Three decades of action with Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection

30 years of Street Fighter

It’s difficult to believe that it has been nearly 30 years since I first walked into my local mall and laid eyes on a Street Fighter arcade cabinet. Capcom has been releasing great games in the series ever since. Now a full dozen of those amazing titles are available in one place with the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.

Some of my most prominent early memories of gaming revolve around Street Fighter. The arcade was always a popular spot for kids my age in the early 1990’s, but the first appearance of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was a real game changer.

Throngs of kids crowding the cabinet, quarters in hand was a sight to behold. Everyone cheering madly at the match in progress, and waiting impatiently for their own turn to dethrone the current victor. Street Fighter II was more than a game, it was a community gathering.

Spoiled for choice

The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection compiles twelve classic, full games from the celebrated franchise’s history. Highlighting titles from the very first Street Fighter (1987) through to Street Fighter III: Third Strike, this is the largest collection of Street Fighter games ever gathered in one place.

Online support

While all twelve games feature classic single-player action, four titles have also been enabled for online play. Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike all feature online support. This includes ranked matchmaking for competitive play.

One of the more unique features of online play is the “waiting room” between matches. Instead of just sitting around while waiting for an online match, players can instead battle CPU opponents. Up to four players can participate in this classic arcade experience.

Each online title even has its own global leaderboard to track progress. Player skill is put to the test and calculated into global rankings for all to see.

Loaded with extras

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection also comes packed with quite a bit of fan service. Deep character bios provide a rich background on all your favourite Street Fighter characters. They also feature sprite art and animation to supplement each narrative.

A comprehensive “Museum Mode” brings with it an interactive timeline that chronicles the vast history of the series. A music player lets gamers sample their favourite tracks from across the bundle of titles in the collection. Concept art, pitch sheets, and fun facts round out the plethora of additional bonuses packed in for fans.

Finally, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection adds a new save state feature. During single-player matchers, gamers can use save states to pause and resume matches at any time. This is a really useful tool that I’m sure many older gamers would have loved to use back when these titles were new. There’s nothing worse than being called to dinner in the middle of an epic run through the gauntlet of competitors in a Street Fighter game.

So much history in one place

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is a healthy offering of classic games. It packages together so many great titles from the Street Fighter legacy. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is currently available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Get Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 4
Check out Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for Xbox One
Get Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for Nintendo Switch