REVIEW – Capcom might be the most prolific publisher when it comes to re-releasing older games on newer platforms. With Street Fighter, they at least made the collection somewhat packed, and while I detest this re-releasing thing (because this approach needs way less money and are usually made for cash only), I have to admit: it’s a good bunch of games.

The package contains twelve Street Fighter games (1, 2, 2: Championship Edition, 2 Turbo, Super SF2, SSF2 Turbo, 3, 3: 2nd Impact, 3: 3rd Strike, Alpha 1-3), and all of them are arcade perfect versions, and, as is usual with Capcom (who recently used the similar method with the Mega Man Legacy Collections, and will repeat it with the MM X games once again…), it’s via emulation, as Street Fighter will offer you the chance to use save states offline.

Twelve a dozen

The collection is good for two, or maybe three things: the „classic” Street Fighter trilogy is in one location, and it allows you to explore the evolution of the games, plus it also offers you to experience certain SF games’ (like the first one’s) mistakes and bugs, which were also brought over. Digital Eclipse‘s port job is alright, and it gives an extra game mode on the Nintendo Switch – with four Switches, you can have a local championship.
Thankfully, DE gave more than just the usual visual filters, as the devs included complete movesets for beginners to pull that Hadouken off. That move has become one of the most iconic ones for the franchise over the thirty years. There’s also a brand new Training mode, too, where you can prepare for the almost ridiculously unfair AI on the hardest difficulty level. It just reminded me of a stupid flaw of the collection: you don’t pick the game modes in the games but via the menu of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection by picking the game first, followed by the mode. Weird.

Museum

With Capcom re-releases, a museum/artwork option is almost obligatory as an extra to show the games’ history over the decades, allowing you to have a look at concept art, artwork, design documents and the like, and here, you can also check out the soundtrack, which does include some classic, easy-to-recognize melodies. While it is a good thing, I believe something similar is EXPECTED from a collection. (Hm, I wonder when Nintendo will do something similar with Mario… hmm, I may have given them an idea.)

Where it drops the 9

The collection could have been a must-buy for all fighting games fans (even those who don’t play 2D games). While you can play online with ranked or casual options, yes, you can’t play all twelve games (but I do understand that the first one wouldn’t have worked in that environment), as only FOUR titles offer you the chance to compete against others online, which, let’s face it, feels like corner cutting by Capcom and Digital Eclipse. They are the following: Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. All of them are either the definitive versions, or are the latest in the series, which is reasonable, but it still cuts down the online titles massively. The online experiences can be quite terrible, too, because if you encounter lag, you will hear even the MUSIC break up even in a four-player lobby, also. I swear, I have never seen anything like this in a fighting game ever before, and since there is no possibility to filter out the players with terrible Internet connections (but you can do filters based on skill, huh…), the 30th anniversary is dumbed down a bit with such gameplay element omissions.

Worth a try…

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is worth a strong 7.5 out of 10 as the games are GOOD. The way it is presented is problematic. Sure, if you play the four games that offer online the most, then I would only bring up the online play’s sometimes garbage quality as a flaw. The collection is decent, but it could have been even better. I’d rather spend my money on Dragon Ball FighterZ instead, although that’s a faster and different gameplay-having fighter. It’s subjective, though.

-V-

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Digital Eclipse / Capcom

Genre: 2D fighting game

Release date: May 29, 2018