Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is arcade nostalgia done right

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This is how arcade-nostalgia compilations should be done. One year after Ultra Street Fighter II's pricey-and-thin cash-in on the Switch, the series' best arcade entries return in a giant, priced-right anthology for pretty much every major gaming platform—and so far, it's absolutely held up to my series-obsessed button mashing.

Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection does right by one of the more enduring legacies of the arcade era, responsible in good part for the popularity of the fighting game genre. Although not nearly as popular as the sequel that would follow, the original Street Fighter came out just over 30 years ago, complete with pressure-sensitive pads (which were switched to the familiar 6 button layout after people injured their hands from hitting the controls too hard).

This new collection features 12 games, from the original Street Fighter (1987) up to Street Fighter III: Third Strike (1999). That number is padded a little by the various releases of Street Fighter II, or early game renditions that were surpassed by later versions such as Street Fighter Alpha 1, or Street Fighter III: New Generation, but completionists will appreciate their inclusion. The remaining titles are excellent games that still hold up very well from a gameplay perspective.

Each title is accompanied by a history of the game, detailing the original release date, hardware, trivia, and even secret codes to unlock extra characters or features. A Museum mode contains galleries full of original sketches and concept art, an interactive timeline, bios for all of the game's characters, and a jukebox where you can play back all of the game soundtracks. The interface is simple but gets the job done, and load times for the games and features are nearly instantaneous. It's easy to jump from game to game, making exploration pretty effortless. The pause menu is available at any time, letting you switch games or characters, pull up nicely formatted special move info, or change your display options.

Retro visuals, modern gameplay perks

Capcom is advertising the games as arcade perfect, and inside they're obviously running some sort of emulator for the original ROMs. Accuracy appears to be excellent, with funny glitches from the original arcade versions intact. These are not console ports, and they don't have much in the way of extra home features, such as Street Fighter Alpha 3's World Tour mode from the PlayStation 2 port. But in a nod to convenient play with friends, there is a Versus mode is available for all 12 games that allows picking Player 1 and Player 2 characters and the stage, bypassing the arcade trappings for a direct fighting experience.

As old arcade titles, these games are not exactly high resolution. The collection offers three display modes: "Original" uses integer scaling to give you perfectly square pixels, but leaves a border around all four sides (bezel art framing the game is on by default, but can be switched off for a black surround). "Full" scales the image up to fill the vertical space, with a slightly fuzzier picture, but still looks good. "Wide" stretches the image horizontally to fill your screen and should never be used. (Trivia note: Street Fighter III: Second Impact had an experimental widescreen mode in the arcade, it is intact in the collection and can be turned on for a non-stretched widescreen experience.)

There are also two filters you can apply to bring back some of the feel of the original CRT screens these games were designed for. The TV filter adds a subtle scanline effect, softening the pixel edges some, while not making the picture appreciably darker. The Arcade filter leaves off the scanlines and instead adds a shadow mask effect, simulating the RGB phosphors of an arcade monitor. It's a little more pronounced than the scanlines, and it softens the pixelation more, but this option may be too intrusive for those who aren't used to the look of a CRT.

The real extra draws outside of a convenient and legal way to play all of the old games on PC or modern consoles are the online and training modes. Only four of the games support online play with training options: Hyper Fighting, Super Turbo, Alpha 3, and Third Strike. Each support standard ranked play, with a leaderboard, and casual matches, but the standout feature is the lobby system. When you set up a lobby you can choose which of the four titles you want selected, from all to one, and within every match both players pick which title they'd like to play. If there's a conflict, one is randomly picked. It's a blast to jump from one game to the next, playing a variety of characters and styles in one online session. This feature really brings back the arcade experience of easily walking with your quarter to the next game.

It's still too early to make a real call on the quality of the online play, but initial impressions are mixed. It can be hit or miss—one time you get a smooth experience, the next it's something more stuttering. There's no way to set connection preferences, so you're at the mercy of the game's matching system. The netcode does appear to be using a rollback system (this is a good thing, read here to understand more) but there are some concerns that the implementation may have unnecessary frame dropping. Launch day is always a tricky time to evaluate netcode, but keep expectations in check. When it works well it feels great, when it stutters it can be frustrating.

When picking a platform to purchase, keep in mind the online play is not cross-platform, and your player pool will vary as such. PlayStation 4 is the only console with Street Fighter V, which will likely be the tournament standard, so it will probably have the largest player base. Switch will be hard to beat for convenience, but don't count on any of your opponents moving beyond Wi-Fi since you can't use Ethernet without an adapter. Choose wisely!

We await your return, warrior

Most gamers have probably had some experience with a Street Fighter game by now. If you haven't, this is an excellent way to get your feet wet and experience this history of the game. Even if you never hop online, the arcade playthroughs are still a lot of fun, complete with cheap bosses, and easy access to the special move instructions makes picking up new characters pretty painless. If you're a vet or already have a favorite title you want to revisit, it's convenient to have all the major gaming platforms supported for a reasonable price.

As noted earlier, the 12 game count is a bit padded, Street Fighter 1 is a novelty you're probably only going to try once or twice, and most people will skip the earlier versions of Street Fighter II for the more polished later versions and their extra features. But it's a lot of fun to easily load up a more obscure title like Street Fighter III: Second Impact, which features beautiful sprite art and some of the coolest stages of the whole series. Backgrounds switch from dark and rainy to bright and sunny, new areas open up between rounds, and Elana's Africa stage features a bridge that collapses between rounds, dropping the players down to a new level before continuing the fight.

The four titles with online play also feature a solid training mode, where you can set your super meter to never run out to practice moves, life regenerates so you never have to stop and restart, and you can record and play back a CPU dummy to test out ideas. If you need practice doing your fireball or dragon punch motions, that's the place to do it.

If you're not already familiar with the online versions here's a quick breakdown.

Hyper Fighting, also commonly known as Street Fighter II Turbo, is the quintessential classic in its most pure form. It features all the upgrades from the original Street Fighter II (such as being able to play mirror matches against the same character, or play the boss characters), without the extra weight of super meters and more advanced mechanics. It also adds a dose of speed. If you just want to jump around, sweep the leg, and throw fireballs, this is your jam.

Super Turbo is the final version of the Street Fighter II series. Along with adding four more characters (Cammy, Fei Long, T. Hawk, and Dee Jay) there's a super meter bar, which when full lets you execute a high damaging attack. Super Turbo is still played competitively, and it's the most common form of Street Fighter II still in active play. If you want to play the old game more seriously this is the best choice, with the largest roster and the most active players. Super moves can take a little practice to pull off, especially as the older titles were more strict with their inputs, but if you can throw a fireball you can learn to do a super.

Alpha 3 is the final title in the Alpha series (known as Street Fighter Zero in Japan) and it's a prequel to Street Fighter II. Characters in this game are younger, with a more pronounced anime style. This game is a bit more complicated, with each character able to select from three "ISM" fighting styles. X-ISM plays much like Super Turbo, with a single super meter. A-ISM adds a multi-bar super meter, with a greater variety of super moves and more advanced moves like air blocking. V-ISM ditches the super for a custom combo system that, once mastered, is the strongest (and cheesiest) play style, while keeping the new tools like air blocking.

Third Strike is the culmination of the pixel art pure Street Fighter games. Known for its fluid animation, it's often cited as one of the best animated sprite games ever. Much of the familiar cast is gone, replaced by newcomers with different fighting styles. You can still play Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, or Akuma, but this game adds new fighters like the gentleman boxer Dudley or the divekicking twins Yun and Yang. The game features a new parry mechanic, where you can tap forward to block a move without taking any damage, and Third Strike players get frame advantage, allowing you to counterattack. The parry was immortalized in the popular video Evo Moment 37, where Japanese player Daigo Umehara skillfully parries a super attack from American player Justin Wong. Many current Street Fighter players cite that video as the inspiration for playing the game.

One final question: D-pad or fightstick?

The 30th Anniversary Collection is available on most modern platforms, giving you a variety of controller options. There is nothing wrong with sticking with a d-pad, or even analog stick, if that's what your most comfortable with. If you're looking for a more authentic arcade experience, or just can't resist the sexy allure of a balltop and shiny buttons, you can also pick up a fightstick.

With the popularity of fighting games on the rise again, there are a lot of options, ranging from cheap (usually not worth it) to expensive (serious players will find value, others might wince at the price). A great middle of the road option that will give you professional quality controls without breaking the bank too badly is the Hori Real Arcade Pro. Here are Amazon links for various platform versions, but if you have questions about sticks put them in the comments and I'll help you out: Hori Real Arcade Pro for PS4/PC | Hori Real Arcade Pro for Xbox/PC | Hori Real Arcade Pro for Switch.

If you're a Switch owner, here's a bonus trick for you. Normally you can only plug in a wired controller while your Switch is docked. But if you want portable screen action while still using your arcade stick, you can pick up a portable stand and a USB-C hub to plug into the bottom of your Switch. With those, players can connect two controllers to the device for head to head gaming on the go.

Editor's note: The bulk of the playtesting for this review was done on the Switch version of the game.

The Good

Easy access to some of the best fighting games ever made on your plaform of choice.

The Bad

Inconsistent netcode might drive you a little crazy

The Ugly

Alpha 2 doesn't get online or training modes. Capcom, please...

The Verdict

A solid collection, worth the price for both new and curious players and those who want to revisit some favorites.

Aurich Lawson Creative Director

Aurich is the creative director at Ars Technica, where he oversees the look and feel of the site as well as the day-to-day story graphic needs.

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