Street Fighter Alpha 2

Variants

Street Fighter Alpha 2 was re-released under the Fighters Edge program – a points-based system where you gain coupon points from your purchases and then use them to buy things.  Alpha 2 was only worth a measly 10 points. The FE disc has more copyright info on it when it comes to matching cases.

Fighters Edge Release

Misprints

• There are no known misprints.

Review

• There is no review for this game yet.

Final Score: NA – No Review

Summary Text

Screenshots

• There are no screenshots for this game yet.

Videos

GameRaveTV covered the entire Fighters Edge program.

Magazine Ads

A simple 1-page ad for Street Fighter Alpha 2, calling out the PlayStation and (superior) Sega Saturn version.

Trivia

• Japan’s series name for this is Street Fighter Zero.
• When the Street Fighter Collection was released, it included a special version called Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. Among the usual animation and fixes, you could unlock Cammy as a playable character.
• A measly 10 Points in the Fighters Edge Program.
• The Sega Saturn version featured an exclusive art gallery as well as improved menu visuals in some instances.
• Besides the usual missing frames and loading times, the PlayStation version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 is also missing a font. The on-screen combo counter in-fight is based on two fonts – the PS only uses one; the Saturn has both.
• The opening cinema is a poorly compressed video file, where the Saturn has it proper.
• Also released for the Super Nintendo, which all things considered, turned out to be a darn impressive (if admittedly rough) conversion for the hardware involved.
• Street Fighter Alpha as a series has a peculiar claim to fame – no two games were released across the same alternate variant. SFA was Long Box and Fighters Edge, SFA2 was Jewel Case and Fighters Edge, and SFA3 was Fighters Edge and Greatest Hits.
• The Alpha series and Street Fighter 2 series were the only Capcom fighting games to have their full release list on PlayStation. DarkStalkers missed Night Warriors due to Sega Saturn exclusivity, and Star Gladiator’s sequel would appear on Dreamcast.
• Alpha 2 brings back the Alpha Counter, but more importantly, it also introduced the Custom Combo. Essentially you pressed One Punch and Two Kick Buttons, and whatever you pressed within that time frame became your ‘Super Move’. Players quickly found exploits, especially with Chun-Li, and began racking up insane 50+ hit combos. Capcom would eventually split the Styles in Alpha 3.
• There is some interesting lore with one of the game’s cameos. In Ken’s stage, among the various Capcom characters is Strider holding a Teddy Bear. When a character performs a Super Move, Strider tosses the bear up and catches it. Legend has is it that this was a small ‘Get Well Soon’ message to a fellow Capcom programmer. The worker was apparently under great stress while working on a port of Strider (different sources have it as the Super Grafx or Neo Geo Pocket), and when the project got canned, he was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. In the PlayStation version, Strider is not animated.
• New characters to the game included Gen, Rolento (of Final Fight), Sakura, and returning characters Zangief and Dhalsim.
• In Sakura’s stage her sibling is apparently playing Final Fight on the Super Nintendo. When the match is over, they throw the controller.
• If you can go undefeated for the first 5 opponents, and win using a Super Move, you will fight a surprise Rival on the 6th character.
• The Saturn version features several ‘alternate mode’ characters like Evil Ryu that the PlayStation version does not have.
• Funny observation: Both this and the similarly troubled Samurai Shodown III have the phrase, “A Precise Arcade Translation” on the package’s back. If you see that on a PlayStation game, run!