped convict, makes his Street Fighter debut.

The single player mode consist of ten or eleven matches against computer-controlled opponents. The fifth and ninth opponent is a rival of the player's character who exchanges dialogue before and after the match. Unlike previous Alpha games, the final match for all the regular characters is against a more powerful version of M. Bison (officially known as Final Bison) who uses a more powerful version of the Psycho Crusher as a Super Combo. Depending on the player's character, the final match with Bison will be preceded with either: a one-on-two match against Bison's female bodyguards Juni and Juli, who uses the same techniques as Cammy, or the boxer Balrog. In the arcade version, Balrog, Juni, and Juli are secret selectable characters.

Home version additions
In the PlayStation version, Balrog, Juni and Juli became regular characters with their own storylines, win quotes and endings. Also, with the exception of Guile, the remaining characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II, T. Hawk, Dee Jay and Fei-Long, were added to the selectable roster. Along with the same additions as the PlayStation version, the Dreamcast and Saturn versions added Guile and Evil Ryu to the roster with their own slots, while the player can also gain access to Final Bison, EX Balrog and Shin Akuma who share slots with their original forms.

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Portable version additions
The Game Boy Advance version contains all the additional characters from the console versions, as well as three additional characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2: Yun, Maki, and Eagle. The PlayStation Portable version, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, contains the same additional characters, as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Jam.

Versions
Street Fighter Alpha 3 was initially ported in 1998 for the PlayStation. This replacing hit sprites with hit polygons in order to focus more memory on character animations. T. Hawk, Fei Long, and Dee Jay, the remaining "New Challengers" from Super Street Fighter II, who were not in the original arcade version, were added to the roster. Balrog, Juni, and Juli were also added to the immediate roster, after they were given new character portraits and their own storylines. Evil Ryu and Guile were also added as secret characters in the World Tour mode, a mode that allows players to customize their chosen character's fighting style. An additional feature in the Japanese version also made use of the PocketStation peripheral, which allows players to build up their character's strength. In this version, Shin Akuma serves as the unplayable final boss for Evil Ryu. Due to RAM limitation, the only unique pairings available in the Dramatic Battle Mode are Ryu & Ken or Juni & Juli.

The 1999 Dreamcast version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3: Saikyo Dojo (or Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō in Japan), retains all the added features from the PlayStation version of the game. An online mode was added that allowed players to display their high scores. In addition, a Saikyo Dojo mode was added which pits a very weak character of the player's choice against two very strong opponents. This Dreamcast port was re-released in Japan in 2000 as Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō for Matching Service, which was released as a mail order title via Dreamcast Direct. The Matching Service version differs from the original due to the addition of an Online Versus Mode.

A Sega Saturn version of Street Fighter Zero 3 was also released in 1999 shortly after the initial Dreamcast version in Japan only. The Saturn port makes use of Capcom's 4-Mega RAM cart and utilizing all of the features added to the PlayStation version with the exceptions of the polygon usage and the PocketStation mode – that said, the Saturn version uses the extra RAM to include more frames of animation and much shorter loading times than the PlayStation version making it a near arcade perfect port. Evil Ryu and Guile are immediately selectable while the player can also unlock Final Bison, EX Balrog and Shin Akuma, who share slots with their original forms. While the World Tour and Survival modes are virtually unchanged from the PlayStation version, Dramatic Battle received major improvements with the addition of Reverse Dramatic Battle and allowing three different characters to be used. Also, this port is the only one to feature dramatic battle against the entire roster of characters. All other versions limit dramatic battle to boss characters.

Street Fighter Zero 3 was re-released for the arcades in Japan in 2001 under the title of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper, officially promoted as Street Fighter Zero 3↑. The game was released for the Dreamcast-based NAOMI hardware rather than the original game's CPS II hardware and features all the added characters from the console versions of the game. Upper also allows player to upload any customized characters from the Dreamcast version of the game by inserting a VMU into a memory card slot on the cabinet.

A Game Boy Advance version developed by Crawfish Interactive was released in 2002. The GBA version is titled Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper on the title screen. The port is compressed and lacks several stages and music from the previous arcade and console versions, although all characters were present. In addition, Eagle, Maki and Yun and Yang, all whom were characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2, were also added to the game. Only a small amount of character voices were ported over to this version and the developers raised Ken's voice to a higher pitch and used it as Sakura's voice.

The PlayStation Portable version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper in Japan, officially promoted as Street Fighter Zero 3↑↑, was released in 2006 and features the additional characters from the GBA version as well as Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Evolution. The game is a near faithful port of the arcade version with minimal loading times and all graphics intact. All the added characters now feature their own in-game storylines and endings.

Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (Street Fighter Zero: Fighters' Generation in Japan) was also released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2. It contains the arcade version of Alpha 3 as one of the immediately available games, along with a revised version of Alpha 3 Upper as a secret game. The World Tour Mode that was featured in the previous home versions is not included in this compilation, nor the extra characters introduced in the portable versions of the game.