19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
It was better when I was a kid
Date of Review: Oct 28, 2009
The Bottom Line: I loved SF as a kid, but this game did nothing to bring back the fond memories.
I can't say I've been a Street Fighter fan since the beginning, but I did enjoy Street Fighter II: THe World Warrior in my youth. Capcom does their best to bring back this experience and more in the Street Fighter Anniversary collection.
First, I salute Capcom for breaking ground. Karate Champ is the original Martial Arts player versus player experience. Capcom built on this by creating Street Fighter in the late 80's. Unlike Karate Champ, players could launch fireballs and use special moves. This seemed to be accidental as the control system wasn't very forgiving. Never the less, Capcom was breaking ground.
Next comes Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Capcom increased the roster from 2 characters to 8 and gave players a diverse cast of styles to use. This is the main attraction in the Street Fighter Anniversary collection. Capcom added all the versions of every character from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior to Super Street Fighter II: Turbo. The roster is layed out just like Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, however, players can choose to play as any version of a character spanning across the series. What works here is that players have (in essence) the entire collection of the Street Fighter II series. What doesn't work is that it's Street Fighter II. Capcom released updates to Street Fighter II very frequently in the early to mid-90's causing much critisism. I continue with the critisism as there aren't many noticable differences between most versions of Street Fighter II.
The graphics are aged! Compared to King of Fighters or even the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, Street Fighter II looks archaic. The music is still OK, but I was hoping that Capcom would've done something to take advantage of modern sound systems rather than the old Q Sound which supported only stereo. In addition to this, the game is much harder than I remember it. As a child, I could plow through the first 2-3 matches with ease, but finding myself defeated by an imbalanced system was frustrating. While struggling to use the super combos (SSFII:T), it appears that enemies can miraculously grab you right out of any attack and throw. This point of frustration reminded me of why I usually played only against friends.
Street Fighter II includes a gallery of images, sounds, and the Street Fighter II Animated Movie. I would've assumed that the movie would play like a DVD, however you can only pause, resume or skip track. In addition to this, the film is the PG-13 version which omits some language yet still includes a naked Chun-Li shower scene. I used to own the Uncut version of the film on VHS and recall the characters being more distinct. The PG-13 version cuts out a monologue by Vega that reveals the depth of his sociopathic nature. In all, I was pretty disappointed.
Street Fighter III looks just like it did on Dreamcast. The game is much more polished than the Street Fighter II prequel and plays similar to the Street Fighter Alpha games. What I didn't like was the system felt like it was trying to improve on Street Fighter Alpha, yet failed to work. There's an intricate parry stystem. Honestly, I didn't understand this as much as the Alpha Counter System (Street Fighter Alpha series). The fighting felt just like Street Fighter Alpha. The graphics were improved, but the character roster felt bland. In total, I wasn't impressed with Street Fighter III on Dreamcast and the PS2 version didn't make any adjustments to change my opinion.
I will note that the presentation of Street Fighter III is decent. The animation is pretty smooth. It's obvious that Capcom put serious effort into the improvements. The music and audio quality is decent. Though, on my 2.1 system, it didn't make good use of my subwoofer to accentuate hits.
Street Fighter has seen dark times. Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III were not the best in the series. Though SFII helped launch modern fighters, it is a serious eye sore and offers as much playability as Shaq Fu (which isn't saying much). Street Fighter III is OK at best, yet again, I didn't find it as much fun as the Alpha line of Street Fighter games. As for the film, the cut version reduces some of the impact while still keeping in some of the unnecessary scenes.
I do not recommend this title. If you want the Street Fighter II experience, get a Super Nintendo. Street Fighter was a ground breaking series, but Capcom's best was in the mid to late 90's with the Alpha series. Instead, pick up the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology.
