Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Wishlist

It feels as if it were only yesterday I imported Hyper Street Fighter II as part of the series’ 15th anniversary. It later came to the US with SFIII: 3S as a pretty sweet package. As 2017 is now more than halfway done, I remain curious as to how Capcom plans on celebrating. News started to surface this week that an anniversary collection might be coming.

As exciting as it might be, a wishlist of what could be should be reality-checked. Does anyone remember the Street Fighter Collection from back in ’97? After months of hoping for a complete compilation of SFII we ended up getting two games rather than one. Surely the arcade ROMS couldn’t fit in one collection?

That may be unfair, as we later got the excellent Fighters’ Generation / Alpha Anthology which showed Capcom could do it right. But while I should really be cautiously optimistic, I’m going to throw that caution to the wind and express my excitement over the possibilities.

With Ultra Street Fighter II newly-on shelves, I’m not sure that’ll be part of this package and they can’t realistically put out the HD Remake if USFII is already out. Hyper Street Fighter II may be more likely, but both games are just broken from a competitive standpoint. However, either game would be great for the collection and USFII may be the easiest to port over. I think a form of SFII is almost required for the 30th anniversary.

As for SFIII, a collection of all three versions would be sexy as hell, but I think a 3S Online Edition translation would suffice for most purposes. It could be done easily enough as they’ve brought Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and Ultra Street Fighter IV over to the current-gen systems.

Speaking of…I wouldn’t expect any original SF or SFIV games to be involved.

So what are we left with? Oh…just my favorite Street Fighter series of them all. The Zero/Alpha games launched as I got into college and the animations, style, sound effects, roster and overall feel remain the best of them all. They hearken to a different time of my life, of gaming, that whole thing. I remember going to the mall to play as Adon in SFA. I bought my first Playstation alongside a fight stick and SFA2. I imported SFZ3 and my fascination turned into an obsession. The aforementioned collection of Zero/Alpha games is so utterly spectacular and complete, I would do anything to have those games playable on the PS4.

However, that may be a bit too optimistic. That’s an awful lot of upgrading, but I truly don’t think a 30th-anniversary collection would be complete without the Zero/Alpha games. I’m not sure precisely how they could work them into this collection but I think it has to happen. It’s entirely possible we just get one game and as Zero 3 really encompasses everything the series stood for, with its Isms and vast roster, you then wonder what version of SFZ3 they’d include. The GBA and PSP versions are the most complete, but with a max resolution of 480×272, it’s simply unacceptable on a big screen. That’s a dilemma. I’d prefer not have an incomplete collection all these years later, but a full one might require too much work. Oh, if I could just get Z2A/A2G, I’d be so friggin’ happy.

I think we’re above a anything would be better than nothing. We’re a far cry from the bare-bones ports and translations of the mid-to-late 90s. There’s no reason this shouldn’t be a kick-ass collection. Having bought so many versions of SFII (no fewer than 6), SFIII (maybe 2?), SFIV (vanilla, Super, AE, Ultra, Ultra on the PS4), and now SFV (base game + 2 seasons of DLC). Please don’t fuck this up, Capcom. The 30th anniversary should celebrate US as much as it should celebrate SF.

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