Get ready to hear Ryu and company belt out the infamous Hadouken scream as the Street Fighter franchise arrives on the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Capcom has released a near-perfect arcade conversion of the classic fighter “Street Fighter Alpha 3” (SFA 3) for the PSP. The newly re-dubbed “Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max” is the second version of the fighter to appear on a handheld with the first being a Game Boy Advance (GBA) release.

Sure, the GBA release was great, but it didn’t feature all of the fighters’ levels, nor was the soundtrack up to par with other home console adaptations. The game was also limited due to the lack of buttons on the GBA. Now, does the PSP version fair any better?

The answer is yes, and surprisingly no. The game itself is a perfect port of the arcade version. It looks and feels like the famed Dreamcast rendition, which was, up to now, the best version of SFA 3. The audio is top notch, something you’d naturally come to expect out of a Capcom fighter. So what’s wrong? Let just say it’s not the game, but the PSP itself.

Sony’s handheld wasn’t really designed with fighters in mind. The D-pad is pretty inadequate, which translates in hard to reproduce combos and special moves. Gamers who’ve had the opportunity to experience the game on other platforms will wish they had the opportunity to use a more precise D-pad. Don’t even think of trying to play SFA 3 Max using the so-called PSP analog stick as it’s rather unpleasant, and quite frankly, unplayable.

You could always scour the Internet and attempt to find one of the adhesive D-pad covers that were issued by Capcom as a pre-order bonus, but who would really want to permanently modify their PSP for a single game? Also, a PSP Grip add-on also helps quite a bit when playing marathon sessions of SFA 3 Max.

Controls aside, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max is probably the best looking version of the game, something that has a lot to do with the PSP’s LCD display. Every color and pixel look crystal clear in comparison to its former PS One incarnation. The attention to detail for the characters and backgrounds are just phenomenal. The anime style of SFA 3 has never looked so good.

The visuals can also be enjoyed either in wide or normal mode settings. The wide setting presents, or stretches, the game in a wide screen mode, while the original option shrinks down action to be viewed the way Capcom originally intended it to be.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max contains a total of 15 game modes. Besides the traditional Arcade and Practice modes, the game offers two-on-one battles in the form of Dramatic (play with an AI-controlled character) and Reverse-Dramatic (play against two computer-controlled opponents) modes. One of the most interesting game types is World Tour. In World Tour, you get to fight in various locales across the world in order to level-up your character, which can then be imported into other game types.

The SFA 3 Max soundtrack is also faithful to its original source. Every song from the arcade version is included in the PSP iteration. This is definitely a game that you will enjoy playing with your favorite set of headphones. A custom soundtrack feature would have been a welcomed option. Imagine being able to fight an opponent while listening to your favorite tunes. I guess we’ll have to wait for “Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting” on Xbox Live Arcade for the ability to play to the sound of our favorite songs.

A total of 37 playable characters are available out of the box. The game includes all of your favorite cast from Street Fighter 2 mixed in with characters from previous Alpha titles and various Capcom franchises. Four new faces are introduced in this version of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Three of the new characters (Yun, Maki, and Eagle) hail from “Capcom vs. SNK 2”, with one character (Ingrid) hailing from the forgettable “Capcom Fighting Evolution”.

SFA 3 Max also features an Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi functionality, which lets you duke it out with a few friends within close proximity. You can play single, league and tournament games in “VS Mode” and “Team Battle”. The game also includes “Variable” and “Dramatic Battle” where you can either host or play as a guest.

Sadly, no online play was included with the game. Third party applications such as Xlink Kai Evolution VII can get you playing against others across the globe, but be warned the application can be a little difficult to setup. An official online mode would have made the game a lot more interesting.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max definitely delivers, and if it wasn’t for the PSP control scheme, the game would have been perfect. SFA 3 Max will surely be a favorite in your PSP collection. I definitely won’t shy away from recommending this title, a definitive four out of five star game.

By André Barriault
http://www.gamingcult.com

[tags]psp,capcom,street fighter alpha 3[/tags]