Story. This game was originally bought with the PlayStation back in 2000 when I was a kid. Looking at the system I was amazed at how good the graphics were and experiencing games that weren’t from the Super Nintendo or Sega Saturn. This game in particular was a good favorite of mine and introduced me to the fighting series itself (the franchise). I actually remember talking about it with some school friends at that time (1st grade) and how good the games were, albeit I wasn’t exposed to every game up to that moment, just this one. Unfortunately it was swapped out with another game, a kid friendly one but it was actually pretty good too (that’s for another review). 


For this review I’ll be writing about Street Fighter Alpha 2 for the PlayStation. That’s right the console itself, not the arcade. Though albeit have to mix in with emulation because the disc I currently own won’t load up specific stages or characters. I don’t know. Anyways let’s jump to the review. 

Story : 7

The game is set after the events of Street Fighter Alpha and still between Street Fighter 1 and Street Fighter II. Each character has a background story of its own as there is no direct story to the game, with the exception of Charlie (Nash in Japan) always being killed off in this series of alpha games. 

The story is a 7 out of 10. No direct story but each character has a path you can follow and see at the end. 

Graphics : 7

The graphics are a minor upgrade to the previous game. Though some animations look a bit incomplete like missing animations, it does the job well for a port due to the limitations of the a PlayStation. The backgrounds are lively as ever thanks to the quality of Capcom. From a lovely crowd, to a group of bicyclists and even a moving scaffold, it gives a sense of atmosphere that gives flair to the stage. 

Character models of the game seem a bit smaller than the arcade version and the gameplay does feel a bit slower. It’s faster than the Street Fighter Alpha, but with this port I just feel like its pacing is a tad slow compared to the arcade. I didn’t see any significant slowdown, if any at all. The loading is one of the most atrocious aspect of the game. You start the game, you load. The math is starting, loading, match ends, loading, character win quote, next opponent, loading. I understand it’s on PlayStation hardware but it becomes more of a hassle to wait for a part of the game to load when trying to enjoy it. Maybe use it for intermission. 

The intro and menu is one of the laziest I’ve seen. Instead of an in game intro they went for a FMV and it just looked so terrible. The menu itself is just a black screen with game modes and options but nothing flashy at all. Just lazy 

The graphics is an 7. The models and stages look beautiful, but so much issues with the loading taking long and sprite sizes being a bit small. 

Sound : 8

The game sounds more high pitched compared to Street Fighter Alpha. The music sounds a bit faster, the sound effects are clear, the voices a little bit more high pitched. 

The music is one of the best and worst parts of the game. You hear a good remixes of a Street Fighter II themes and a few new ones and others from previous titles. Though the sound does sound different compared to the arcade and honestly, I prefer the arcade version on the soundtrack. One other issue is the music sounds a bit too low on the game. Yeah you can change the settings on the options menu but it’s bothersome sometime to do that. 

The voice characters are a bit more high pitched from the previous title. Ken and Ryu are big examples. They do have a bit of compression but it’s not noticeable to the average ears. Overall it’s pretty good. 

The sound is a good 8 out of 10. Soundtrack and voices sound good but some issues make it short just slightly. 

Difficulty : 7

The game isn’t as difficult as the previous title. It’s a bit easier actually and a more casual feel to it. Players are more balanced and inputting commands seem to work a lot better than the previous title. The final boss is usually the most difficult aspect of the game, but in this case shin akuma is usually the most difficult. Granted I haven’t tried to pull off the requirements that’s necessary to fight the character if he is in the game. (Win like 5 or 7 matches, 3 of them perfect like the arcade). 

If anything the rating will be a 7 out of 10. I’m not sure about shin akuma being present but the game is fairly easy and balanced except for one aspect which I’ll explain on depth. 

Depth : 7

The game on the PlayStation lacks depth. You start off with a roster of Eighteen fighters. Yes Eighteen. The original cast of Alpha 1 make a return with Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Rose, Sodom, Sagat, Guy, Birdie, Charlie, and Adon. Akuma, M. Bison, and Dan also make a return but as part of the roster instead of hidden characters. Gen and Zangief make a return to the series with Gen from the original Street Fighter and Zangief from Street Fighter II. Rolento makes his presence in the Street fighter series coming from final fight, and to round off the cast a new character makes her first introduction, Sakura. This gives a bit of good depth on the character selection and learn moves from them. 

Guard blocks and alpha counters make a return but they removed chain combos to most characters (I only seen Gen that can pull it off even though he’s a new character). To replace chain combos they introduced to Alpha combos which uses your gauge (levels 1, 2, or 3) and create a custom combo with a shadow effect. This makes the game a bit more broken. Some players can abuse this and take a huge chunk of health away from the opponent compared to others. It’s so broken that some people rather use alpha combos instead of the usual super moves. 

Game modes are lackluster. With the usual arcade mode and vs mode they only offer a training mode and there’s not much to talk about that. 

With the arcade mode, it’s more of the same as Street Fighter Alpha, facing seven opponents before fighting the eighth fighter which is the boss. With the arcade if you meet some requirements you have a chance to fight to face a mid boss character but in the PlayStation version I’m not sure if it offers that since I couldn’t meet the requirements for it. 

Some characters even have some special stages when facing specific opponents (Charlie vs M. Bison with a waterfall stage as an example) and it’s pretty neat. 


Not much to talk about since it’s more of the same as Alpha 1 with the exception of Alpha combos and removing chain combos. It’s a lackluster 7 out of 10

Addictive : 6

The game has a more casual feel to it. You think that would be a problem but it’s more of an improvement. The casual feel of the game makes it enjoyable to play from time to time, but on PlayStation hardware it does dampen up the experience a bit. There’s not much to say about this. 

Addictive is a 6 out of 10. The game is something you can enjoy for a few hours or so but on better hardware. PlayStation limitations lowers the rating. 

This game was one of my favorites to play as a kid and enjoyed using Ken and Guy whenever I had a chance to play it. The game has such an impact that eventually I bought a disc for the PlayStation in 2012 and basically wore it down until the anniversary collection was available on the Xbox one. After exposing myself to the original arcade, I realized how much drawbacks Capcom had to do to make it work for the PlayStation without too much differences or changes. It’s an inferior port but they done a great job to make it look as close to the arcade. 

My rating : 8.5 out of 10

Review rating : 7 out of 10

I remember playing this maybe a couple of times. I pretty much had the same opinion as your review. I kind of expected more since this was on the playstation. I found the ones on the 16 bite systems to actually be better than this one. To me the voices were high pitched it reminded me of Mega Man 8's voices. From what I remember I think the controls were a little bit off as well.

tornadocam : I mean on the PlayStation it did have a bit of a lag but I assumed because I was on a Flat screen instead of a reliable crt tv. I know when I played the Super Nintendo it had a lot better control reaction but the loading aspect throws me off at times and makes me assume that the game crashed at times. Nintendo went all out to make the port playable and I was impressed about that.

Alpha 2 on PlayStation did control a bit more consistent with Alpha 1 arcade, can’t compare two different games on two different platforms… though PlayStation version of alpha 1 I’m not sure if they did made a port for it.