MAX REVIEWS: Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection 

Now we need Marvel VS Capcom Collection

What I really love is how fast it boots up and load the games. I can play an online match in all 4 games in less than 5 minutes

The A.I. in some of these older SF games doesn't fuck around. I literally beat Dark Souls with less tries.

I knew the emphasis on "Arcade Perfect" was gonna cause some issues.

A lot of things with the port disappointed me, but playing third strike is always just so much fun and the port did a decent job at letting me experience that game online again! Iron galaxy still did it better tho, jus sayin...

Guile-Go home and be a family man... Max-becomes family man.

Totally agree. I’m still waiting for a SF collection with the console versions of the games. I understand what Capcom was doing with the arcade versions, but I miss the fun of the console versions with the instant accessible modes (instead of entering button combinitations for the extra modes in Alpha 3, for example).

Still weird that people defend the lack of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper since they're both arcade games.

I think what Capcom should do is patch the games to be using the newest version of the arcade ROMs.

Well that explains why SF2 turbo is ridiculously hard. I can't get past the first person...

It’ll be a while before a arcade port dethrones Third Strike Online as the king of ports. Wished Iron Galaxy was hired for this, they’re godlike.

Honestly I got this mainly so I can finally play third strike and the alpha series for the first time and I’m glad I got it on sale, even if it’s not the best version of 3rd strike I love playing it ^^ though I wouldn’t be playing any fighting games like this if I wasn’t introduced to you, thank you for all your hard work max ^^

I just got my copy today on the Switch, I wish they did this with Mortal Kombat bring Mortal Kombat Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy Mortal Kombat 3 all of them damn it, get over here!!!!!

Super Turbo is brutal. It makes arcade mode unplayable. And I wish we had parry training in Third Strike, but I still love this collection.

I loved this game. I haven’t played 3rd Strike since online and honestly this didn’t disappoint. Sure, I had some laggy matches, but they weren’t very common. This game made me fall in love with SF all over again😊❤️

The biggest problems I have are: 1. No A2 Gold, A3 Upper 2. It manages to screw both pad and stick players. Want 3P and 3K set to L1 and L2? Can't even map 3P or 3K so the Alpha series is more cumbersome than needed for pad users. Wanna use a stick? Unless you have a touchpad you're gonna have a bad time.

Others wanted Alpha 2, I wanted the version of Alpha 3 that had the most characters 😂😂 balrog and dee jay miss us

I wish they used the updated version of Alpha 3 with all of the characters, or at least the version that had classic characters like Balrog, T hawk and Fei long

I personally really like the collection. I’ve been a passive fan of street fighter for years and only recently started getting more into it through SFV and this collection gave me a good opportunity to experience the series that I feel I’ve been missing out on. Plus, it didn’t cost me too much since I pre ordered it, traded stuff in, got a discount and on top of that I got a free copy of Street fighter IV. So I feel pretty valid for my purchase. But from what i hear, on top of what max says, this set definitely has its issues. But I think I can work past it since I mainly plan on playing through the arcade and play it with friends on the couch. So if you’re looking for superb online experience, you won’t find it. But if you’re hankering a chance to play a good bit of video game history on your ps4, xb1, or switch, here’s the game for you.

Let me break down some things 1) The versus mode is just a savestate that the emulator loads in. This is why you don't see a win counter, and why you likely start out on the same stage at the beginning. 2) The entire 'emulation' is likely a hacked MAME fork, going how Digital Eclipse developer Frank Cifaldi alluded to how 'lucrative' volunteer open source emulation could be for the videogames industry and how the MAME licensing allowed for this. So literally zero hard effort has been applied other than making art galleries and a hoky UI. 3) The training mode is a rom hack that basically gives the opponent infinite health, it's not a proper training mode. 4) Netplay, even with a good connection, seems to be running at frameskip 2/3 or something. It doesn't look smooth at all. It really is a lazy cashgrab, sorry. Capcom should have aimed higher for this collection, and plain arcade ports should have never been a 'selling point', it's not, it just highlights the laziness and cash grab-ism. MAME did most of the hard work and heavylifting here, not Digital Eclipse.

I want this collection (35th Anniversary, maybe): Street Fighter Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Street Fighter II: Champion Edition Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers Super Street Fighter II Turbo Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dream Street Fighter Alpha 2/Gold Street Fighter Alpha 3/Upper/MAX Street Fighter EX Street Fighter EX 2/Plus/Alpha Street Fighter EX3 Street Fighter III Street Fighter III: Double Impact Street Fighter III: Third Strike/Online Edition Street Fighter IV Super Street Fighter IV/Arcade Edition/Arcade Edition 2012 Ultra Street Fighter IV+Omega Mode Street Fighter V+all DLC All with fully functional netcode, training mode with instuctions/tutorials, full soundtracks (including the 25th Anniversary soundtrack), extra materials, official art, and all the bells and whistles. Now that's a collection.

Its really sad how this collection feels so lazily put together seeing as its just barebones vanilla ports. no extra characters, no extra modes or stages just makes them super incomplete. No Alpha 2 Gold, No Alpha 3 Upper/MAX, no 3rd Strike Online Edition that had much better online play. kinda bothers me that other reviewers like Gamexplain or RGT 85 havent pointed this out in their videos. glad you did Max. they dont even show victory quotes. it almost feels rushed considering the numerous online issues that were pointed out in other reviews. I do agree that the artwork and concepts and the galleries were the few good things about the collection though. I for the life of me cant figure out what Capcom was thinking with not including the console versions of these games that not only fixed most of these issues but had a heck of alot more content to offer. "Arcade perfect" is hardly a selling point when the "arcade perfect" versions were some of the most buggy and had major audio problems. And for any morons defending this that its "supposed to replecate the arcades". 1. Alpha 3 MAX WAS in arcades so that point is moot 2. that doesnt excuse the barebones ports and audio problems up the ass that may as well came from Fightcade(no offense to Fightcade) 3. there's nothing wrong with having extra modes, content and options for all to enjoy. this is supposed to be a collection after all

It really baffles me how Capcom wasnt smart enough to hire Iron Galaxy and GGPPO to port this. they wouldve done a much infinitely better job understanding what versions of each specific game was the most well loved and superior version. Seriously the online feature is shit in terms of how it’s set up. considering their past history successfully porting 3S, it makes you think who's bright idea was it to have Digital Freakin Eclipse do the collection

I've never really played street fighter but I'm having a lot of fun with alpha 3

Got my copy today, and man the a.i is still a problem, especially for people like me that aren't amazing at SF games. Also yeah Third Strike online edition is way better than the version on here. Still nice to have all of these games in one collection though.

Thanks for the unbiased review Max, I'm skipping this one.

Does anyone in 2022 know if many of these issues were resolved in patches?

I was so massively excited for this collection, having beforehand never played any SF3 games or SF1 - I counted down the days so closely to its release. I love this collection so much

I'm very satisfied with this collection honestly. I wish gem fighters was included though that game was fun

Watching 2021 did any issues get patched?

It makes no sense for them to use inferior ROMs of any of these games SMH dammit Capcom

just got my sanwa buttons, going to be playing this all weekend

" Make the first shot, so what's it gonna be? Trapped in the new world of Street Fighter 3!" Literally 90% of the reason I need this SOOOOO badly!

I want the missing characters to be added to alpha 3 from anthology collection I would hope a patch comes to fix that and make alpha two online and training mode

I completely agree with you on the grading system. When I would play 3rd strike with my friend we would use it to see how badly we beat each other! Then we would laugh about it afterwards. Definitely will miss it.

I bought the 30th edition just so I can play 3rd strike for the first time just recently, I wish I did that sooner

Its kinda sad how the Alpha Anthology collection had more extra content that is more fun and accessible for everyone in 3 games(4 counting Gem Fighters) than this "collection" had in 12 EDIT: Actually there are more counting Alpha 2 Gold and Alpha 3 Upper

It was released a tuesday

I got it for SF1 and Third Strike. The rest is bonus for me

The difficulty is ridiculously high in these games..

AHHH!!!! My Sub made it into the video!! I can now die happy!!!

I agree with many of your points. The Online Edition of Third Strike is a vastly superior version of Third Strike, but there's no doubt the there is a lot of value in a package with so many titles. I have never played Alpha 1 or 2 before and I love having the entire mainline series of games available on Steam. Again, as you mentioned, the Super Turbo's AI is incredibly difficult and not all that fun for casual playing. Literally the only way I could beat the ST computers was if I used save states after EVERY successful hit I landed. Granted, this did lead me to fight the infamous ST Akuma for the first time so that was nice.

Its a shame that Alpha 3 didnt have world tour mode

People still play the PS3 third strike? That makes me so glad. I can’t wait to meet many challengers over there

Itd be nice if we could get one of these with mortal kombat

too bad they didnt include SF2 HD remix they released on PS3.. that really looked good!

Cammys stage music is 🔥

Funny, my dad bought this for my Xbox and switch and me being a brat didn't want them and immediately just never played em cause they were "old". Now with the pandemic I was bored so I tried em and wow, thanks Dad.

Can't even map 3P or 3K buttons on any of the games. This makes doing air techs in Alpha 3 or EX moves in 3S significantly harder on pad. Even the PS1 port of Alpha 3 had this option. Disappointing.

BACK TO YOUR ROOTS HU MAX WHAT UP FAMILY? CANT FREAKIN WAIT FOR GAME PLAY VIDS GAME ON MAN YOU ROCK

As someone who’s only street fighter game was the one on the 3DS, this game gives me a cool new way to play all the older games that slipped past me.

The only games missing (edit: and must be added) • Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold • Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper • Hyper Street Fighter II

This game is great for my Switch. It is an amazing colection to play on the go. The online play is spotting, but that alone doesn't make me return the game. It's too good to keep onto the Switch.

Wish they make a mortal kombat version of this

My fav SF are: - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Street Fighter III: 3nd Strike

Coming from a SF Scrub, I hate how input ready the A.I is in most of the games.

Capcom living up to their half-assed, uninspired releases.

The 15th Aniversary Collection > 30th Aniversary Collection

Loved the 15th Anniversary collection on ps2, always glad to get these games

I've always enjoyed the animation quality of 3rd Strike immensely. I wish more games (especially 3D ones) would take a look at how to properly make animations. Mostly talking about things that make you feel like every movement has weight, contrast and purpose to it. A fluttering gi after a Hadouken to signify force behind the blast, proper wind-up of limbs on hits making the moment of greatest force at the right spot, etc. I would say Guilty Gear Xrd does the best job of it out of all modern fighters out there regarding this, but none have made me feel like 3rd Strike as of yet.

Looking at the concept art brought back a lot of good memories. One thing I can't figure out is how to access the service menu to change the difficulty. I really wish these weren't basically barebones arcade ports and I wish Capcom packed in some more features - the least of which being menus for arcade mode, versus, training, options, etc. I also miss Third Strike Online and the achievement tracker because it motivated me to practice and try different things.

Really enjoying the collection and it's nice to have access to 3rd strike. But the difficulty on some of these games is vicious to the point that it's not enjoyable. Still happy to have so many games on one disc and the gallery rocks. Capcom need to do a vs collection..a darkstalkers collection and a collection of all their side scrolling beat em ups next.

I played Turbo recently, and jesus, I know I’m not the best street Fighter 2 player, so I’m happy to hear it’s not me being absolutely terrible 😮‍💨

3 years later and 0 win quote screens

We all knew that it was gonna flop without Rainbow Edition :))

Idk about the game as a whole, but. Someone brought this on their switch to our local game shop and when we saw him play 3rd strike; a lot of people waited for a chance to play a round...and yes there was a urien cheese player lol

All we really need is a collection with the BEST versions of Alpha 3 Max, SSF II Turbo HD Remix, Ultra SF IV, and SF III 3rd Strike OE. If that ain't enough, toss in Final Fight 1-3 for when you're in the mood for some old-school beat'em-ups.

I've never played any of the arcade SF games, I pre-ordered this collection and I'm glad I did !

Honestly, I wish it was a collection of the four games that were given online, and were the superior home console versions that came later. Arcade perfect doesn't mean much to me when there's better options.

This is a pretty fair and reasonable assessment of the collection. It's all the iconic arcade roms on a disc (or digital download) with a crapton of artwork from the creation of the classic SF games , so it's more like an archival edition I think. I'd love to see a smaller followup to this that contains just a straight up port of Third Strike Online edition , SFalpha 3 perfect with online play , SF alpha 2 gold with online play and maybe even Super Turbo /Ultra SF2 so you can play the arcade roms mostly untouched or just a nice home conversion for non-purists. Who knows though, I feel like a lot of this collection is kind of a niche product that people will pick up and play for a bit and then have on the shelf more than play hardcore for months. I'd love to see followup collections in this vein - a Darkstalkers/Nightwarriors/Jedahs Damnation set perhaps ? and obviously with the current situation it'd be impossible but how great would it be to get X-men, Marvel superheroes, X-men VS SF, Marvel super heroes VS street fighter and the original Marvel VS capcom in a collection ?

This is definitely a "wait for sale" game...

Great review Max. You should review all fighting games from now on bro. The industry needs more honest fighting game fans to do fair coverages of the genre.

Needs less Sho and more Ryu-Ken

thought i was going crazy about super turbo, im like no way i dont remember the game being this hard on the first level :'(

Man, no wonder I couldn’t get past the 3rd round on ST. That’s some shit. Anyway I’m happy with it. Got to play the original SF for the first time and I won’t have to break out the Dreamcast to play A3, and all the SF III’s anymore.

🤨🤔 I only want the collection because of the SFIII titles. Maybe alpha and alpha2.. mostly 3rd Strike

I haven't seen people talk about it but I hate how I can't customize PPP and KKK onto the extra buttons. Also i love sfa3 but I feel ripped off because I grew up playing the ps1 and using feilong... There's no feilong. It feels hollow, like I didn't need three sf3 and five sf2. I would've been okay with the best version of each game and sf4. In my scenario that's only 7 games. I'm happy I got it for switch because this is definitely just for casual if I would of got it for ps4 or PC I would probably never play it again. Also btw for those who want so3 and want to play online mostly you can also play it on ps4 using PlayStation now.

so japan can say "thanks gaijins, you were our beta testers"(?)

I find these games look better in a custom Mame setup... plenty more artwork too

Im enjoying double impact more than 3rd strike.

About the netcode: the steam version has superior netplay, because Steam has region lock, so u are pretty much getting always people with at the worst 150ms ping. (wich is palyable) Ps4 and Switch u get paired with anybody that has a switch or ps4, thats why u having netcode issues.

For anyone else who doesn't know where their free copy of USF4 is, and I don't know if this is for certain, I've heard that you have to wait a week to get it. They must've done it to stop people from getting the collection, getting USF4, and then returning the game, therefore getting something for nothing.

Also a con: no Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold and no Street Fighter Alpha 3 update with the extra characters exclusive to consules (the arcade version of that can be unlocked in the game "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology") and no "Hyper Street Fighter Alpha", that exclusive 2 player consule might had been great for online matches. At least for the Nintendo Switch, it gave us "Super Street Fighter II: The Tournament Battle" for online matches .

On sale for 20 bucks right now

Sounds like the game for me.

Just remember the pre-online times if youre old enough and enjoy it!

Can you use Juli and Juni in Alpha?

I think the whole collection is running on a CPS1, CPS2, CPS3 Emulator and all of the special points of the game, character select, training on select games and online on select games on a fixed special save state file that loads instantly. This is what I noticed on my Switch, PS4, and Steam versions. These are actual arcade game roms emulated.

Super turbo is crazy hard and it is the game I want to play the most 😔

There is an LTG button...seriously.

Wow!! Did they ever patch any of these many problems???

I was playing SF2T Arcade mode for the first time while doing this review. While I'm definitely a SF Novice, I was baffled as to why I was losing just so dang bad. I was happy to hear that this port has the horrifying difficulty glitch

I'm going to have to rebuy the game again once the Japanese version comes out just for the Japanese ST. They should have just released it with the Japanese version to begin with as that's the version everyone that plays ST plays.

I hope they fix the horrible sound for third strike. Considered by many as the pinnacle of the street fighter experience and the sound effects are dialed down with all the fun impact lost and the music horribly distorted. I've read many comments of people saying that's how the original arcade version was but I'm pretty sure it wasn't this bad. The same is not true for new gen and 2nd impact, they sound awesome on this collection.

So many things I wanted from this collection. Capcom please make Ultimate Console street fighter collection. Alpha 3 being a Acade port cool but World tour level up your character had soo much potential for online. I miss characters they added in PlayStation ver.

this is a great game. I need this video game in my video game collection. I have Mortal Kombat 2 for Xbox one, but I am missing this one in terms of fighting games.

Question, why is Alpha 2 so highly regarded? Shouldn't the third game in the series be the most robust and complete one?

As a casual fighting game fan, love this collection!!!!

Perfect review

Mugen was supposed to be the next installment 😭😭😭