Title - "Street Fighter Zero"
Alternative title(s) - "Street Fighter Alpha"
Genre(s) - Fighting - 2D
Platform(s) - Arcade, Playstation, and Saturn

Well, I will not say much about the game because quite frankly, the game was a rush job, which means that I shouldn't say much. After the hit "Street Fighter II" series ended at 1994, Capcom decided to make a new batch of "Street Fighter" games a year later that focused on the time period of a year after the first tournament. So, with the new time period in mind, you have characters which appeared in the first "Street Fighter" game, characters that relate to those in the second game and since they ran in the same timeline together, you have some "Final Fight" characters. So, pick either Ry, Ken, Gai, Chun-Li, Nash/Charlie, Rose, Adon, Birdie, Sodom, Dan, Gki, Sagat and Vega and fight.

Fun - 9

I will explain why I subtracted a point here later on in the review. For now, I can say that the game keeps the touches of the old games for the most part. The game still has the touch after all of these years.

Life - 10

10 characters (or 13 if you count Dan, Gki and Vega, the secret characters) is not a lot. Then again, neither was 8. Besides, it's nothing to worry about.

Story - N/A

Although some stories are okay, I will not give a score here because like I said, this was a rushed game.

Control - 9

I'll get the only flaw for the most part here out of the way. The game has a chain combo system. What that means is that you can link your attacks from weak to strong in terms of power. You were either a fan of it or you hated it, and if you ask me, I'm in the middle.

So, what should I know about the fundamentals this time? For one, Capcom retained most of the elements from the previous "SF" games, which is good. Second, to make sure that fans get a different feel, Capcom decided to add in air blocking, which is always a nice feature.

Characters now have at least two Super Combos. Speaking of which, if you recall in the previous game of "SF", you had a bar to work with. Though you still have a bar here, it works differently here, as you work with three levels instead of one and as long as you don't perform an SC or the other tactic I will get to in a bit, you will keep the amount of power in your bar you have gained. Doing medium, hard and special attacks as well as attacking your opponent and defending will increase the amount of power for your bar. Going back to SC's, all of them have three degrees and they are determined by the number of buttons of a certain type of blow. That is, punch or kick.

As for that other tactic that uses up power in your bar, that tactic is a Zero Counter. Each character has one and they use up one level in your bar. For the most part, they knock down your opponent and to perform one, right after you block, press back, down-backward, down and either punch or kick depending on the character. (Just in case you didn't know, this is the same motion you do for Nakoruru's ground slash attack the Annu Mutsube right before you press a slash button.)

So, right after you remember the tactics, pick your character, your speed and if you happen to be playing the Japanese version, your decision on blocking. Fight against eight people. That's that. I will not go into the secret characters because the guides are already there to help you out.

Audio - 10

The songs still have that old spirit. Ry's still is the same and the same goes for Vega more or less. Ken is altered a bit and though it's okay, I like the previous version better. Chun-Li and Sagat have songs in which I wish that they had kept the previous one because they don't stand out. Gai has the song played in the first level of the first "Final Fight" game as well as other levels and it's definitely better than the original. (That's not surprising.) Don't ask me about Adon's, Birdie's and Sodom's because I have not played the first "SF" game in a while and I can't figure out where I heard Sodom's, though their songs are nothing special. The rest are fine. As for why you don't hear a tempo increase in the songs when someone is low on life, the answer is because the song is played continuously.

The voice actors have definitely improved and it's good to say that Ry and Ken no longer share the same samples. The sound effects are there, but that's okay. They fit anyway.

Art - 10

Aside from the background sharing, the game looks terrific visually. The game dons an anime feel this time around. (The introduction is an introduction to see.) Chun-Li's new outfit isn't an improvement (as I would have rather had her in her old Chinese layout or in a different variation of it), but she's still the same Chun-Li or in this case, a younger (and more kawaii) version of Chun-Li. Anyway, the statue you have seen all of these years is still here. Though the backgrounds seem empty, they're okay. The effects look real flashy, but good. I guess that's that here.

Overall - 10

I know what you may be thinking. "Isn't that too high of a score?" Personally, I don't think so. I think that despite the flaws and lack of extra additions, it's that good of a game. Come to think of it, this is the best rushed game I have ever played.

+

Aside from dodging a story bullet, the graphics look pretty good, the songs have that touch still and the game will give you moments of fun.

-

Aside from the combo debate, there is not much to complain about.

Date of creation - 10/24/04

Last update - N/A

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