Genre: 2d Fighter
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Imagine the Alpha 3 we've all known for years stretched to 16:9 and smoothed out with bilinear filtering and that's exactly what this port looks like. All the animation, colors, and backgrounds are completely intact; while arguably dated compared to modern 3d fighters, Alpha 3's visuals are colorful, fluid, and glossy.

Thanks to the PSP's decent stereo speakers, Alpha 3 sounds wonderfully crisp. With headphones, it sounds even a tad better than the original versions, probably due to the PSP's high quality electronic components.

The skin-tight gameplay engine is 100% intact here and is as enjoyable as ever. There are tons of characters and playmodes, and there have been no sacrifices in porting this title despite the target handheld format. Capcom bent over backwards trying to make this game playable with the PSP's two thumb inputs, the analog nub and the D-pad, by allowing you to adjust things like the time window and sensitivity of special move sequences. A+ job from Capcom.

The downside here is that despite every effort from Capcom, the game is completely unplayable using the D-pad. And I do not exaggerate by saying "completely"; diagonals don't seem to register at all without some hardcore modding efforts, which voids your warranty. With the analog nub the game is playable, but your abilities are partially crippled even with a lot of practice, which really leaves me with this advice; be very patient, or mod your PSP, or stick with this game in one of its original formats.