Summary Best GBA Fighter

Pros: This game is like the child of S. SF II Turbo and SF Alpha III. 18 awesome characters, tons of stuff to unlock, Super Combos, unique endings and art. Survival and Time Attack provide tons of replay value with various challenges. And unlocking Shin Akuma guarantees you the option of going through every mode once again because he usually stomps previous high scores into the pavement. Also, the physics seem to have been upgraded. Chaining buffered combos is so much easier now.
Cons: SF Alpha III came out I think '98 and each character had no less than two Super Combos and each were flashy, hard to do, and incredibly impressive damage was tagged on to boot. In this version I was disappointed by the inclusion of only one Super Combo per character, and by which ones made the cut. My long time favorite character Vega seemed butchered in my eyes at first because I was used to finishing opponents with the vicious Red Impact. The attack wasn't only powerful and fun to watch, but easy to pull off. Rising and blocking opponents couldn't do much against it since it worked like a throw with longer range. The SC in this game, the Triple Izuna Drop, frankly sucks. You have to charge it, time the jump, avoid being hit the entire time you're airborn, and still line it up & have the right timing to avoid slashing out accidentally and having to try again. It took me forever to take my masked buddy off the back burner, an even longer just now to type out why he suddenly sucks.

Reviewer's Comments

"Ha Douken!" I love how the voices came out. Guile sounds kinda wimpy though.
Older players using GBA SPs should set Fierce Punch/Kick to B/A. The L & R buttons are just harder to hit with bigger hands and should be ignored.
Max out your VS points to unlock the power house Shin Akuma. Experienced players are friggin' invincible with this powered up Ryu. Try to top an 18 hit combo! It's hard!