Four years after the massively popular Street Fighter II (SFII) hit arcades, Capcom released a new series of fighting games called Street Fighter Alpha (SFA), set years before the events of its predecessor.
A few weeks back, I wrote about the many mysteries surrounding all versions of Street Fighter II, and as I suspected, Alpha is riddled with new oddities and madness.
I’ve narrowed the list of peculiar plot twists, weird background activity, and general nuttiness to 15. If you have theories that could explain these mysteries, please share them on the comments section below.
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Street Fighter Alpha Charlie
As soon as we heard that Charlie, Guile's best friend and fellow military man, was playable in Street Fighter Alpha, we knew he was going to kick the bucket. And he did ... three times!
SFA: After defeating M. Bison, Charlie calls for reinforcements to take down what's left of Shadaloo. Bison then sneaks up behind the life preserver-wearing soldier and kills him. I like to think it was cannibalism.
SFA2: Having tracked M. Bison to his secret Venezuelan base, Charlie finally manages to capture the drug lord. As he's interrogating Bison, a helicopter comes out of nowhere and shoots Charlie in the back. Our blonde hero then falls off a freaking waterfall. The end.
SFA3: Charlie sets explosives inside M. Bison's hideout. He grabs the dictator, buying Guile time to escape. A massive explosion incinerates Charlie, Bison, and the Psycho Drive machine.
How does he keep coming back? Charlie was nowhere to be seen after Street Fighter Alpha 3, so maybe he's gone for good. Nah, I seriously doubt it.
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Street Fighter Alpha Birdie
Between the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha, Birdie beefed up his muscles considerably, updated (outdated?) his fashion style, and had a racial transformation from white to black. Either that, or more than one fighter goes by the name of "Birdie."
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Street Fighter Alpha Hugo
Standing silently in a corner, a hulking giant dressed in pink watches over Guy's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2. Does he look familiar? Although that could be one of the Andore siblings, I'd say he looks more like Hugo. The odd thing about that is that Street Fighter III came out one year after SFA2.
Other Final Fight cameos in this stage include Mike Haggar, Poison, Cody, Jessica, and Damnd.
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Street Fighter Alpha Rose
Rose's and M. Bison's destinies are entangled, so much so that they actually share a soul ... somehow.
In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Bison drives his hand through Rose's body in a very graphic image. Yet the fortune teller survived.
How could she still be alive? Is her Soul Power that fantastic?
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Street Fighter Alpha cutout kid
A store in Sakura's SFA3 stage has a cardboard cutout of a kid on the front. At least I think it's a cutout.
Is it there to lure children? Is this something Japanese storekeepers normally do?
That cartoonish munchkin creeps the hell out of me. It always reminds me of the ghost kid from the movie Three Men and a Baby.
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Street Fighter Alpha romance
A crowd has gathered in front of Mr. Peach's jazz club in Charlie's SFA stage. If you look closely at the signs they're holding up, you'll see that they're demanding live acts of romance. Eh ... what kind of street fight did they come here to watch?
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Street Fighter Alpha piledriver
E. Honda has been promoting the sport of sumo for years, claiming it is the only true wrestling form in the world. After watching Zangief's ending in SFA3, I believe him.
As the Red Cyclone attempts to destroy Bison's Psycho Drive, he bumps into Honda. They agree to collaborate. Zangief's plan is brilliant: to use the yokozuna's head as a ramming device. The Russian proceeds to spinning-pile-drive E. Honda 10 consecutive times until the Psycho Drive finally breaks. Honda doesn't even get dizzy.
In a regular match, E. Honda (as well as any other character) loses almost half of his life bar from getting pile-drived once by Zangief. Maybe the Psycho energy gave the sumo prodigy superpowers.
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Street Fighter Alpha Karin
Karin's family runs a successful business that has made it extremely wealthy and powerful. It's so powerful, that when Bison demands money from the Kanzuki, Karin orders his execution via cellphone.
Keep in mind that Karin must be around 16 years old. Her family has access to a "killer satellite" capable of disintegrating anyone, anywhere, in mere seconds.
Does that mean the Kanzuki are members of the yakuza? That's bad-ass, and frightening.
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Street Fighter Alpha Eliza
Ken Masters is wealthy, and so is his girlfriend. Still, I never knew they moved in such elite circles. Check out who came to Eliza's birthday party: the Unknown Soldiers (Forgotten Worlds), Morrigan (DarkStalkers), Jumbo and Biff Slamkovich (Saturday Night Slammasters), Ginzu and Captain Commando (Captain Commando), Michelle Heart (Legendary Wings), and Strider Hiryu (Strider).
It's both awesome and mind-blowing to learn that every Capcom game takes place in the same universe. That means that while Ken and Ryu spar, the Unknown Soldiers save another galaxy from aliens, Morrigan seduces another victim, and Strider Hiryu slices and dices dozens of Grandmaster Meio's foot soldiers.
Other cameos (not pictured): Lord Raptor, Hsien-Ko, Lei Lei, and Felicia (DarkStalkers), Linn Kurosawa (Alien vs. Predator), and Pure the mage (Capcom World).
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Street Fighter Alpha Cammy
T. Hawk's ending suggests that Shadaloo kidnaps young girls (like Cammy, Juli, and Juni) and brainwashes them to serve M. Bison as disposable, soulless robotic dolls.
But after getting his ass handed to him by Cammy, Bison blows her mind by revealing that she is actually a clone created from his evil DNA. Did he literally make her in a lab from scratch?
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Street Fighter Alpha bathroom
What kind of martial arts tournament takes place inside a men's public bathroom? Those poor blokes in the back of SFA2's England stage can't even take a piss without having female Interpol agents and underage school girls laugh at them.
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Street Fighter Alpha M. Bison
Bison warns Vega not to mess with Cammy because he plans to transfer his mind into her brain and control her body. Wait, what? Psycho Power is even more disturbing than I thought.
Walking around in a girl's body may not seem manly, but think of the possibilities. If this twisted ability is permanent, it grants Bison virtual immortality. Maybe the fiendish oppressor made an appearance in Street Fighter III without any of us knowing.
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Street Fighter Alpha Jimmy
Blanka trained with master Dan Hibiki in his Saikyo-ryu dojo. That's crazy, but even more nutty is the fact that Dan calls Blanka by his birth name, Jimmy. What's odd about this is that Blanka didn't know his real name until his mother shows up in Thailand in Street Fighter II.
Did Blanka forget his name after Street Fighter Alpha 3, or is he trolling his mom?
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Street Fighter Alpha Go Hibiki
Old promotional art for Street Fighter II displays Sagat grabbing a fallen opponent by the head. The victim's gi resembles Dan's, making people assume it was Go Hibiki, Dan's father.
In the original Street Fighter Alpha, Sagat's prefight animation shows him tossing away the limp body of a defeated warrior, the same one from the art piece. That has to be Go, right?
I don't think it is. Go Hibiki is the person responsible for Sagat's busted eye. The Emperor of Muay Thai wouldn't be standing there smiling (with an eye patch) if that brutal event just took place.
Also, Dan enters the Street Fighter tournament hoping to find and defeat his father's murderer. Something that clearly happened some time ago.
Who does that corpse in an orange costume belong to, then?
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Street Fighter Alpha SFII poster
Street Fighter Alpha's Japan stage (Ryu's and Guy's) shows a convenience store (called Sonson *wink*) with a very interesting poster on the window. Does it look familiar?
It's the cover of the animated Street Fighter II movie. Street Fighter II won't take place for years, so where does this film's advertisement come from? The future, obviously.
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