Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Versions

Versions

• Street Fighter Alpha 3 was initially ported in 1998 to the PlayStation, selling a million copies. This version replaced the "hit" sprites with "hit" polygons in order to focus more memory on character animations. Balrog, Juni and Juli were added to the immediate regular roster, and they were given new character portraits and their own storylines. T. Hawk, Fei Long, and Dee Jay (the remaining "New Challengers" from Super Street Fighter II) were also included to the roster. Evil Ryu, Guile and Shin Akuma were also added as secret unlockable characters in the World Tour mode, a mode that allows players to strengthen and customize their chosen character's fighting style while traveling around the world. 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 final boss for Evil Ryu, as well as a secret boss in Final Battle. Due to RAM limitations, the only unique pairings available for a complete campaign in the Dramatic Battle Mode are Ryu & Ken and Juni & Juli; other character combinations can only be used for one-match battles. This version was re-released for download on the North American PlayStation Network on October 18, 2011.

• The 1999 Dreamcast version, titled Street Fighter Alpha 3: Saikyo Dojo (or Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō in Japan), uses all the added features from the PlayStation version of the game, but features a different World Tour mode. An online mode was added, allowing 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. The Dreamcast version was re-released in Japan in 2000 as Street Fighter Zero 3: Saikyō-ryū Dōjō for Matching Service as a mail order title via Dreamcast Direct. The Matching Service version differs from the original in the addition of an Online Versus Mode.

• The Sega Saturn version of Street Fighter Zero 3 was also released in 1999 shortly after the initial Dreamcast version in Japan only. This port makes use of Sega's 4-MB RAM cartridge and uses all the features from the PlayStation version except the polygon usage and the PocketStation mode. The Saturn version uses the extra RAM to include more frames, sprites, and faster loading times than the PlayStation version, making it near arcade perfect. 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 normal 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 is the only port to feature Dramatic Battle against the entire roster of characters; all other versions limit this mode to boss characters only.

• 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 CP System II hardware) and features all the added characters from the console versions of the game. Upper also allows players 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 under the title Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper. The port is compressed and lacks several stages and music from the previous arcade and console versions, although all characters are present. In addition, Eagle, Maki and Yun, all whom were characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2 (released during the previous year), 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.

• 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. This version is a near faithful port of the arcade version with minimal (almost non-existent) loading times and all frames and sprites intact. All the added characters now feature their own in-game storylines and endings. The downloadable version on the PlayStation Store has faster loading times than the one featured in UMD.

• Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for the PlayStation 2 (Street Fighter Zero: Fighters' Generation in Japan) was also released in 2006. 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. Being a compilation of arcade games, the World Tour Mode that was featured in the previous home ports is not included, nor are the extra characters introduced in the portable versions of the game, although it uses the soundtracks from the home versions. In Upper, all characters are readily available.