Why Street Fighter Alpha 2 is the Best Street Fighter

(This post suggested by @joffocakes, possibly in jest)

When I was at university in the late 1990s, I had a Sega Saturn for a while. I had many games, but the one that kept me awake at night (well, I was actually awake most nights anyway as I suffered from insomnia for the best part of the year) playing over and over and over again with my housemate Ying, was Street Fighter Alpha 2.

It had started with Alpha 1, but as soon as I got hold of 2 it was the end of all other games. No more Bug, Sonic Jam or Virtua Fighter. Street Fighter Alpha 2 all the way. If Ying was awake and not at a lecture, we played Alpha 2. I was almost always Ken. He was usually Ryu. It was ace.

Many years before, I’d played the original Street Fighter game in the arcade without knowing what it was. It wasn’t a big deal and even most fans of the series probably never played it at the time. I got a demo of it on a Spectrum magazine cover tape, and it was impossible to control but I really liked it. Not long afterwards, I played a game called Human Killing Machine, also on the Spectrum. It was a million times better than Street Fighter.

When Street Fighter II came out I was one of the many who secretly wished they had a Super NES to play it on. The Amiga and Spectrum versions (the only ones I had access to at home) were atrocious and no substitute, and visits to the arcades were infrequent. Even in the arcade, I was mortified to find I was utterly useless at the game. I played as Ryu, as he seemed to be the hero and if I was consistent with who I picked, I had more chance of getting good. I got better, but never won against the CPU in the arcades. Eventually, Special Champion Edition was released for the Megadrive, so I bought it and two six button pads and played. And played. And played.

I became really good at beating the CPU and my friends and nobody wanted to play it any more as I kept winning. We moved over to Mortal Kombat II and 3 instead. But I still loved Street Fighter II.

Aside 1: Remember Eternal Champions? Mean Machines Sega or something said it was the best fighting game on any console. And it was better than Street Fighter II. I bought the (enhanced) Mega CD version. Oh how we laughed.

Various versions of Street Fighter II came and went. Of The New Challengers in Super Street Fighter II, I only liked Fei Long. Everyone else was rubbish. Still, I mainly stuck with Ryu. For he was still the hero, in my mind.

Aside 2: I once went to Chester with my nan and in an arcade there by the river they had an EIGHT PLAYER Super Street Fighter II setup. Four cabs networked. Eight players. Seeing all of them doing that awesome Ryu fireball attract sequence was incredible. The arcade was empty though, bar me and my nan, so I never got to see a proper tournament on them. And my nan didn’t really want to play anyway.

Then, after a few years, it was Street Fighter Alpha and Alpha 2 as described above. Lovely. Kenneth though. During Alpha, I switched to Ken rather than stick with Ryu. I’m not sure why. Perhaps I was player 2 a lot. Unlike all the earlier Street Fighter games, he genuinely played differently to Ryu, and I just got to be a better player as him. It’s stuck ever since.

Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III, in their assorted forms, pretty much passed me by. Street Fighter IV was enjoyed a lot on the 3DS and to a lesser extent on the 360 (mainly due to the 360’s terrible controls for a fighting game, and I never bought a stick), and fighting online was incredible. Street Fighter V? I’ve played the beta. It’s alright. They’ve broken Ken though.

Aside 3: I once completed Street Fighter Ex in the arcade on a single credit, never losing a round, and getting double perfect on most of the fights. It was incredibly easy. I was Ken.

I never got back into the series to the degree I had with Alpha 2, however, and I was certainly never a technical player, frame counting and so on. I’d progressed why beyond button mashing, but the next step up was completely beyond me.

I see posts by the likes of Joffocakes about technical play, and some of the abbreviations they use for moves, and it’s lost on me. I can watch a match from something like Evo, and not understand what’s going on and it’s all too quick and complicated. That said, I can appreciate what is probably the greatest feat in Street Fighter tournament history (or at least it was for many years – perhaps it’s been superseded now): Daigo vs Justin Wong in 2004. The way Daigo, as Ken, parries every single hit from Justin’s Chun-Li super and then retaliates and wins. Even as a complete amateur, it’s incredible viewing.

Skip to about 2:30 in this video to see for yourself:

The most fun I ever had with the series, and the most intensely I ever played it both lie with Street Fighter Alpha 2, and that’s why Street Fighter Alpha 2 is the best Street Fighter.

Aside 4: I bought Street Fighter Anthology for my PS2, and two lenticular Street Fighter fight pads. I returned to Alpha 2. Still nobody plays it with me. I took it into work a couple of years back to challenge my colleagues and walked away undefeated. For my next birthday they bought me a Ken doll action figure. It’s ace.