Street Fighter Alpha: Upper
(LAST UPDATE: 5/27/08)

Profile

General: SFA: Upper is a port of Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the Gameboy Advance and includes all the characters from SFA3, but also adds 3 more fighters to choose from... Yun, Maki, and Eagle. This makes for a very impressive character roster, and a great looking game for the GBA.

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   The first handheld version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 looks pretty good on the GBA, but the character sprites are definitely not arcade perfect; as they are drastically shrunk down in size. They still look the part, and resemble the regular sprites, but are still too small for their own good. It will be disappointing to those who are quite familiar with SFA's big and colorful animated sprites, but to a 9 year old kid who never played Street Fighter in his life, he wouldn't know the difference.

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   The main problem with SFA: Upper is that the control is below average, and/or bad, depending on the character you choose. The GBA directional pad can pull of hadokens and shoryukens okay, but 360s are damn near impossible... which greatly effects the usefullness of some characters. And hardcore Street Fighter players don't like stiff controls, so this version of the game may simply be left in the dust. Still, a cool version of the game to have if you have no other way to play Street Fighter on a handheld.

Manufacturer: Capcom
Platforms: Gameboy Advance
Release: December 2002
Characters:Ryu, Adon, Chun-Li, Guy, Ken, Dhalsim, Gen, Sakura, Rolento, Zangief, Charlie, Birdie, Rose, Sodom, Sagat, Akuma, Bison, Dan, E.Honda, Cody, Karin, Vega, Blanka, R.Mika, Cammy, Balrog, Juli, Juni, Guile, Fei Long, T.Hawk, Dee Jay, Yun, Maki, Eagle
Related Games: Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Street Fighter 2, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: Revival, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter 3: New Generation, Street Fighter 3: Second Impact, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, Street Fighter 4, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max, Street Fighter Alpha: Anthology, Street Fighter Anniversary Collection, Street Fighter EX, Street Fighter EX 2, Street Fighter EX 3, Street Fighter: The Movie, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Pocket Fighter
 
Gameplay Engine
7.5 / 10
Story / Theme
9 / 10
Overall Graphics
7 / 10
Animation
8 / 10
Music / Sound Effects
8 / 10
Innovation / Creativity
9 / 10
Customization / Options
9 / 10
Intro / Presentation
9.5 / 10
Replayability / Fun
 5 / 10
"Ouch" Factor
6 / 10
Characters
 9 / 10
Overall Score
7 / 10

Closing Comment: It was an early attempt at handheld Street Fighter Alpha... and it wasn't horrible. But when PSP came out and released the much better Street Fighter Alpha 3: Max, there would be no reason to go back to Gameboy Advance for Street Fighter (or fighting games for that matter). ~F.Yagami, Webmaster of TFG