Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade)

The third entry of Capcom's secondary Street Fighter series, driven to near obsolescence by its console versions.

X-Ism Sodom Taunt


Since X-Ism does not allow for taunts (except for Dan), and that it changes Sodom's graphics if selected, this version of his taunt animation goes unused completely unless a patch code is used for infinite taunts.

Although the case is the same for Chun-Li, the animation for her taunt in this graphic set (the 'Gomen ne') also happens to be one of her win poses, so those graphics are actually used in the final.

Stage Markers


Active markers for stages 10-12, and passive ones for 11 and 12. The 'ladder' never shows more than 10 spots, nor does it appear before stage 10. It was probably thought that 12 stages would have been too long, and was therefore snipped down to 10.



Name markers for Juli and Juni, as well as both for the boss battle. It is not possible in this version to fight Juli or Juni individually in 1P mode, and as stated above, the latter would not be shown beforehand if fighting them both in the final stage.

The individual markers would later find use in the expanded console versions, if playing as bonus characters T. Hawk (fights Juli in stage 9) or Evil Ryu (can fight them as normal opponents), or if picking Juli and/or Juni in A/B Dramatic battle (the single fight will always be against one of the characters selected due to software limitation).

The Juli/Juni marker was likely intended for use in a special mode, but the only other one to use the latter is Dramatic (two-on-one), in which any fights against the both of them cannot be accommodated.

Select Screen Icon


This icon, for both Juli and Juni, is never used at all. The idea was probably that they would be jointly playable in early stages of development, but they ended up getting split up in the final. The reason is either because it would have been unfair, or a question of how the player would be able to pick the one of these two they wanted to control.

Unused Theme


Track 001B in the sound test, while not heard anywhere here, went on to become the theme of bonus character Shin Akuma in the later ports. It is fairly likely that he was going to be included in this version, along with Evil Ryu (whose theme is also present and actually used, when Bison fights Ryu).

Zero/Alpha
To reflect the change of title, these changes were made.

The gauge 'Z-Ism' (Zero) became 'A-Ism' (Alpha).

The segue screen that appears before the beginning of each fight.

Startup

Title screen

The announcer's clips were also changed accordingly.

Regulation setting
The game has a regulation setting that makes the game slightly less gory in few aspects. By default, this setting is turned on in the test menu, except in the Japanese version.

Most of the "regulation off" effects are shown on the PSP port. The regulation setting also exists in the Alpha Anthology compilation on PS2.

Zangief's Pre-Stage Picture
A spurt of blood that erupts from Zangief's head is removed if Regulation is set to on.

Rose's Ending
When Regulation is set to on, Rose's blood splatter is removed, the background doesn't display a red X-ISM super finish effect, and part of the picture is cutoff so the player can't see Dictator's hand blasting through Rose's abdomen.

However, the PlayStation port restores some of the blood.