My Brief Impressions Of The "Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection"

For what it is offline Capcom's re-release of the various Street Fighter series entries is very much worth the asking price. If you value a proper offline experience over an online one. For $40 you get 12 full games that can all be enjoyed alone or in the company of local friends. Ports of games that can be tweaked to a decent widescreen HDTV presentation, and adjusted with different visual filters for added effect. The games from Street Fighter (original) to the Alphas, and on to the 3rd Strikes all play out as you'd expect them to. As you'd remember. Offline the games are a proper trip down memory lane with the addition of historical timeline info entries, newly introduced art galleries, and various other features that give you more for your money. Oddly enough though things aren't all perfect with this particular collection. While most of the problems are player induced in the online portion of the game the netcode Capcom chose to go with for their four online titles is truly a step down from their previous online releases of "Darkstalkers Resurrection", and "Street Fighter 3rd Strike" for the PS3. I'm fairly certain they did not pay for high end netcode this time around, and more than likely cut corners for cost efficiency. Not only is the netcode bad this time, but the matchmaking also suffers from a lack of much needed options like that of region selection, and ping/connection identifiers. This lack of needed features only serves to further hurt what could have been a good online competitive scene.

After having played both offline and online for some time I find myself disappointed, and somewhat content with my purchase. I had a good idea what I was getting into before pre-ordering this collection, and had my mind set mostly on enjoying the offline games. That being said I had secretly hoped the online wouldn't be horrible, and that I could sneak in some online fights worth sharing with my Youtube audience. Thanks to the online players, and Capcom this failed to be realized though. I will mention the fact that a certain Japanese Youtuber went on record to say Capcom did not release this game in Japan/Asia. This is of itself telling in that it points to the fact that fighting games' harshest critics (the Japanese) were kept from getting their hands on the proper region version and giving their own opinion of it. Had I have known this before making my pre-order I probably would not have bought the game. Even though it held nostalgia value I do prefer buying quality products. Not games that are half-arsed or put together in such a way as to leave the fans moaning and groaning about all that was done, and that which could have been done.

In closing I cannot recommend this game as a worthy purchase if you are looking forward to a proper online fighting game experience. If, however, you are looking for a trip down memory lane with the offline only it is a decent package that gets the base experience right. I hope this mini-review, for what it's worth, has offered you some insight on the game that is "Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection". Let my learning experience educate you. Do note this review comes from a gamer whose fighting game beginnings began with Street Fighter II. A gamer who has followed the series all the way to Street Fighter V.