Street
Fighter: Anniversary Collection
REVIEW:
Created
to celebrate the Street Fighter's 15 years young, and 27 million copies
sold worldwide,
Street Fighter: Anniversary Collection contains two games: Hyper Street Fighter II:
The Anniversary Edition and Street
Fighter III: 3rd Strike (which was previously only available on Dreamcast
& Arcade in North America). Basically, if you don't own a Dreamcast or
have access to a local arcade
with 3rd Strike, Anniversary Collection is your ticket to one
of the best 2D fighting games in existence. A new spin on Street Fighter 2
also might be worth the price of admission, if not for nostalgia value alone.
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Thought
Super Turbo
was the final SF2 installment? Think again!
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Before we get to talking about 3rd Strike (a game that deserves to be
talked about more often), good old Street Fighter 2 received an
innovative new feature. Just when you thought Capcom was surely finished with
the SF2 series, they drop Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary
Edition on us. This unique edition of SF2 enables players to use and fight against
all previous versions of characters from previous installment (World
Warrior, Champion Edition, Turbo, Super, and Super Turbo) for a total of 65
different variations! 
For example: Chun Li from Super
Street Fighter 2 Turbo can face off against the original Ryu from Street Fighter 2:
World Warrior...
(complete with accurate character selection screen artwork, by the way!) This
crazy new mode allows for some very fun flashbacks, dream match-ups, and the ability to
experience SF2 in an entirely new way!
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Blanka
spinning head first into a Yoga Flame.
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Finally,
as the true "headliner" of the collection... the brilliant 2D
masterpiece known as SFIII: Third Strike
makes its debut on PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. Capcom crammed everything from the arcade
classic into the PS2 port without compromising any animations or smudging any
of the 2D brilliance. Capcom also included a new "color filtering" option
which lessens the color intensity, but nicely smoothes out some
of the jagged edges of the 2D sprites.
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Bwahahahaha...
these guys are cool.
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Overall, I'd say the PS2 version of 3rd Strike looks
equally good (or possibly even better) than the Dreamcast version with the filter
option turned
on (especially when using an HDTV). Funny though, how the intro still maintains some noticeably jagged edges
within those forever-beautiful sketches by Daigo Ikeno. (Ahh well... I'm
nitpicking here.)
The new port also
includes an all new "original" soundtrack which was made specifically for
Anniversary Collection. The "Arrange" soundtrack is turned on by default, and I actually
prefer it over the Original. It's definitely nice to have the option
for fresh new tunes in a game I'll potentially put many more hours into!
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Dream
match-ups!
(Super SF2 Fei Long versus Super Turbo Dee Jay.)
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| Page Updated: |
November
14th, 2024 |
| Developer(s): |
Capcom |
| Publisher(s): |
Capcom |
| Platform(s): |
PlayStation
2, Xbox
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| Release Date(s): |
Aug. 31st, 2004  PS2
Oct. 28th, 2004  Xbox
Feb. 22nd, 2005 Xbox
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| Characters: |
Ryu,
Ken Masters,
Chun-Li,
Guile,
Dhalsim,
Blanka,
Zangief,
E. Honda,
Balrog,
Vega,
Sagat, M.
Bison,
Cammy,
Fei
Long, Dee Jay, T.
Hawk, Dudley,
Alex,
Yun,
Yang,
Ibuki,
Necro,
Sean,
Oro,
Elena,
Hugo,
Urien,
Remy,
Makoto,
Q,
Twelve,
Akuma,
Gill
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Featured Video:
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| Related Games: |
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Street Fighter
Alpha: Anthology, Capcom
Fighting Collection, Capcom Fighting Collection 2,
Street
Fighter, Street Fighter 2, Street
Fighter 2 Champion Edition,
Street Fighter
2 Turbo, Super Street Fighter 2,
Super
Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Super Street Fighter
2 Turbo: Revival, Super SF2 Turbo HD Remix, SFIII: New Generation, SFIII: 2nd Impact, SFIII: 3rd Strike, SFIII: 3rd Strike Online Edition, Street Fighter 4, Super
SF4, Super SF4: Arcade Edition, Ultra Street Fighter 4,
Street Fighter 5,
SF5: Champion Edition, Street
Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street
Fighter Alpha 3, SFA3 Upper, SFA3 Max, Street Fighter EX,
Street
Fighter EX2, Street Fighter EX3, Street
Fighter: The Movie,
TEKKEN 5 |
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Music / Sound Effects
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9.0 / 10
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Innovation
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8.0 / 10
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Art Direction
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8.0 / 10
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Customization
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9.0 / 10
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Options / Extras
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8.0 / 10
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Intro / Presentation
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9.0 / 10
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Replayability / Fun
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9.0 / 10
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BOTTOM LINE
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9.0
/
10
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Review based on
PS2 version
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| Final
Words: |
In addition to two genre-defining
2D fighting games from Capcom, the Anniversary Collection disk contains a full
(but sadly censored) version of Street Fighter:
The Animated Movie... still one of the best video game animated movies of all time, of
course. What a cool package!
This compilation was no doubt an entertaining and appreciated release for old
school Street
Fighter players, and especially for fans in the mid 2000's who didn't really have any "new" Street Fighter games to play at the
time, sadly.
(By the way, you guys should come over to TEKKEN 5 scene at arcades, because it's
hot.)  Just
because you enjoy the classic doesn't mean you can't experience the latest and
greatest 3D fighting games also! But
I digress... Also worth mentioning,
the text in the
intro of Anniversary Collection looks like it came straight from TFG... doesn't it!? 
"Fighting is Art"... and "True Fighting
Game Enthusiasts". While it's simple and to the point, Anniversary
Collection still holds up as one of the best Street Fighter compilation
titles to date. (Street Fighter Alpha Anthology is another compilation not to be
missed!)
A full movie, two legendary fighting games, and a new and unique way
to enjoy the Street Fighter II engine. Worth owning? Hell yes.
~TFG
Webmaster |
@Fighters_Gen
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