There can be hardly a gamer alive who hasn't played a version of Street Fighter in their gaming 'career' and, as such, the title needs little introduction. A one-on-one fighting game where you beat your opponent into submission, Capcom have essentially refined a single game over many years with the sequels. It now stands as one of the brightest stars in the genre, although many argue that lack of significant changes have rendered the genre stale.

Still, this doesn;t affect the core of the game. As has been expressed in many forum discussions and 2D fighting game reviews over the years, Street Fighter Zero 3 is seen by many as the pinnacle of the series. Capcom finally seemed to find the correct balance between speedy arcade thrills and deep tactical play. Characters are undeniably more balanced than ever before. The Guard bar prevents constant blocking, air recoveries minimise insane juggling combos, Super Specials have been reduced in brutal effectiveness... a vice-like grip has squeezed the pulp from the franchise, leaving only the most tender meat.

This GBA version contains all of the evolutions seen in other iterations of Street Fighter Zero 3, and adds a couple of extras on top. Obviously, single player is present and correct, with the gamer progressing through a series of fights until he/she reaches the final character – Vega (M. Bison in the West). Two player is all you would expect, with the options to handicap yourself against weaker opposition still present, and the added spice of the choice to fight in a different style.

The various 'Isms' on offer govern the type of game you play. Selectable after you have chosen a character are three techniques: X-Ism, Z-Ism and V-Ism. X is closest to the original SFII, in that there is no air blocking and you only have one Super Special attack available. To compensate, your character delivers more powerful attacks. Z is closest to the style used in the previous 'Zero' (Alpha in the West) series. Your character can air block and has multiple Super Specials to hand, and both attack and defence are the most balanced. V-Ism is like an extension of the 'custom combo' system from 'Zero II. Your avatar is weak in attack and strong in defence, and using your Super Special attack draws power from the special attack bar. Whilst activated, you can use any of your regular moves without any lag between them, theoretically allowing massive combos and juggles.

The Isms were a very popular addition to the series, and highlighted how balanced the game had become. The option to fight in your favourite game style removes the programmers' guiding hand from the proceedings, allowing the player to decide the type of game he/she plays. A bonus to the end-user, it is an egalitarian move that broadens the appeal of the game.

There are a host of unlockable play modes lurking in the game. Completing certain tasks will give you (amongst other things) Survival mode, Saikyo mode (small Guard bar), Mazi mode (if you lose only a single round, you lose the match) extra characters... a completist's dream, in actual fact. The GBA version loses the World Tour mode, present in the home versions of Zero 3, presumably due to memory restrictions. It is barely missed, however, as the core gameplay remains fully intact and visually glorious.

There are vast numbers of characters available to the player – the largest roster ever in a Street Fighter game. New to Zero 3 came Cody (from Final Fight), Juni and Juli (variations on Cammy), Karin (a Bushin-style ninja, and one of the best fighters Capcom have ever produced) and Rainbow Mika (a female wrestler). Returning to the fray are E. Honda and Guile (both with various tweaks, although Honda remains extremely over-powered and cheap), and all of the 'newcomers' from Super Street Fighter II – Deejay, Cammy, Fei Long and T.Hawk. Each returning character has been re-drawn in the Zero style, and look glorious.

Audio is extremely good: although sound effects have had to be dropped in some places (characters miss a few post-match taunts, and the odd cry is missing from battle), the BGM has translated across extremely well, and the crunching impacts and OTT explosions remain as satisfying as before.

On the GBA, the graphics sparkle. Although they lose slight detail and a couple of frames of animation, it really is one the most attractive games ever to grace a handheld. To put it into perspective, Zangief on the PSX version of SFZ2 had no different frames of animation for walking backward. On the GBA, this is fully included. Indeed, the depth of Capcom's achievement with the CPS-II board is comprehensively topped by Crawfish's with the humble GBA. All the world warriors have been rendered in tiny, exquisite detail, and retain all of their charm and unique style. The greatest compliment that can be given to the conversion is that it still really feels like Street Fighter, even after all these years and its compression into a tiny cartridge.

Inevitably, a few compromises have had to be made for the game to work on the GBA. The primary one is that there is a larger 'window' in which you have time to juggle an opponent. Combine this with the fact that command inputs can be done over a larger period of time, to compensate for the pad, and theoretically the game ought to be easier. In reality, the game is harder than ever, and this is solely down to the woefully inadequate equipment you are using to play such a gaming treat. Along with the obvious loss of two whole buttons with which to play the game, any but those with miniscule appendages will suffer excruciating cramps after even a small period of play.

Even when you get used to the timing involved and the lack of direct 'medium' attacks (these can be re-gigged in the options menu, but default to pressing a face button and shoulder button together), the tiny machine and awkwardly placed buttons will have you feel like arthritis is setting in within minutes. Despite the honest-to-God, awe-inspiring looks of the game and the sharpness of the mechanics, Crawfish were unable to change the physical shape of the machine on which their masterpiece would be enjoyed. As a final bitter twist to their tale, it is not without its irony.

The backgrounds still inspire, the characters are a joy and the addition of a further three (Maki, Eagle and Yun) to an already vast roster is little more than a gift from the heavens. But the game is a compromise from start to finish. Try a Dragon Punch and it might work once in three attempts. Try it at pace and in a desperate gambit, and the screen will disappear as you fling your fingers into some sort of workable position. The sad fact is that the game cannot be played to within any degree of skill comparable to that with a robust joystick, or a comfortable pad, and there is a pitiable tragedy in this. An uncomfortable but apt comparison to make would be with the great man, Stephen Hawking: a genius mind betrayed by the mechanics of his outer shell.

Crawfish have built a marvellous version of an incredible game, and will mark them out as one of the great lost components in GBA game creation. However, betrayed by hardware, their vision has been obscured by Nintendo's short-sighted approach to physical production. Play the game in whatever manner you can – your eyes will rejoice, but your hands and fingers will scream – but play it, just to see what can be done by developers with immense talent and detemination.