Street Fighter Alpha 2... made me almost cry

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I've found that using hard kick from an areal jump or as a leg sweep tends to get me past Birdie in under a minute in most circumstances.

Then again my primary is good old Ryu, and I tend to have some trouble with Guy.

Also I agree with you completely, SF:Alpha 2 & 2 Gold is one of the best fighters ever made and really captured that SF feel that I think was lost in Alpha III (I HATE the Capcom announcer guy, music and general pace of the game). I still find SF:III New Generation & 2nd Impact to be my favorite SF's followed by SF:A2, then SF:III Third Strike (although SF:III is the most balanced and well made 2D fighter ever created in my opinion the other installments overshadow it when it comes down to sheer fun factor) and finally SF:II and all of it's various installments given my lack of experience with the SF:II series.

Also check out the PS2 SF:Alpha Anthology, it has all of the Alpha games including gold, Pocket Fighter with unlockable Alpha III Upper and Hyper SF:Alpha. Plus by holding down triangle and X as your PS2/PS3 system boots the game up activates a progressive scan mode for a lag free experience on an HDTV.

Plus, its supports the PS2 hard drive (remember those?) if you install the game to the hard drive, the load times are like non-existent.

How could I have forgotten?

I actually have it installed on my PS2's Hard Drive and the load times are reduced to 90% non-existent.

[racketboy]

Birdie was always one of my easiest opponents.
Just get used to picking up on his little cues for his specials and low kicks are usually quite effective on him.