Overview
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (known in Japan as Street Fighter Zero) is a 2D fighting game developed and released by Capcom for arcades (using the CPS-2 hardware) on June 27, 1995.
The first in a spin-off series set between the events of Street Fighter and Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha is the first in the Street Fighter series to be built from the ground-up in the CPS-2 hardware, employing a new cartoony sprite style (in similar vein to the Darkstalkers series and X-Men: Children of the Atom) and a variety of new character abilities (including blocking in mid-air, pre-determined combos of normal moves, and a special counter-attack move performed while blocking) and gameplay mechanics (including an improved three-level "super meter" system and a simpler "Auto" play style).
The game received a port to the PlayStation on February 7, 1996, the Saturn on June 6, 1996, and the PC on June 14, 1998. These versions include an arranged soundtrack and a bonus Training Mode (allowing players to practice against a dummy opponent). The PlayStation version was later digitally re-released for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable (both via PlayStation Network) on August 14, 2008. An enhanced port of the original was released for the PlayStation 2 in the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology compilation on June 13, 2006 (including new game modes and gameplay mechanics). A handheld version was developed by Crawfish for the Game Boy Color in 1999.
A special "back-ported" version of the game was released (in mail order format) for Capcom's short-lived Japan-exclusive CPS Changer hardware (essentially a home version of the CPS-1 hardware, in similar vein to Neo Geo). The only notable difference with this version is lower quality audio.
Characters
The game includes 13 playable characters (three of which are hidden with a cheat code), most of which are from the original Street Fighter, Street Fighter II, or Final Fight.
Unlike previous games in the series, the game does not include the same final boss for every character. While most characters face antagonist M. Bison for their final match, some characters face against their rival (such as Ryu to Ken's story).
From Street Fighter
From Street Fighter II
- Chun-Li
- M. Bison (boss, playable with code)
- Akuma (hidden boss, fought by getting to the last fight both without losing a round and with at least ten Super Combo finishes, playable with code).
From Final Fight
New Characters
- Charlie
- Rose
- Dan (hidden opponent, fought by getting to the 5th fight both without continuing and with the same win quote, playable with code)
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