God, I hope Sakura can make her way back in 6 somehow. I know 5 felt like it was sort of a coming of age for her, and I know how people feel about "too many shotos" when we already have Akuma coming next year, but Sakura is just such an excellent character for the franchise and one of my favorite in all of gaming. They took a school girl trope and did it RIGHT.
Alpha 2 for the PSX was one of the first fighting games I ever got REALLY into. The presentation, music, and character designs were so dope at the time. I had the strategy guide and everything.
In France, Japanese anime were already a big success since 1980's. France is the biggest market for mangas after Japan. So, we were really happy to have this animé look when we discovered SFA.
And then DBZ gets localized and shows where that and Super Sonic originally came from. And Nintendo joins the party with Pokémon going overseas, and going back to Capcom fighters and Sonic, the Dreamcast creates a nice stir, however brief. Not to mention all the anime-styled ragtag band RPGs spurred on by FFVII. It truly was the weeb--I mean otaku gaming golden age.
Yeah Xmen Vs SF was revolutionary, the double team supers caught my attention, our local arcade had it running on a projector pointing into a blacked curtained out room EPIC
I remember playing Sakura as a kid and she was actually the first female fighting game character I ever really put time into and mained when I played alpha 2. Still a great character to this day.
Here we are again, many years later. Everything comes full circle. Metro City is a place we can interact with in SF6. It took forever to get here, but at least it finally happened
I directly associate the alpha series with the dan legacy now my absolute favorite from this channel. Alpha 2 is absolutely my favorite street fighter in terms of style, aesthetic, and atmosphere I love it. It just feels so much like a young, carefree, optimistic, fun loving summer.
"In 1994 anime wasn't mainstream or well known at all" lol, it's always really funny and a little off putting as someone from México where we had tons of anime up the ass airing at prime time, especially during the 90s. As a kid I got a pirated copy of Alpha from a random street vendor at a corner, I'll never forget that.
Anime still isn't mainstream. The anime weeb fans, seem to think that anime or manga are this huge thing in the US, but the reality is THEY ARE NOT....In the US manga makes up 2% of comic sales, comics are still massively ruled by Marvel, DC and Image and anime releases are few and far between....When its something you have to track down from a specialty store its not mainstream.
Yep, anime was already huge in latin america during the 90's. Pretty much everyone dude i know around my age (30 years old) grew up watching dbz or/and saint seiya 😄
@@lutherheggs451 but we're talking about our country? Mexico has anime being mainstream since the 90s, the sales are insane over here, not only is it available on open networks and cable, there's tons on stores and manga is sold in pretty much every mainstream store in every corner of our country, sad the USA is so behind this according to you, but that's not the reality in the rest of the world
@@agrippa2012don't forget the older people that also watched Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X in here), Trigun and Gundam Wing. And the 2000s were wild for kids in that era. DBZ, Pokémon,, Digimon, Bayblade, Yu Gi Oh and so on were plastered everywhere lol.
I remember back in 1996 when I first watched people playing Alpha 2 arcade here in Manaus. They've put the arcade volume so high we almost got deaf every time someone activated the custom combo bars. Awesome!
I personally love it, it's slower, but the Gameplay is as sharp, the timing is great for practice, and yet, the game is as hard in the highest number of Stars! 😅😁
@@venom3421 Same. There is something charming about 16-bit music. In some cases those can beat the original tracks from the arcade especially when the composers were creative with the chiptune of the home console (SNES, Genesis) Example, Kotaro Fuuma's theme in the SNES port of the original World Heroes in much better than the original arcade version. Believe me 🎼🎵
Same. Ever since they abandoned that style, Street Fighter has never hit as hard for me. Wish they'd give the series the Arc System Works treatment, tbh...
I played Alpha 1 in an arcade when I was a kid. It was the second SF game I'd ever played, first being Vanilla SF2, and I remember being blown away by the slicker, more dynamic art style. It was a long time between then and the next time I had an opportunity to get back into the series, so Alpha 1 always left a pretty big impression on me.
The one things that's been permanently embedded into my brain from this age of Capcom's fighting games are the sound effects, especially when the attacks connect. Iconic, if I do say so myself.
Arcade? it was ok. It's fun and man is A3 wild when it is competitive. The Home Port? Looking back, that port is a milestone to every SF game after it. Their is a reason the term "World Tour" appeared again... Capcom has yet to top what they did on the Dreamcast. SF6 seem to looking to try.
I wasn't aware of the Street Fighter Alpha series after SF2 until I was at my friend's house during my middle school years. Never played the first Alpha game, but played Alpha 2 on the PS1. It was drastically different from SF2 to my surprise, but Alpha 2 brought me back to Street Fighter.
I could never get over how SF Alpha felt like living in a middle school era where you have an origin story that had you fighting a rival. I love how every character story expanded before SF2
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remember just getting into anime when this came out, so the Alpha series redesign was exactly what I was looking for. The first time I saw it in a local arcade, it set up on a monster set-up; a literal giant screen monitor with a sit-down bench with a killer sound system that demanded the astronomical (at the time) fee of 50 cents. As soon as I found the Saturn version of it, I snapped that up. Never saw Alpha 2 in the wild, but once again, as soon as it was on Saturn, that got bought and played into the into the ground; so much so, I remember doing a recorded presentation for school on the difference between "polgyon graphics" and "cel animation". Of course, the main events being Virtua Fighter 2 and Alpha 2.
I thought the same exact thing when i saw SFA in arcade the first time. I was just like "why is it a cartoon now? That's weird as heck." By the time Alpha 3 hit, i was getting up at 5AM to record DBZ episodes and thought SFA3 looked so awesome. The anime hit me really quick 😅 Also, if anyone reading this hasn't experienced Hyper Street Fighter Alpha, maaaaan. You gotta get your hands on it any way you can.
I remember the original SF1 in my local arcade, I was totally addicted and became the best player there. Only because I worked out you were unbeatable if you could do repeated dragon punches. In the first game there was no way to stop or counter them at all. If you timed it right you could beat some characters with just one dragon punch (Gen particularly I remember)
As a semi-newbie to Street Fighter, starting at the tail end of 4 and on again, off again with SFV, I just found about Alpha a month ago and fell in love with the look and series!!
my brother and i really became friends over playing alpha 2. our parents divorced when we were young and somehow it worked out to where each parent got custody of one of us and so we didnt really hang out until we were older and 1 parent got custody of both of us. and it was playing alpha 2 for hours on end during weekends that we became homies. sometimes just hearing the alpha 2 intro gets me a bit misty as i havent seen my brother in years because life got busy.
Alpha 2 was the spotlight when I first played it. Like the artstyle and gameplay as they took the anime direction. The music was amazing including Kens theme was so smooth and jazzy.
This animated movie was amazing, there is also Street Fighter 2 V with some of the same voice actors. The ending of that is awesome to. Super Street Fighter II The Animated Movie was and still is 👌🏼
Alpha was made because of overstock on arcade board tech, so they needed to make a game that could run on both old and new tech, they were inspired by fan art to make alpha, the movie inspired parts of the game but not the actual full game
I absolutely love the artwork that came from this series of games. I just got a poster of the Alpha 1 cover for my wall, and I plan to get one for Alpha 2 pretty soon.
The ironic thing is that SF2 was/is ANIME AF - SF2 is basically one big homage/rip off of Hokuto no Ken and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, with some extra references like Gold/Silver from Golgo 13 and Yasunori Kato. SF2 was never *realistic*, it was just shaded differently. SF Alpha series just dialed back the shading to make it more like the SF movie, so it was still anime influenced, just a different anime than SF2 (those Rose = Lisa Lisa). Also, Final Fight was not "brought" into SF with Alpha - Final Fight and SF have always been part of the same canon since the inception of SF2.
I really do appreciate this detailed deep dive into what made these games different and what Capcom was thinking at the time these came out. So much of this series just blends together for ke so I like seeing the distinctions between versions and the reaction to them.
The Alpha series (mainly 3) has always been my favorite. It’s anime like artstyle is definitely one of the main reasons (on top of the soundtrack). Bengus’s art illustrations for the characters and even Capcom’s other fighting games during this era like Vampire Savior, X-Men vs Street Fighter, MVC1-2, Power Stone, etc really just adds to that special “aesthetic” of Capcom’s CPS2-Naomi era of their fighting games if that sounds right/makes any sense
I first laid eyes on a Street Fighter Alpha arcade machine at a pizza place in the early 90's. I was instantly enamored by the art style and the presentation. I was already hooked on Street Fighter II at home, but Alpha is what got me wanting to visit arcades as much as possible, where I discovered more Capcom games that were influenced by it, like Darkstalkers and Marvel Super Heroes (my favorite Capcom game of all time). Alpha was a literal game-changer for Capcom's approach to the whole genre.
The Alpha series is basically what got me deep into SF as a whole (before I got hooked on KOF and anything SNK). The first Alpha stole a lot of my time on PS, with Guy being my main even since. Then getting Alpha 3 years later and absolutely letting the game damn near take over my life 😂 but then playing Alpha 2 a few years later after that and it becoming my new favorite SFA game for probably the foreseeable future. A wild ride man!
I remember being 7 and walking into a rental store and seeing a big ass poster of alpha 2. I knew who Ryu was, I didn't know who Akuma was. I was scared but also super excited.
Alpha 2 on PS1 was one of the first games I had on Playstation (along with Tomb Raider and MK Trilogy). Ryu's theme in that game (the arranged/SFA2 Gold version) is embedded into my brain. I still listen to that song on loop when I'm working on projects or at work sometimes. Definitely something I hold dearly in my heart, probably until the day I die.
I'll always remember getting the PS1 with a copy of SF Alpha 1 as a gift from my Aunt and Uncle in the Summer of '97. I have Cerebral Palsy and had just went through a rather invasive surgery. Gaming definitely helped me pass time and ease the pain. Now I'm stronger because of it!
This was my favorite time for Capcom fighters because of the experimentation not just in Street Fighter Alpha, but in the fighting games in general. You had Darkstalkers and the Marvel series being developed alongside the Alpha games and there was a cross-pollination of elements and ideas that made each franchise stronger. From Darkstalkers came EX moves, chain combos, and guard cancel, which were utilized in Alpha. Even Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu input is from Morrigan's Darkness Illusion. From Alpha, we got the defined super levels 1-3, which made things WAY more versatile and easier to implement. Marvel gave us air juggles and double-button super inputs (and of course the Cammy Killer Bee sprite). It all just felt so good and organic. Even having Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Pocket Fighters incorporate the Alpha aesthetics and elements in a fun way made the series more relevant and prevalent than it initially appears.
when i first bought my ps2 i bought a couple of games with it, but the first one that i popped into the console and played was the alpha anthology, had so much fun playing those games, and it was the one game where me and all my siblings would play against each other
I wouldn't call SFII realistic, both the original SF and SFII look more like the Japanese interpretation of how American action cartoons like He-Man and G.I. Joe looked. Most Japanese developers tried to appeal to American players by changing their artstyles, but it seems like since the mid 90s all games managed to retain their Japanese looks, just compare the promotional N artwork for Final Fantasy IV to VII or the original Fatal Fury to Garou: MoW PS: I love how on the Japanese version of the Dramatic Battle there's a remix of the vocal theme from the SFII Animated MOVIE
But I'd argue that is a relatively "realistic" artstyle compared to Anime. Like of you listen to Miyamoto talking about the original Donkey Kong he tried to make Jump Man as realistic looking as possible. Lile SF6 is the same. It has a realistic flair but you wouldn't actually call Guile or Blanka "realistic" in terms of proportions and design.
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold was my favorite, but the series was mind-blowing woth its art style and supers and more cinetmatic grandeur of the storys impact just made it feel bigger than a fighting game.
Kinda of a bummer that this one is shorter than the rest, but I'm glad you tackle the important aspect of of sf movie and how important the aspect of anime has been to series
Love your stf legacy vidéo,just make me feel like …ok im going to tell my boss im living at 12h today need to do something very important at home…. Hadoken!!!
I've got about a 3 day age difference from Max and hearing him talk about the reaction to SF Alpha 1 brought me right back to when I first saw the game at SportsWorld in Paramus, NJ. I had been playing SSF2 as well as the Turbo version for years and had every move memorized, so I was super excited to see a new SF in the arcade. At around the age of 12 when I first saw it, not knowing anything about 2D animation or anime, and witnessing the increasing grittiness of the characters from SF2 vanilla to SSF2, my response was exactly the same: "What is this, this looks like a cartoon."
6:23 I always felt I've seen this image somewhere else. Guess it was taken it from a Spielberg camera shot. They literally copy it from that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy is about to drink the "blood of Kali". So basically Indiana Jones was replaced by Ryu, the Thuggee overseer chief guard was replaced by Akuma and Short Round by Sakura. If you want the precise frame it's where Indy says Hi!
The beginning of the SF timeline story, SF Alpha series and the best moment the legacy of Dan presented by Maximilian Dood. My favorite SF Alpha games are Alpha 2 & Alpha 3 Max. Even the Udon Comics follow the Alpha series storyline to connect it Street Fighter 2
Funny because in Europe I got into anime around 1993 & the fact that I was constantly importing games and seeing various anime in magazines so I had the exact opposite reaction when Street fighter alpha came out, I was blown away. To me the game looked like you could play an anime and it was essentially as if the art in a manual come to life (especially in Japanese sfc games) To this day I wish SF would go back to that over 3D dudes that look like their made out of clay. Alpha was the 2nd most played game on my Saturn when it came out.
Max has got me back in to fighting games and RPGs so thank you :). Managed to find the pal snes version of alpha 2 boxed . Can't wait to see the artwork.
The merge with Final Fight was them finally linking the series to Street Fighter to conect back to the original Street Fighter 2 concept that changed due to too many ideas being thrown in. And there was the American Street Fighter animation also has a part in it too.
Thank you! I've been asking for this in comments lol. My favorite SF series (1 and 2 especially). Spent SOOOOOOO MUCH allowance at the arcade mastering it prior to console releases
Alpha series started remixing character themes for the home versions of the games. Alpha 1 gave you soundtrack options for an original or arranged OST. There was a notable difference in sound quality between the two. Alpha 2 for the home version had a remixed soundtrack by default, whereas the original soundtrack was largely Alpha 1’s music with minor changes. Alpha 3 understandably took a unique approach to character stage themes considering at this point, they made 4 different mixes of these themes (at least for the Alpha 1 characters).
Just wanna say that the legendary Alpha 2 art with the Ryu/Akuma stare down is inspired by a picture of Bret the Hitman Hart and Diesel (Kevin Nash) Always found that cool.
SF Alpha 2 was my first arcade and fighting game in general. I lived in a small town and the only place that had an arcade machine was a bar besides my mom's store, so i played(mashed custom combo) the shit out of that game everyday when i was a kid. Just hearing that intro brings back fond memories.
Bryan Cranston as Fei-Long in the SF2 Animated movie is still super funny to me.
Don't forget the voice of Ryu was also the voice of Might Guy from Naruto
Alpha 2 is probably the sf game that holds the dearest place in my heart.
You are far from the only one with that sentiment.
Alpha 2 was the first FG I actually played intensely, and it’s what pulled me into the FG rabbit hole.
Yeah! Street Fighter Alpha 2 absolutely grabbed me immediately.
I loved Alpha 2, that's where my beloved Sakura was introduced.
I like alpha 2 gold
Pretty interesting how the movie adaptations of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat shaped the future of their series.
Yeah, but remember, The Last of Us broke the "bad videogame adaptation" curse.
@DO96 nah according to dwayne "the rock" johnson it was actually Rampage starring him that broke the curse.
@@DarkOverlord96 sonic the movie already a good adaptation
@@joedatius there was never a curse to begin with
Movie adaptation of streetfighter? I think you mean the anime right?
God, I hope Sakura can make her way back in 6 somehow. I know 5 felt like it was sort of a coming of age for her, and I know how people feel about "too many shotos" when we already have Akuma coming next year, but Sakura is just such an excellent character for the franchise and one of my favorite in all of gaming. They took a school girl trope and did it RIGHT.
She was kinda boring in 5, hope they make her fun like ryu in 6.
Love the idea of a grown up Sakura who has fully become her own fighter, and is no longer living in Ryu's shadow.
She hot
I hope they redesign her dramatically like Jin from Tekken 3 to 4.
Nah she annoying asf
I never forget in 1995 being mesmerized at the graphics of SFA1, Darkstalkers and the Marvel fighters
Alpha 2 for the PSX was one of the first fighting games I ever got REALLY into. The presentation, music, and character designs were so dope at the time. I had the strategy guide and everything.
Me to Mr.snipes
The input for the raging demon was from Morrigan's Darkness Illusion.
Yup.
Akuma "stole" it from her.
But Akuma's take was definitely the more popular of the two. lol
That command is basically synonymous with those kinds of moves.
I thought the raging demon was first but the input was second since you couldn't do it in sf2.
Actually it was first called “Goukiness Illusion” by Japanese fighting game players back then
In France, Japanese anime were already a big success since 1980's. France is the biggest market for mangas after Japan.
So, we were really happy to have this animé look when we discovered SFA.
I remember being blown away by the super combos in X-Men vs Street Fighter. Like Ryu’s hadoken, it became a killer ray of light. Lol
When I first saw it at the mall I probably busted in my pants 😂 I didn’t give af about anything else but fighting games back then
When I saw the supermove pulled off during demo in an arcade when I was younger...🥲beautiful.
Just like how it was with Cyclops doing a super beam. Its what drew me in.
And then DBZ gets localized and shows where that and Super Sonic originally came from. And Nintendo joins the party with Pokémon going overseas, and going back to Capcom fighters and Sonic, the Dreamcast creates a nice stir, however brief. Not to mention all the anime-styled ragtag band RPGs spurred on by FFVII. It truly was the weeb--I mean otaku gaming golden age.
Yeah Xmen Vs SF was revolutionary, the double team supers caught my attention, our local arcade had it running on a projector pointing into a blacked curtained out room EPIC
Max you better give the person whos making your legacy intros a bonus.
Whoever makes these thumbnails, too 🔥
And to their parents for both conceiving them, and raising them up to this point.
@@Yarott75 and to their grandparents for conceiving their parents.
I remember playing Sakura as a kid and she was actually the first female fighting game character I ever really put time into and mained when I played alpha 2. Still a great character to this day.
merging Final Fight with Street Fighter was the greatest gift to me as a fan of beat-em ups and Street Fighter.
Here we are again, many years later. Everything comes full circle. Metro City is a place we can interact with in SF6. It took forever to get here, but at least it finally happened
Wish Mike Haggar had made it into the Alpha games as well though, he could have had a cool unique intro vs Zangief or some of the other FF characters.
@@kadosho02 I forgot to mention its connected with Rival Schools too, kinda
@@willh7352 yup there have been numerous crossovers. Akira in V, which was overdue. Could show up again in 6.
@@kadosho02 Dude if they bring Shoma/Batsu/Hinata I'll goddamn cry. I'm about to buy SF6 right fuckin now
I directly associate the alpha series with the dan legacy now my absolute favorite from this channel.
Alpha 2 is absolutely my favorite street fighter in terms of style, aesthetic, and atmosphere I love it. It just feels so much like a young, carefree, optimistic, fun loving summer.
"In 1994 anime wasn't mainstream or well known at all" lol, it's always really funny and a little off putting as someone from México where we had tons of anime up the ass airing at prime time, especially during the 90s. As a kid I got a pirated copy of Alpha from a random street vendor at a corner, I'll never forget that.
Anime still isn't mainstream. The anime weeb fans, seem to think that anime or manga are this huge thing in the US, but the reality is THEY ARE NOT....In the US manga makes up 2% of comic sales, comics are still massively ruled by Marvel, DC and Image and anime releases are few and far between....When its something you have to track down from a specialty store its not mainstream.
Yep, anime was already huge in latin america during the 90's. Pretty much everyone dude i know around my age (30 years old) grew up watching dbz or/and saint seiya 😄
It's still not mainstream here in the US, just a helluva lot more popular, tho it's getting there.
@@lutherheggs451 but we're talking about our country? Mexico has anime being mainstream since the 90s, the sales are insane over here, not only is it available on open networks and cable, there's tons on stores and manga is sold in pretty much every mainstream store in every corner of our country, sad the USA is so behind this according to you, but that's not the reality in the rest of the world
@@agrippa2012don't forget the older people that also watched Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X in here), Trigun and Gundam Wing.
And the 2000s were wild for kids in that era. DBZ, Pokémon,, Digimon, Bayblade, Yu Gi Oh and so on were plastered everywhere lol.
I remember back in 1996 when I first watched people playing Alpha 2 arcade here in Manaus. They've put the arcade volume so high we almost got deaf every time someone activated the custom combo bars. Awesome!
Nice to see another fellow Manauara here. 😁
I grew up with Alpha 2 on the SNES (Yes. The bad version). Lots of great memories. I remember Ken's ending being my favorite due to the music
Alpha 2 SNES may be a bad port by comparison, but it arguably is the best fighter on the SNES cause it was insane the amount of work that went into it
@@cybershroom9240 Yeah I agree. I really love it when I was a kid and the 16-bit music is very memorable to me.
I personally love it, it's slower, but the Gameplay is as sharp, the timing is great for practice, and yet, the game is as hard in the highest number of Stars! 😅😁
The 3DS rerelease of Alpha 2 was really good.
@@venom3421 Same.
There is something charming about 16-bit music.
In some cases those can beat the original tracks from the arcade especially when the composers were creative with the chiptune of the home console (SNES, Genesis)
Example, Kotaro Fuuma's theme in the SNES port of the original World Heroes in much better than the original arcade version. Believe me 🎼🎵
I wish they made more Street Fighter games look like Alpha.
Same. Ever since they abandoned that style, Street Fighter has never hit as hard for me. Wish they'd give the series the Arc System Works treatment, tbh...
Big same
I wish they would go back to the anime style as well. Imagine something cell shaded like dragon ball figherz
I played Alpha 1 in an arcade when I was a kid. It was the second SF game I'd ever played, first being Vanilla SF2, and I remember being blown away by the slicker, more dynamic art style. It was a long time between then and the next time I had an opportunity to get back into the series, so Alpha 1 always left a pretty big impression on me.
"The backgrounds for Alpha are kinda uninspired" He says talking over one of the most iconic Street Fighter stages in history
The one things that's been permanently embedded into my brain from this age of Capcom's fighting games are the sound effects, especially when the attacks connect. Iconic, if I do say so myself.
Alpha absolutely grabbed me immediately. I didn't realise it was Street Fighter at first, but when I did my heart skipped a beat and my jaw dropped.
Alpha 3 is etched in my brain, so many memories
World tour mode was crazy!
Arcade? it was ok. It's fun and man is A3 wild when it is competitive.
The Home Port? Looking back, that port is a milestone to every SF game after it. Their is a reason the term "World Tour" appeared again... Capcom has yet to top what they did on the Dreamcast. SF6 seem to looking to try.
same bro, remember coming home from school and grinding arcade mode
Alpha 3 is my favorite too. So good
This comment right here. I LOVE the Dreamcast port of Alpha 3
I wasn't aware of the Street Fighter Alpha series after SF2 until I was at my friend's house during my middle school years. Never played the first Alpha game, but played Alpha 2 on the PS1. It was drastically different from SF2 to my surprise, but Alpha 2 brought me back to Street Fighter.
The intro to Alpha 2 is still the greatest ever in a fighting game, I think. The 90s-style midi riff with the visuals is awesome!
I could never get over how SF Alpha felt like living in a middle school era where you have an origin story that had you fighting a rival. I love how every character story expanded before SF2
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I remember just getting into anime when this came out, so the Alpha series redesign was exactly what I was looking for. The first time I saw it in a local arcade, it set up on a monster set-up; a literal giant screen monitor with a sit-down bench with a killer sound system that demanded the astronomical (at the time) fee of 50 cents. As soon as I found the Saturn version of it, I snapped that up. Never saw Alpha 2 in the wild, but once again, as soon as it was on Saturn, that got bought and played into the into the ground; so much so, I remember doing a recorded presentation for school on the difference between "polgyon graphics" and "cel animation". Of course, the main events being Virtua Fighter 2 and Alpha 2.
These games are legendary. My friends and I played them after school and had some of the best fights. Crazy fun.
7:47 holup, did her shoe just fly off & land on her head?? lol wuht?!
I thought the same exact thing when i saw SFA in arcade the first time. I was just like "why is it a cartoon now? That's weird as heck." By the time Alpha 3 hit, i was getting up at 5AM to record DBZ episodes and thought SFA3 looked so awesome. The anime hit me really quick 😅
Also, if anyone reading this hasn't experienced Hyper Street Fighter Alpha, maaaaan. You gotta get your hands on it any way you can.
Hyper Alpha is crazy fun with all the new ISM's, Capcom need to remaster it, that and Alpha 3 MAX!
Lies again? Navy Seals National Service
@@NazriB wtf are you talking about?
That's crazy to me because to me sf2 looks like a cartoon
The Street Fighter Alpha series are such a fun series of games
I really miss the Dramatic Battle mode
@@brandonwilliams6119 me too
In all my years in this earth, seeing that artwork of Ryu vs Akuma since childhood, I've NEVER NOTICED F-ING SAKURA IN THE BACKGROUND!!!! 😱💀
First anime I had ever seen, and still one of my favorites. The soundtrack is sick
I remember the original SF1 in my local arcade, I was totally addicted and became the best player there. Only because I worked out you were unbeatable if you could do repeated dragon punches. In the first game there was no way to stop or counter them at all. If you timed it right you could beat some characters with just one dragon punch (Gen particularly I remember)
As a semi-newbie to Street Fighter, starting at the tail end of 4 and on again, off again with SFV, I just found about Alpha a month ago and fell in love with the look and series!!
Then you are so going to enjoy the EX series a whole lot
Played Alpha3 for 150 hours.
Sweet video, sweet high school memories.
my brother and i really became friends over playing alpha 2. our parents divorced when we were young and somehow it worked out to where each parent got custody of one of us and so we didnt really hang out until we were older and 1 parent got custody of both of us. and it was playing alpha 2 for hours on end during weekends that we became homies. sometimes just hearing the alpha 2 intro gets me a bit misty as i havent seen my brother in years because life got busy.
Alpha 2 was the spotlight when I first played it. Like the artstyle and gameplay as they took the anime direction. The music was amazing including Kens theme was so smooth and jazzy.
I find it funny folks would call these anime when it’s been anime the whole time, Alpha is just more stylized or ‘cartoony’.
This animated movie was amazing, there is also Street Fighter 2 V with some of the same voice actors. The ending of that is awesome to. Super Street Fighter II The Animated Movie was and still is 👌🏼
Fun Fact: Lore-wise, SFA1 doesn't exist. SFA2 replaced it entirely.
Alpha was made because of overstock on arcade board tech, so they needed to make a game that could run on both old and new tech, they were inspired by fan art to make alpha, the movie inspired parts of the game but not the actual full game
I absolutely love the artwork that came from this series of games. I just got a poster of the Alpha 1 cover for my wall, and I plan to get one for Alpha 2 pretty soon.
Played Alpha 2 to death when it was released on home consoles. Even my mom knows what Hadouken was, she heard it all the time while I was Playing.
Alpha 2 Gold is the one I remember playing A LOT in the Alpha Anthology. Never got close to defeating Shin Akuma because he was an absolute monster.
Ofc not😂😂😂
This is the irony. Street fighter pioneered and paved the way for such archetypes in anime. It's the complete opposite now.
The ironic thing is that SF2 was/is ANIME AF - SF2 is basically one big homage/rip off of Hokuto no Ken and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, with some extra references like Gold/Silver from Golgo 13 and Yasunori Kato. SF2 was never *realistic*, it was just shaded differently.
SF Alpha series just dialed back the shading to make it more like the SF movie, so it was still anime influenced, just a different anime than SF2 (those Rose = Lisa Lisa).
Also, Final Fight was not "brought" into SF with Alpha - Final Fight and SF have always been part of the same canon since the inception of SF2.
Yeeh🎉
I really do appreciate this detailed deep dive into what made these games different and what Capcom was thinking at the time these came out. So much of this series just blends together for ke so I like seeing the distinctions between versions and the reaction to them.
Hello Childhood.
My old friend
The Alpha series (mainly 3) has always been my favorite. It’s anime like artstyle is definitely one of the main reasons (on top of the soundtrack). Bengus’s art illustrations for the characters and even Capcom’s other fighting games during this era like Vampire Savior, X-Men vs Street Fighter, MVC1-2, Power Stone, etc really just adds to that special “aesthetic” of Capcom’s CPS2-Naomi era of their fighting games if that sounds right/makes any sense
I first laid eyes on a Street Fighter Alpha arcade machine at a pizza place in the early 90's. I was instantly enamored by the art style and the presentation. I was already hooked on Street Fighter II at home, but Alpha is what got me wanting to visit arcades as much as possible, where I discovered more Capcom games that were influenced by it, like Darkstalkers and Marvel Super Heroes (my favorite Capcom game of all time). Alpha was a literal game-changer for Capcom's approach to the whole genre.
The Alpha series is basically what got me deep into SF as a whole (before I got hooked on KOF and anything SNK). The first Alpha stole a lot of my time on PS, with Guy being my main even since. Then getting Alpha 3 years later and absolutely letting the game damn near take over my life 😂 but then playing Alpha 2 a few years later after that and it becoming my new favorite SFA game for probably the foreseeable future. A wild ride man!
I remember being 7 and walking into a rental store and seeing a big ass poster of alpha 2. I knew who Ryu was, I didn't know who Akuma was. I was scared but also super excited.
Alpha 2 on PS1 was one of the first games I had on Playstation (along with Tomb Raider and MK Trilogy). Ryu's theme in that game (the arranged/SFA2 Gold version) is embedded into my brain. I still listen to that song on loop when I'm working on projects or at work sometimes. Definitely something I hold dearly in my heart, probably until the day I die.
The first announcer of SF Alpha ia really funny!😂
KAY OH!
YOU WIN!
PAWFECT!
“Streeeeeeet Fighter Alpha- TWO!”
Alpha 1-3 is my Jam. I love all the SF:III's and everything but yeah Alpha series has the perfect speed and precision to me, personally.
I'll always remember getting the PS1 with a copy of SF Alpha 1 as a gift from my Aunt and Uncle in the Summer of '97. I have Cerebral Palsy and had just went through a rather invasive surgery. Gaming definitely helped me pass time and ease the pain. Now I'm stronger because of it!
That drawing of Ken in the thumbnail is giving me memories of DSP in his "Karen" Masters Halloween costume from last year.
Alpha 2 was my first SF, played on my old XP computer.
This was my favorite time for Capcom fighters because of the experimentation not just in Street Fighter Alpha, but in the fighting games in general. You had Darkstalkers and the Marvel series being developed alongside the Alpha games and there was a cross-pollination of elements and ideas that made each franchise stronger. From Darkstalkers came EX moves, chain combos, and guard cancel, which were utilized in Alpha. Even Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu input is from Morrigan's Darkness Illusion. From Alpha, we got the defined super levels 1-3, which made things WAY more versatile and easier to implement. Marvel gave us air juggles and double-button super inputs (and of course the Cammy Killer Bee sprite). It all just felt so good and organic. Even having Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Pocket Fighters incorporate the Alpha aesthetics and elements in a fun way made the series more relevant and prevalent than it initially appears.
6:02 - Street Fighter in general for me lol....
when i first bought my ps2 i bought a couple of games with it, but the first one that i popped into the console and played was the alpha anthology, had so much fun playing those games, and it was the one game where me and all my siblings would play against each other
Coming up Street Fighter Alpha 3 in 1998 but anime and japanese hype!
sakura being pronounced secura was funny as hell
Cant wait for the Alpha 3 video, been playing it non-stop since this mini-series started 😎
I wouldn't call SFII realistic, both the original SF and SFII look more like the Japanese interpretation of how American action cartoons like He-Man and G.I. Joe looked. Most Japanese developers tried to appeal to American players by changing their artstyles, but it seems like since the mid 90s all games managed to retain their Japanese looks, just compare the promotional N artwork for Final Fantasy IV to VII or the original Fatal Fury to Garou: MoW
PS: I love how on the Japanese version of the Dramatic Battle there's a remix of the vocal theme from the SFII Animated MOVIE
But I'd argue that is a relatively "realistic" artstyle compared to Anime.
Like of you listen to Miyamoto talking about the original Donkey Kong he tried to make Jump Man as realistic looking as possible.
Lile SF6 is the same. It has a realistic flair but you wouldn't actually call Guile or Blanka "realistic" in terms of proportions and design.
I still have the disk of SF Alpha 2 and my PS1. And it still works to this day
Ryu and Ken doing the charged hadoken in the intro are also inspired from when the two do it fighting M bison in the sf2 movie lol.
Having tag team vs boss characters was amazing and 10:48 that moment is great🤣
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold was my favorite, but the series was mind-blowing woth its art style and supers and more cinetmatic grandeur of the storys impact just made it feel bigger than a fighting game.
K.O.
You lose!
Is etched into my memory.
for me, alpha 3 is the best pixel art looking game in history
ROUND 1 FIGHT! Screen freezes for a good 5 sec.
Street fighter Alpha 1 is one of my favorites. So many days playing this on my computer.
I love the alpha series, and the sprites look beautiful.
I would still get hyped for an alpha 4, to rival arcsys in style
Kinda of a bummer that this one is shorter than the rest, but I'm glad you tackle the important aspect of of sf movie and how important the aspect of anime has been to series
Love your stf legacy vidéo,just make me feel like …ok im going to tell my boss im living at 12h today need to do something very important at home…. Hadoken!!!
Alpha 2 introduced one of my favorite characters Sakura!
Ey fr but I saw her on the fortnite item shop and became my fav character. 😅
I remember getting SFA2 on snes for Christmas. Miracle game indeed 😢
This was definitely an interesting period for fighting games. I loved the art styles
I enjoy alpha 3 a bit more personally. Plus that was the game that introduced Evil Ryu. That alone puts Alph 3 up there as one of the greats
Evil Ryu is in Alpha 2 but he's a hidden character
I've got about a 3 day age difference from Max and hearing him talk about the reaction to SF Alpha 1 brought me right back to when I first saw the game at SportsWorld in Paramus, NJ. I had been playing SSF2 as well as the Turbo version for years and had every move memorized, so I was super excited to see a new SF in the arcade. At around the age of 12 when I first saw it, not knowing anything about 2D animation or anime, and witnessing the increasing grittiness of the characters from SF2 vanilla to SSF2, my response was exactly the same: "What is this, this looks like a cartoon."
6:23 I always felt I've seen this image somewhere else. Guess it was taken it from a Spielberg camera shot. They literally copy it from that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy is about to drink the "blood of Kali". So basically Indiana Jones was replaced by Ryu, the Thuggee overseer chief guard was replaced by Akuma and Short Round by Sakura. If you want the precise frame it's where Indy says Hi!
The beginning of the SF timeline story, SF Alpha series and the best moment the legacy of Dan presented by Maximilian Dood.
My favorite SF Alpha games are Alpha 2 & Alpha 3 Max.
Even the Udon Comics follow the Alpha series storyline to connect it Street Fighter 2
6:28 they had the same artwork for SFA1, with Sagat instead of Akuma.
Also, Xmen and MSH were out around the same time as Alpha and Darkstalkers.
Funny because in Europe I got into anime around 1993 & the fact that I was constantly importing games and seeing various anime in magazines so I had the exact opposite reaction when Street fighter alpha came out, I was blown away. To me the game looked like you could play an anime and it was essentially as if the art in a manual come to life (especially in Japanese sfc games) To this day I wish SF would go back to that over 3D dudes that look like their made out of clay. Alpha was the 2nd most played game on my Saturn when it came out.
Sakura was in the background xD.
Alpha 3 was my favorite. I still have it
Yeah but I also really love Alpha 3 because of its HUGE roster! I'm surprised ya didn't mention that!
Good thing no one ever uses "this looks like a cartoon/anime" in a pejorative way nowadays, eh?
Yep.
I prefer cartoony and anime style over boring realistic style
Don't care what anyone else says, the alpha series was to street fighter what tekken 3 was to tekken
Max has got me back in to fighting games and RPGs so thank you :).
Managed to find the pal snes version of alpha 2 boxed . Can't wait to see the artwork.
Precious heart blowing suddenly in the end sounds just like "ok, dood now shut up. You already talked too much".
Fuck, i'm still laughting.
The merge with Final Fight was them finally linking the series to Street Fighter to conect back to the original Street Fighter 2 concept that changed due to too many ideas being thrown in. And there was the American Street Fighter animation also has a part in it too.
Thank you! I've been asking for this in comments lol. My favorite SF series (1 and 2 especially). Spent SOOOOOOO MUCH allowance at the arcade mastering it prior to console releases
Alpha series started remixing character themes for the home versions of the games. Alpha 1 gave you soundtrack options for an original or arranged OST. There was a notable difference in sound quality between the two. Alpha 2 for the home version had a remixed soundtrack by default, whereas the original soundtrack was largely Alpha 1’s music with minor changes. Alpha 3 understandably took a unique approach to character stage themes considering at this point, they made 4 different mixes of these themes (at least for the Alpha 1 characters).
Just wanna say that the legendary Alpha 2 art with the Ryu/Akuma stare down is inspired by a picture of Bret the Hitman Hart and Diesel (Kevin Nash)
Always found that cool.
Alpha 3 Max was the 2nd SF game i played after SF2 and i was blown away!
SF Alpha 2 was my first arcade and fighting game in general. I lived in a small town and the only place that had an arcade machine was a bar besides my mom's store, so i played(mashed custom combo) the shit out of that game everyday when i was a kid. Just hearing that intro brings back fond memories.