If you're not into emulating, don't have a subscription to PlayStation Now, or don't want to buy the games individually on Xbox Live (which can get pricey), this collection is currently your only choice. You'll thank me in the end.ĭespite my reservations about the collection's difficulty curve and overpowered A.I., the 30th Anniversary is one of the better ways to play these classic games on modern consoles. I'd suggest investing in a fight stick if you want to go the distance with the 30th Anniversary Collection. You can beat these games (with the possible exception of the awfully janky and nigh unplayable Street Fighter), but your thumbs will bleed.
That's not to mention that characters in some of the games, particularly Street Fighter II, have basically unblocakble attacks that almost instantly melt your entire life bar (I'm looking at you, E. Input lag appears non-existent - or at least not a major contributing factor - but precision is even more imperative when attacks don't like to connect like they should. Neither the rhyme nor the reason is clear, which can lead to increasingly frustrated play. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they don't. opponents will do everything to win a match but outright cheat - and sometimes I'm not sure the computer isn't cheating.Īnimations are mostly fluid, but some do miss opponents for no reason at all. I'm not trying to spiral into a whiny diatribe here, but I'm saying all of this to drill home the fact that these games are brutally, sometimes spitefully, difficult. Even Street Fighter II Turbo, which I can handily beat on my dusty SNES, is nearly impossible to complete when you go up against the spammy likes of E. Sure, that was more than 15 years ago and sure, my sensibilities have changed in that time, but the Alpha 3 found in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is way, way, way harder than the Alpha 3 released on the original PlayStation. I practiced for hours to get the high score that would unlock Shin Akuma and still remember my numb thumbs forging ahead with determined purpose after each failed attempt until finally, victory. Alpha 3, which is part of this collection, is still one of my favorite fighting games of all time. I've played my fair share of Street Fighter games. However, it all becomes a different story when the odds are so overwhelmingly stacked against you that fun devolves into demoralization. It's something that bestows upon the player immense pride and gratification. There's no doubt playing difficult games and overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds is one of the trademarks of gaming.
Casuals beware: this game just ain't (that) fair - no matter how you cut it. Programmed to take all of your quarters, the games in this collection are utterly relentless in their mission to steal your sanity. These entries are the arcade ROMs of these classic fighting games, not the console versions you fondly remember. However, there's a little wrinkle here you may not have considered or known about. Given the perspective of 30 years, that simple definition of fun begins to grow terribly tenuous.Īll things being equal, the 12 games in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection are classics that still hold up today. We tell ourselves that these games were more challenging and most importantly, more fun than some of the games of today. We tell ourselves that everything was simpler when that iconic music wafted from our television's speakers and those indelible characters fluttered across our screens in rapturous martial arts glory. We see the gorgeous packaging, the high-octane trailers, and the clever marketing and remind ourselves that "those games were good - great, even".
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