Ahh, the modes and styles will keep you busy for hours on end. Street Fighter Alpha 3 in particular has a number of styles that you can choose from, each catering to a fighting style that should fit specific players just right. The previous Alphas and Minimix play a little bit easier, but have their own little extras abound. Alpha 3 is the highlight not only because of the styles, but because you have the chance to unlock new characters that were previously found in arranged and home releases of the game, and not the original arcade game. Perhaps you're familiar with the likes of T. Hawk, Cammy, and Deejay? Hmmm? There's also the mention of the Dramatic Battle, where you can go 2-on-1 against Bison, as well as a humber of other features as well- not to mention the countless fighters already available in Alpha 3. I just wish that the World Tour mode that was in the PlayStation release would've made the cut here. It would've added even more hours of play.

Judging each game individually, I have to say that I still love the original Alpha the best. It's still got the fewest characters available in an Alpha game compared to the staggering selection in the later games, but there's something about the way the original comes together in its simplicity that makes it one of my all-time faves. Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold are also great games in themselves, and although the differences between them are minimal, they're both excellent for nostalgists who don't feel like dragging out their Sega Saturn to play these games again. Alpha 3, like I said, is loaded like a stick of dynamite, and explodes with its numerous selections, styles, and fighters, although some people may not get into the whole new throwing system or the fact that Cody from Final Fight looks like a reject from The Mummy. But probably the most insane of all the games is Super Gem Fighter MiniMix, a game that features super-deformed versions of different fighters, including some faces from Darkstalkers, pulling off combo punches, collecting gems, and pulling all kind of wacky moves that almost look like they're coming off of a Shonen Jump comic book page. It's a bit insane to take in at first, but purists and fighting fans will definitely appreciate it, and not have to worry about plunking down $40 for that long-lost copy of Pocket Fighter for the PlayStation.

There are a couple of snags in the game, however. First off, although the loading times aren't horrible, there is the option to load the games directly onto the Hard Drive for easy start-up. I guess that's a decent thought, but I can't really recall who owns a Hard Drive anymore, now that the whole Final Fantasy XI bug has blown over onto the Xbox 360. I suppose it's nice to have, but seems a little unnecessary to me. Also, I know that this may be a moot point being on the PS2 and all, but would it have been too much to ask for this game to have some form of online play? I mean, really, Alpha has just as strong a fighting community as the Street Fighter series in general, and an online lobby and fighting set-up would've been a perfect addition to this game. Alas, not to be...unless an Xbox version is creeping around that'll get some Xbox Live love. Finally, the price sits at $30. That's reasonable, I suppose, but with Street Fighter Anniversary Edition sitting at $20, maybe Capcom should've considered a slightly lower price. Oh, well, at least it's not $40 or $50.

The summer is in full swing, and with that I fully recommend that you put Street Fighter Alpha Anthology somewhere in your schedule. Despite little quirks here and there, it's still one of the definitive fighting collections out there, and the inclusion of the insane Super Gem Fighter MiniMix alone should warrant a purchase, just to see fighters do some wild stuff to get the victory. Now all we need is that Darkstalkers compilation we've been looking for and the long-awaited second chapters of the Capcom Classics Collection, and we should have a hell of a retro summer.