Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Review – A hadouken right in the nostalgia

The fighting game genre has become a staple of gaming. Now with a market of titans and indie titles finding dedicated fanbases, it can be easy to forget some of the pillars that the industry is built on. I can guarantee you that Street Fighter is not one of those easily forgotten titles. It’s one of the most recognisable beat ’em ups out there. Rivalled only by Mortal Kombat, no fighting game has had the staying power of Street Fighter. Starting 30 years ago, Street Fighter remains relevant not only due to recent additions to the franchise but also fans going back to play the classic version of the title.

That is a good chunk of content but here is probably my one complaint with this collection. I just mentioned 12 titles but you will play maybe four of these on a regular basis. The original Street Fighter is a a novelty addition to this lineup, you will duck in to see where the phenomenon began and then you’ll close that door and move on. With a bunch of versions of the second instalment you’ll skip over those early versions to get into the later iterations such as Super Street Fighter II: Turbo which offers extra characters and mechanics.

Thankfully the drawback of the padded titles is saved by the speed with which you can switch between these titles. Jumped onto Street Fighter Alpha 3 but wanted Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact? No worries, just a couple of button presses will get you where you want to go. Unfortunately I had mixed results with online games in terms of loading times, some loaded quickly while others had me sitting there for a few minutes. Even with my fairly strong connection the Switch was a tad sluggish in battle but only on the occasional match, so this could have been due to my opponents connection as well.

Online offers up only 4 of the 12 titles but they are the 4 you want to be playing competitively, SF II’: Hyper Fighting, Super SF II: Turbo, SF Alpha 3 and SF III: Third Strike, most of which are still played competitively today. You can jump into casual matches, ranked matches, online arcade, and compare your score against a global leader board. You’ll also be able to create a lobby and enjoy playing with your friends. The Switch also has the added bonus of local online play between two Switches so you and your friends can play out and about. Most excitingly you can create the tournaments you used to see at the arcade if you can get four Switches together and eight friends.

Arcade games were designed to be tough, but also not so tough that you didn’t feel like you could achieve that win. The games were designed this way to make money but never turn you off from putting another coin in the slot. Thankfully there are no peripherals in modern consoles that demand money to keep playing—well, not like an arcade machine at least. Because of this when you get knocked down it’s easy to get back into it without having to give up your pocket money. This is handy as it is easy to forget just how hard these old Street Fighters were with fast paced, hard hitting enemies and some pretty cheap boss fights.

Thankfully the gameplay is as fluid as ever. While using the Joy Cons, both attached on the go and as a single controller when detached, I found I struggled a little but I cannot stress enough how huge my truck-a-saurus hands are. When I finally swapped over to the Pro Controller I got back into the swing of things. Mastering a bunch of characters across the franchise means getting used to combos and special attacks, these can be very fiddly but once you are powering through them with ease you will feel like a badass. Thankfully if you’re having trouble the game does also offer you the chance to change the difficulty of each game and the combat speed for a couple of the titles that became known for their fast paced punches.

Visually the game looks great. Street Fighter’s art style has always had one of the more timeless styles once we got into Street Fighter II. The bright and colourful back drops and character models are animated wonderfully and the fluidity of their movement all these years later is a testament to the art direction. You’re given a couple of visual options to play with including removing the arcade style border and applying filters that give it back the slightly blurred edges of the old arcades.