I bought this game for my nephew and he really enjoyed playing. I have not played the game, but from what I saw it looked like fun.

If you followed Street Fighter you are likely famaliar with Alpha. The first two games were supposed to be a prequel of sorts to SF 2 only with better anime inspired sprites and smoother game-play. The third game could be debated to be a remake of SF 2 only with more characters while being re-vamped in the Alpha art style.

Regardless all the games in the collection are smooth and arcade perfect. In addition to getting Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Alpha 2 Gold, and Alpha 3 you also get gem fighter which is a cute chbified mosh of SF alpha, dark stalkers, red planet, and SF 4 thrown together. I say this because there are characters from all those games. The only gripe is there are not as many characters as you may like and compared to the alpha games gem fighter is fun but a bit shallow.

You can unlock Street fighter Alpha 3 upper by beating the original SF Alpha 3 that has more characters but still not as many cameos as SF Alpha 3 Max.

The pros are obivous. In this collection you get the whole story line in the alpha universe. You get to see how beloved characters such as Ryu,Ken,Sagat, and Chun Li grow up and confront their demons. In addition you have interesting new comers such as the psychic telepath woman Rose and the spunky Ryu admirer Sakura. It's also great the character designs got an overhaul. Fighters such as Ziegnief, Vega, and Bison look alot better and have alot more personality then they did in SF 2.

In addition every character has many moves and the ability to charge adrenaline gauges to unleash more powerful variations of those moves. For the most part the fighting mechanics are very balanced. Even if you begin losing at the beginning of a match you can still bounce back with well planned enough strategies. Unlike King of fighters that is heavily combo-centric Street fighter often encourages trade offs of cat and mouse. For example some moves can be used to lure someone to get closer at which point you execute a hard hitting combo. Also you are encouraged to switch up between attacking high and attacking low. Besides for the Hadoken clones everyone plays very differently so do not expect the same tired tactic to win you every match.

I found overall I could beat each game with any character however admittedly it was much easier to defeat Bison with some characters than it was with others. Ryu,Akuma,and Ken are as ever the hard hitting perfect balance fighters whereas others such as the fast but weaker bunch like Cammy,Juli,Sakura,Karin,Chun Li, Vega,Gen, and Guy require more brains to use and more finnesse. Balrog,Ziegnief, and T hawk are the same heavy damage behemoths they were before. When you land hits it is awesome but since they have no projectile attacks or easy combo chains you have to be cautious so you don't get whittled away but the smaller quick combatents. My only gripe in the roster is Guile and Charlie have not evolved much. Their sonic booms and flash kicks are pretty pathetic as if capcom improved everyone's techniques except Guile's. You can combo with them but it's hard as hell. Then again maybe I'm just not good at using them.

By now you should know what you have here. Many good games in one collection that chronicle all of Alpha's story lines from humble beginnings to epic ends. Every game is fun to play by yourself or with friends that come over when you have a competitive urge to prove your gamer geek dominance. The only down-side in the PS-2 version is there is NO online play. To some that might be a big deal.

If you love 2D fighters you should have this in your collection. These games are on par with the quality of SF 3 third strike and they are not simply tired remakes of SF 2. If however you prefer 3D fighters such as Soul Calibur 3 and Tekken 5 there is nothing here that will impress you or convert you to the 2D faithful crowd.

This game is the shizzle! I love the "alpha" series of Street Fighter the most. The artwork and game play is raw. I love Marvel vs Capcom 2 but Im an old schooler when it comes to fighting games and nothing beats Street Fighter Alpha 3. Thank You Capcom and Amazon!!!

The games are all great and Gem Fighter is really fun to play I found my wife enjoyed playing it as well. You really need to play with two people instead of the game AI to enjoy it.

I had all of these games on the original Playstation so I didn't think I needed this collection. But after playing it on the PS2, I realize just how great it is. The graphics are arcade perfect. You see things you don't see on the PS1. There are no load times between matches. It's just a much better experience. This and Anniversary Collection are must haves for Street Fighter fans.