[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/0/198820_43003_front.jpg[/img]
So I've sort of gotten into this habit lately of updating my blog everytime I beat a game. And that sort of overlaps the fact that I've been using this blog to chronicle my budding Dreamcast collection over the past two months (over 20 games now!). And THAT overlaps the fact that as I'm collecting DC games, I'm also trying very hard to spend time playing them and attempting to actually beat games instead of just building up a huge backlog of untouched games. So as such, I bring you
Street Fighter Alpha 3.
[img width=581 height=448]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/0/198820/sfa3_screen014.jpg[/img]
Now let me first say that although I'm a huge fan of
Street Fighter II, I really had limited experience with the
Alpha series. I had played a bit of the first game's Game Boy Color port, as well as the third game's Game Boy Advance port. And although the GBA game is certainly impressive, it didn't really prepare me for the near-perfect arcade experiene I got out of the Dreamcast. The graphics in
Alpha 3 are incredible, with bright colors popping off the screen. And the animations are fluid as hell, even at breakneck speeds.
[img width=581 height=448]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/0/198820/sfa3_screen017.jpg[/img]
Now first off I encountered nothing but frustration. I picked my usual Street Fighter, Chun-Li only to find that none of her moves worked. It's a strange feeling to control Chun-Li and tap away at a kick button furiously to find that she does do the expected move. But after a bit of reading, it turns out this has to do with the Isms, or play-styles. Changing Chun-Li's style to X-Ism brought her move set far closer to that of
Street Fighter II (except I had no projectile attack). Once I figured this out, I was able to make my way through arcade mode pretty quickly. It was a blast taking on all these unfamiliar characters, having to fight Juni and Juli at the same time, and eventually ending up in a showdown with M. Bison once again.
But perhaps the craziest thing is that I beat the game using a standard Dreamcast controller. Not by choice, I tell you. I just can't find a fightpad I can afford. Sure I have an Agetec stick, but I'm no good at fighting games with a stick -- those are purely for shmups. So in the end I guess I'm just slowly getting used to this stupid controller. Something I never thought would happen!