The Street Fighter franchise was blown out-of-all-proportion in the late nineties, with Capcom trying to cling onto the diminishing fanbase whilst not upsetting the fans. Unfortunately, many releases just further distanced the franchise from the brutal simplicity that once made it great.

            Street Fighter Alpha Anthology brings together every title in the Street Fighter Alpha series in one tight little package. Huge arrays of gameplay options are available, including Dramatic Battle which pitches three-or-four fighters in two-on-one or two-on-two battles and the traditional Arcade and Story Modes. The series’ graphics are, of course, realised perfectly on the PlayStation2, as is the variable sense of speed. However, the controls convert poorly to the PlayStation2’s Control Pad, and a lingering sense of the 15^th Anniversary release of the ridiculously poor Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition runs throughout; an omen which is proving to be the titles major undoing.

            Whether Street Fighter Alpha Anthology manages to shake the flaws of the Street Fighter compilation predecessors will be a deciding factor in whether or not the title is worthy of a release. However, this will no doubt have little effect on whether or not the title achieves its expected sales-peak. It’s a shame when a name such as Capcom’s is tainted by such obviously sloppily-paced releases, but, of course, they need guaranteed sell-throughs such as this to fund creative pieces like Dead Rising, Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions and Okami – a double-edged sword that deals the greatest of damage.

Kev J.

16/05/06

Return to the Articles Archive 2006 here.

 Each of these articles has been written either independently of Electronic Theatre or by an external viewer. The opinions discussed in these articles in no way reflects the opinions of Electronic Theatre.

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