Say what you will about Capcom’s history of releasing the Super Ultra Mega Remixed Hyper Combo Turbo Arcade editions of their games – the system has worked to keep their brands relevant. Love or hate it, the Street Fighter franchise is here to stay. It maintains its status as one of the fighting game genre’s greatest long running series with countless cross overs, remasters, and re-releases to the point that there is an entry on Wikipedia just keeping track of them. Capcom recently treated fans with a retrospective look at some of the highlights from its 30 year reign to mixed results.

The game features a total of 12 Street Fighter iterations, which sounds like a lot on paper, but is really the arcade release of Street Fighter, a whopping five variations of Street Fighter II, three releases of Street Fighter III, and all three of the Street Fighter Alpha offerings. Having previously owned nearly every version of Street Fighter II, I can say that I was a bit disappointed to find this being repeated as many times as it is, with only a few minor changes brought to each. I would have much rather the collection included some of the more obscure titles, such as the game based on the lackluster 1995 film, or even one of the Puzzle Fighter releases.

Each game runs well on the current gen hardware and most offer minor modification options that must be enabled from the main menu, which allows you to change the difficulty, speed, timer, and damage rate. There are no additional modes outside of the standard arcade mode with the option for a second player to play locally by simply pressing start, just like if you were in an arcade back in the 90’s. Even on the lowest difficulty, many of the games are uber challenging, as if the game is trying to burn your unneeded quarters. I am by no means new when it comes to the series and am not trying to toot my own horn, but I consider myself to be better than most at the games and still found myself getting pummeled around the half way point of the arcade ladder. I find it a bit ridiculous that the AI can stun you with a simple combo immediately after the fight begins, and you can counter with the exact same move set with less effective results.

You’d think with 12 games being offered in the complete package, most if not all would offer online play, which is not the case. Capcom selected four of the titles, two versions of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter III for online play, which is offered in ranked, unranked player matches, and battle lobbies. In my time with the collection, only Hyper Street Fighter II has had a sizable amount of players at any given time, with the matchmaking for the other games taking five or more minutes, if ever, to find another player. Many of the recent entries in the series offered an option to basically allow the second player slot to be filled with a challenger while competing in the arcade version against the CPU, which is in place here, but is limited to ranked play and can only be matched with the same game you begin with. Sadly, I was unable to find a match using this method in most of the games offered prior to either giving up due to the horrendously overpowered AI or beating the arcade mode during peak time, which shows this game’s online community is already dead, a week after launch. The option to set this up from the main menu which was incorporated in Street Fighter V would have been a welcome inclusion to this collection.

While it is fun to check out the different versions of the original arcade games, the overabundance of the second game in the series with its minor changes makes it feel as if it’s a cash grab. A mode that would have allowed you to challenge others with a combined roster of all of the different versions of the games’ characters, similar to what Mortal Kombat Trilogy offered, would have been another highlight that feels yet again like a missed opportunity. I would have enjoyed seeing how Street Fighter Alpha’s Ryu would have stood against the Street Fighter II version of Sagat.

The only thing that the collection offers in the form of a retrospective is the option to visit the museum, which is the only true “extra” available. You can view each fighter’s backstory, as well as compare the animations between all of the games in the collection the character was featured. I probably experienced the truest form of nostalgia when toggling between the various versions of characters I grew up with, seeing just how far Ryu, Ken and Dhalsim came visually.

The titles each run well, with fluid animations that take you back to the golden days of the local arcade. I found some of the different versions’ controls to be a bit unresponsive or laggy, even when using a wired fight pad. This is a bit unacceptable, considering the move set rarely changes between the games when you are dealing with staple characters who are in each and every version in the collection.

While the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection shows just how far we’ve come since the series launched before many of today’s gamers were even born, it isn’t necessarily a place we want to visit. If you’re new to the world of Street Fighter, this is a great place to start, especially if you were never fortunate enough to play the original versions in the arcade (or one of the many other re-releases). Veteran players would be better suited to dusting off the original versions or simply popping in Street Fighter V. 

6 out of 10

Pros

• Museum Nostalgia
• Fun to Revisit Some of the Obscure Titles
• Most Versions Run Well

Cons

• Too Many Missed Opportunities
• Unresponsive Controls
• Too Much Street Fighter II 

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection was developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Capcom. It launched on PC, Switch, X1 and PS4 May 29th, 2018 for $39.99. The game was not provided to us for review on PS4. For more on Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, check out the game’s official site.

 

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