Play from 12 of the influential games of the Street Fighter series from the past 30 years in this collection that is arcade/console perfect with online play. Also see the museum of the series and see how it has grown over the 30 years.
General Gameplay
Take the 12 best Street Fighter games from the past 30 years and add some online play and let the madness start. The Game Visuals for the game are an interesting topic. From the original one up to Street Fighter 3 are based on how they looked in the arcade. So in ways you will have the old school lines that you would have in the arcade cabinet and older monitors. So if you want the classic look that you remember from the original arcade cabinet, you can see it without any issues, however you can also revert back to a default look for the consoles without any issues. As this is Street Fighter you will see the detail from outfits, character details, and backgrounds that you would expect to see from the series. Everything for each games is in full detail as you would remember it from either the arcade or console release. The colors are very vibrant and match the game visual style without any issues. If anything this is the best release of the collections that we have ever seen in the past years or so. The game does not support a colorblind mode, however for some of the older titles, we had to adjust our gaming monitors when playing the older games, so the reds and greens are able to be seen. This was a minor issue and on a case by case here in the office. In our playtesting we did not see anything offensive in the game, after all it is a fighting game, but there is no heavy violence in the game. Audio in Street Fighter 30th Year Anniversary Collection is as what you remember from the game series. From the fireballs being tossed to the iconic background stage music, it is all here. Nothing sounds out of place and that because the game audio is arcade perfect it sounds great in either 5.1 or 2.0 sound. In the game during our playtesting we did not hear anything that was out of place with the in game spoken dialog that would be offensive to having younger gamers hear. The only time that we heard any audio issues was during our online play sessions, but we will go more into this in our Family Friendly section of our review. Controls for Street Fighter 30th Year Anniversary Collection is an interesting topic. As the game uses a 6-button layout (three punch buttons, and three kick) the game allows you to remap the controller setup to your liking. This helps a lot as now the modern controllers for both PlayStation 4, and Xbox One have four face buttons, and four shoulder buttons. In our playtesting the controller input was very fast and accurate for gameplay, however we had some concerns about some online play and accessibility for some gamers and online play, again we will cover this in our Family Friendly section of our review. The game does not require a special controller, however if you have a 6-button layout controller that you can use for the console, we highly recommend using one to play the game.
“The best Street Fighter games are all here and if you are a fan of the series this is a must have, but the online play and computer AI is real hit and miss at times.”
Family Friendly
This was an interesting topic here in the office as when the game was being tested there was a real line drawn in the sand on why lots of our tester either loved or hated the game. One of the concerns were that the online play was either very hit or miss. There were some games that we were able to get into that had virtual no lag, and other games that were so lag that it causes a lot of frustration in a lot of our gamers that were testing the game. Other issues are that as most modern fighters use a four-button layout in the game that Street Fighter series has always been built around a six-button layout, it made some older gamers that were playing the game harder for them to pull off moves. Again, this is not to the fault of the game itself but just how the game is showing its age. Now if you are in the market for the most arcade looking Street Fighter, then this is your game. However, we did see that even offline there was some slowdown in gameplay, maybe this was just the game trying to keep up, but we were not sure. For fans of the series, or just local vs. modes this is a great game as the collection offers very different games in the series so there is something to play with this collection. To say that the collection is a bad game is not the right description but more less that it is for more hardcore fans that love the series. The collection does have some gems like Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 but missing some other games which a weird choice by the publisher was, but we are thinking that it will be available via download in the future. Another thing that fans of the series will like is the museum and a music player to hear the tracks from the series. This was a great additional for the collection and if you are a fan you will love this. Now in our special needs testing of the game we did not run into any issues with the graphics, audio but in the controls department, if you have a gamer in your gaming family that is having a hard time playing the game, it would be best to adjust the controller setting so they can better enjoy the game. Now again if you have fans of the Street Fighter series in your gaming family or looking for a good local vs. style of game, the Street Fighter Collection is a good pick up, but if you are looking for some decent online play, best to wait for the bugs to be fixed before picking up the game.
Closing
Street Fighter 30th Year Anniversary Collection has a great selection of games that you grew up with, however with hit or miss online play it really is just a stroll down memory lane.
