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CAPCOM Releasing Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection

CAPCOM is celebrating the 30th anniversary of one of their most iconic game franchise: Street Fighter. The revolutionary arcade game which changed the fighting game genre and game controls forever will get a collection of 12 titles in one package. Specifically, this collection will include: Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, SF2: Champion Edition, SF2: Hyper Fighting, Super SF2, Super SF2 Turbo, SF Alpha, SF Alpha 2, SF Alpha 3, Street Fighter 3, SF3: 2nd Impact and SF3: 3rd Strike. These are all the original arcade releases prior to the year 2000, with SF3: 3rd Strike hitting the arcades in 1999. It took 10 more years until the franchise was revived again with Street Fighter IV.

May 2018 Release Date

The release date is currently set for May 2018. If these games are already out, why is the release date is still half a year away? That is because CAPCOM is promising arcade perfect ports. That means every frame and every millisecond of gameplay has to conform with the traditional timing. Unlike other eSports games, Street Fighter requires the tightest timing requirement for move execution. Deviation of frame-rates from the original will throw competitive players off.

Plus, many of the tactics used in competitions actually make use of built-in non-deliberate bugs in the game. In Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike for example, moving an extra distance is possible from cancelling a specific normal move into a throw or a special. This is called the “Kara” cancel and it is a feature tournament players exploit and rely on to win matches. Fixing this little bug would drastically affect the character ranking and would alter the game dynamics completely. The same goes for other features in the rest of the series.

Keeping Fighting Game Classics Alive

If the anniversary collection is indeed an arcade perfect port, this game could turn into another eSports win for CAPCOM. Most of the legacy games in tournaments are still on actual arcade machines. These machines are becoming rarer and rarer as their boards start to die. The monitor for arcade machines itself are no longer manufactured. So future repairs are almost impossible. Which is why creating an arcade perfect port for all older Street Fighter games is necessary.

Moreover, CAPCOM is also providing ranked matches and leader-boards for tournament favourites. This includes Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter 2: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter 3 Third Strike. Plus, casual and non-competitive fans also have access to in-game art, interactive timeline, concept art, music archive, and more.

Once it does come out on May 2018, the 30th Anniversary Collection will be available on PC via Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch.