Street Fighter 5 launched just over a month and a half ago and was regarded as one of the best entries in the series based on the gameplay, but the content itself was overall lacking. Luckily, Capcom has a plan of adding content all throughout this year, with a few things already added and more to come as the year goes on.
One of the most anticipated additions is new character DLC, of which the first is now available with Alex. Capcom is taking a unique approach by making all of the DLC fighters in the game free for those that want to grind for the in-game fight money, but also have the option to just outright purchase them individually or as part of the season pass.
Alex will certainly be the most easy of the bunch for you to decide on whether you want to spend your earned Fight Money or bought Zenny on, as currently he is free for you to try for a limited period of time. This is due to the in-game shop not working with Zenny right now, so they have a trial period. However, they have not announced how long this will last, with you having to purchase him through one of the two methods after that point.
The two different purchasing methods will allow us to handle this impressions article a little different than the Mortal Kombat X DLC characters, as we can not only say whether or not the character is worth getting, but also whether it’s worth spending actual money on or just the in-game money.
For those that may be new to the series with Street Fighter 5, Alex was first introduced back in Street Fighter 3 as the game’s main protagonist. However, Street Fighter 5 actually takes place before 3 in the timeline, so this is Alex’s first chronological appearance in the main series. This is a little strange, as he almost looks older or as old here as he did then, but with it only being a few years, that’s not that big of a deal. Without him hunching over like he’s done in the past, he looks like a giant in stature even next to the likes of Ryu.
Just like every other character in the game, Alex has his own character story that includes three fights against Birdie, Chun-Li, and Ryu. The interesting thing here is that he is seemingly kidnapped by F.A.N.G., who uses a character creation machine to create this fake versions of the characters for him to fight in the game’s training stage. This was a kind of neat way to make the training stage involved with the story, though it is obviously very short like the other character stories.
Alex has two different costumes that you can use in the game that actually differ quite a bit from one another. The first has him sporting a look that is very similar to his original look in Street Fighter 3, though now he has red suspenders instead of red markings on his chest that he’s had in previous games. He also has more prominent face paint on as well, with a bandana wrapped around his forehead with pretty short hair that sticks out the front on both sides a bit. He then has tight torn green pants on with a red jacket of sorts wrapped around his waist.
The other costume that is playable in versus modes has him in a white t-shirt with Extraordinary written across an X on it, with green and blue pants on as well. He is sporting long blonde hair underneath a red backwards baseball cap, along with the same red markings on his face as the other costume. His character story has him wearing a different costume that is kind of a mix of the two, with long green athletic style pants, and a white t-shirt, along with the same hair design as his default costume, though no markings on his face, which actually plays into the epilogue of his story mode.
Alex’s moveset has always had a wrestling motif to it, but also mixed in is a street brawler aspect that makes him a rather fun fighter to use. He’s definitely not as fast as some fighters like Ken, but he isn’t the slowest either. This means it can be harder for him to string together continuous combos, though his moves do pack a wallop.
The special move Flash Chop does a good job at knocking the opponent back after a few regular moves, while Slash Elbow lets you move back in for another attack rather quickly. Having a partially wrestler based moveset, Alex of course returns his Power Bomb attack where he grabs the opponent and drives them into the ground head first. You can then use Flash Chop and Power Bomb in tandem to execute his Power Drop technique as well. To make this even stronger, you can mix in the V-Trigger based Sledgehammer and pull this one off.
Air Knee Smash can work against opponents that are up in the air, but when they are on the ground, it is basically useless. Air Stampede and Head Crush both work very similiarly, as both require you to charge down and then quickly go up and either do kick or punch for Air Stampede Crush respectively. These work quite well in battle, though your opponent can dodge it pretty easily if they step back quick enough. There are also some air based moves like being able to do the Cross Chop in air to land a quick blow when coming down.
Alex’s throws definitely could have been improved, as both of them involving you just grabbing the opponent and hitting them, though Leg Tomahawk definitely is the better of the two. We’ve already mentioned the V-Trigger based Sledgehammer, but that is not the only V-Trigger move for Alex, as he also has a few others, including Rage Shift, which powers you up with a simple hit of the right bumper and trigger, allowing you to use the Sledgehammer move, which also can be charged and used as a parry attack. You also have the Overhaul move at your disposal, which causes the next hit you land to act as a counter.
After playing with Alex for quite a bit, he definitely is a fun addition to Street Fighter V that brings in a moveset that is not found elsewhere in the game. However, he likely isn’t a fighter that you wil be dying to play as. He has a well rounded moveset that could make him a strong competitor, but the question is whether he is worth the money right now.
If you have earned plenty of fight money from playing since Street Fighter 5 released, I would definitely pick up Alex, but if you only have what you earned from the character stories and have your eyes on another upcoming fighter, you could probably wait until you earn more Fight Money for Alex. You can also purchase Alex with Zenny as well, but unless you are a big fan of the character, I’d just wait and try to save up Fight Money to get him eventually instead. Luckily, you can try out Alex for free right now and make this decision for yourself though, so make sure to do that before the trial period that could end at any time is over.
