The Street Fighter series is one of the biggest in gaming. Whether you grew up with the series or a newcomer, it’s ability to stay relevant through multiple decades has been astounding. Many have pumped countless quarters into the Street Fighter arcade machines, and as the franchise has evolved, played many matches with other fighting fans across the globe. While it isn’t the first Street Fighter collection to arrive, the 30th Anniversary Street Fighter Collection is a game that can send mixed message.
With 12 classic arcade titles in tow, The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection has a lot to offer. The original Street Fighter, the many incarnations of Street Fighter 2, and other titles really give fans a good look at the amazing history of this franchise and why some of these games are just as good today as they were 30 years ago.
What you’ll find in this collection is content that is faithful to the original work. That includes recreating the arcade feel with cabinet art to round out the natively lower resolutions of these games. Faithful as it may be, some of the modern trappings that you might expect from a game like this are non-existent. That said, control configurations are going to be lacking so these are going to be more or less exactly how they were played in the past.
There is a ton of content here though, giving fans a walk down memory lane and it ticks all the right boxes in terms of the games that you can play. The original Street Fighter, the many iterations of Street Fighter 2, and the Street Fighter Alpha games, as well as with three arcade versions of Street Fighter 3.
There are definitely some customization options in the games themselves, including difficulty of arcade mode, speeds which the games can be played, as well as the ability to adjust damage in some of the titles. Alongside this, in many of the games you adjust the visual style of the games to give you the feeling of the arcade experience at home.
A handful of the titles can be played online. These include: Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.  These games have some decent options when it comes to how you want to play online. There are ranked matches as well as lobbies that can be created to play with friends.  As expected there are also tutorials that can be played if you’re a little bit rusty before heading into the brutal online scene.
The Museum aspect of the game is a nice one for fans of the series or Street Fighter historians. They really provide an great level of depth when looking at the franchise with such a long and storied history. From the 1987 release of the original all the way to 2018, there’s a ton of information about the history of the franchise, which includes some little-known facts, trivia, tips and other pieces of gorgeous artwork including music, images and more. Some pieces even have developer comments on it which provide insight that hasn’t been expressed anywhere else. A lot of love and care has gone into the collection, and that starts with the great games but it runs all the way down to the ease of access to all of this different type of content.
This collection is definitely a nostalgia overload and some of this stuff might not be seen as a huge value if you’re not a die-hard fan of the series. For those that are though, Capcom has gone the extra mile with all of the different ways to play and learn about the history of the game.
The Verdict
The Street Fighter 30th Anniversay Collection is a faithful representation of the classic arcade titles. It is essentially a digital museum and love letter to the best fighting game of all time.
