30 years of fighting streets.
It is depressing how old I am now. Street Fighter is celebrating 30 years of play time and I can remember them all. I played Street Fighter II in arcades, I remember all the home versions on 16-bit consoles. I grew up with this series. Now Capcom has decided to drill home how old I am by including 12 games in one collection spanning 30 years of brawling. The Street Fighter Anniversary Collection brings years of my childhood into one package. While I still suck at almost all of these games, it was a blast going down memory lane with my friends Ken and Ryu.
There are a lot of games in here, so let’s unpack them as best we can. The original Street Fighter is included and showcases how much the series has evolved. It isn’t worth playing much beyond the first match, but it is a good history lesson. That game is, simply put, the only sore spot in the collection. I get why it is included. The history behind it speaks for itself.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, Switch
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
Then we have multiple versions of Street Fighter II. Every arcade iteration is here and it is fascinating to see how it evolved, from the simple roster to the introduction of boss characters and eventually new faces. It also showcases the introduction of super moves and meters. Watching SFII evolve in this collection is incredible.
Like many people, SFII is the game that started the fighting game craze for them. I bought new versions each year for Super Nintendo and Genesis. This collection focuses only on the arcade versions though, so keep that in mind. There are also only four games that support online play. Still having every iteration of each franchise available is incredible.
With the Alpha series things are a little more disappointing. SFA2 is still the king, but I really wanted the home version of Alpha 3. It included an incredible World Tour mode and a bunch of new characters. Sadly the version included here is the base arcade game so we are missing out on a lot of features.
Street Fighter III is a whole new beast. The animations are still mesmerizing at times. What Capcom accomplished with this game when it launched is still impressive. I can still remember playing it in arcades and being in awe that Capcom figured out how to finally count to “3.” Also seeing this game’s evolution of almost entirely new characters to bringing in familiar faces (hi Chun Li!) is nostalgic. This is still the best SF game to a lot of people and it has aged perfectly.
The pieces surrounding the collection are also impressive. Seeing concept artwork and high-res images of characters in the museum entertained me for hours. I loved going through it all. As someone who has been playing this series for years, it warms my heart to see its evolution.
This is a fantastic package. While there are some things that annoy me, it is impossible to recommend a better collection of these games to date. The addition of online for select games and the inclusion of some truly obscure ones makes up for its deficiencies.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
