It’s a win for everyone when a developer or publisher takes such pride in their history. Recently, I was pleased to review the Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 for the Switch. And even more recently — last week to be exact — Capcom released another collaboration with Digital Eclipse. The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection collects twelve games from the heralded franchise and packages them up in one very nicely put together collection for fans to enjoy. Side note, be sure to check out Nathan Stevens’ review of this release on the Switch.
Arcade-perfect versions of twelve titles are included in this set, with four of those including online support and a training mode (the ones with the * in the list below):
Street Fighter
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting*
Super Street Fighter II
Super Street Fighter II: Turbo*
Street Fighter Alpha
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3*
Street Fighter III
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact
Street Fighter III: Third Strike*
While purists will appreciate that these are arcade perfect, it is also worth pointing out how some home console releases included enhancements like extra single player modes and even characters in some releases, like Alpha 3 MAX on the PSP of all systems. That said, coming from a franchise that has not only been around this long, but has also seen so many releases and re-releases on so many different platforms over the years, some fracturing like this is only to be expected. It would be unreasonable to expect Capcom to package all of these variations together, so that they stuck with the arcade versions for all twelve releases is understandable and probably best, even if it’s not an entirely complete history of the games.
These games span a thirty year period, with the newest of them still being about twenty years old. Obviously, there are iteratives within the three main tiers, that is, SFII, Alphas, and SFIIIs. The original Street Fighter, while I’m glad it’s included, has not aged well at all, but it’s cool to see where things began. Including essentially five versions of SFII allows one to see the progression the series took in a short period of time when its popularity was sky-rocketing. Alpha introduced additional mechanics in the form of A, V, and X-isms, while SFIII added super jumps and the parry. Of course there are other nuances and tweaks made between each release and each main tier as well.
Given their span, popularity, and availability on a variety of platforms over the years, there’s a very good chance that if you’re into fighting games at all or were going to the arcade in the early and mid 90s, you have probably played at least one of these games. Of this set, the only game that was completely foreign to me was Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, I don’t believe I ever played that one before, so it was really cool to get the experience to now.
As we saw with the Mega Man Collections, in addition to the games are also a Museum Mode and Music Player mode that include a plethora of history celebrating the franchise. Concept art, character bios, interactive timelines — you can get wrapped up in these for a long time and really soak in the history and excitement should you choose to.
Ultimately, there’s no denying the impressive history of Street Fighter. It’s a series that has continued to evolve, and this special release is a great and deserved tribute to the 2D titles from the first twenty-plus years.
###
