Street Fighter Anniversary Collection is a bundle of two Street Fighter games: Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition, and Street Fighter III 3rd Strike - Fight for the Future. It was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, both versions are nearly identical, but for the latter version offering online competitive play. The PlayStation 2 version of the bundle was only released in North America, since the PS2 versions of Hyper Street Fighter II and 3rd Strike were released as separate stand-alone games in Japan and the PAL region (Hyper only). The Xbox version of the bundle was released in all three regions.
The Xbox title is backwards compatible with the Xbox 360, although the Xbox 360 version has minor graphical bugs in 3rd Strike.
Featured games
Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition
- Hyper Street Fighter II is an arranged version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo that allows players to select from all playable incarnations of the characters that were featured in the five arcade installments of Street Fighter II. An earlier form of this concept was featured in the compilation Street Fighter Collection 2 (for the PlayStation), which included a "Deluxe Versus Mode" allowing two players to fight each other using characters from the first three versions of the game. Although originally released as a PlayStation 2 game in Japan, it saw a limited arcade release in Japan and Asia.
Hyper allows players to select from up to five different incarnations of the character roster: the original:
- NORMAL (based on 1991's Street Fighter II - The World Warrior)
- It features the eight World Warriors from the original Street Fighter II such as Ryu, E. Honda, Blanka, Guile, Ken, Chun-Li, Zangief, and Dhalsim. If both players choose this version of the game, mirror matches will not be allowed, as the original game did not support them, even lacking different character color palettes.
- CHAMP a.k.a. DASH (based on 1992's Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition)
- TURBO a.k.a. DASH TURBO (based on 1992's Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting)
- Where new moves are added and the game such as Ryu & Ken's Kuchu Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, Chun-Li's Kikoken, Blanka's Vertical Roll, E. Honda's Sumo Smash, Zangief's Quick Double Lariat, and Dhalsim's Yoga Teleport. The balance is even more upgraded than in both NORMAL and CHAMP modes.
- SUPER (based on 1993's Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers)
- SUPER.T a.k.a SUPER.X (based on 1994's Super Street Fighter II Turbo)
Each version of the characters play exactly as they were featured in said game (albeit minor bugs/changes, such as Super Sagat's Tiger Shots and Vega's Wall Dive command), including the use of the same animation frames and voice actors. Players can pit a character from one version against another version from a different game (i.e.: "Champ" Ken vs. "Super" Cammy, "Normal" Guile vs. "Turbo" Chun-Li). Rules from each game apply when selecting one's roster (for example, one cannot choose the same character as the other player if both are playing on "Normal" or play as the four bosses). In the single player game, all the opponents faced are in "Super T" mode.
The fighting stages use the same backgrounds and graphics from Super Turbo but restores a few breakable elements not seen since the original Street Fighter II such as the Fūrinkazan signs in Ryu's stage, the dual barrels and stack of boxes in Ken's stage, and the lamp from E. Honda's stage.
The character endings are the same as Super Turbo. The game also allows the option to set between CPS1, CPS2 and arranged renditions of the game's soundtrack (the arranged versions were originally used for the FM Towns and 3DO versions of Superand Super Turbo respectively). When using the CPS orchestration, CPS-style music from the obscure Japanese Sharp X68000 port of Super Street Fighter II is used for the "New Challengers" and Akuma, as they were not present in the original CPS SFII trilogy and thus did not originally have any CPS arrangements. All bonus stages are removed, although curiously, the background music is retained and can be found in the gallery section of the main menu.
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike - Fight for the Future
- The port of Street Fighter III 3rd Strike is primarily the same as the Dreamcast version of the game from 2000, with the added post-match grading system, increased hit detection accuracy with the Progressive Hit Frame System, and other extras over the arcade original. Additionally, the Xbox version could be played online via the original Xbox Live; the Dreamcast version featured an online versus mode as well, but this feature was only available in the Japanese release.
Special features
Gallery
Includes clips of the demo intro and staff roll cutscenes from all five Street Fighter II games as well as the entire official soundtracks of the CPS1, CPS2 and Arranged versions of.
The Anniversary Collection contains no official artwork and blueprint concept gallery of Street Fighter II media, due to them already being featured in another Arcade compilation called Capcom Classics Collection in 2005.
Street Fighter II - The Animated Movie
Also known as Street Fighter II Movie (1994) in Japan, this feature film can also be found on the PlayStation 2 version, as well as the North American and European Xbox version.
Capcom aimed at avoiding to receive the rating of M-for-Mature, by making this version of the film to be more censored than the PG-13 release (originally made during development as an R-rated film) in terms of foul language that mostly came from Ken, Guile, E. Honda, and Dee Jay's dialogues; graphic nudity in Chun Li's explicit shower scene; and contains some other minor cuts to scenes involving intense brutal and bloody violence caused by Ryu to Sagat, Blanka to Zangief, and Vega to Chun-Li for example.
Merchandise
Street Fighter - SOTA Action Figures
SOTA Toys have made a long running series of Street Fighter action figures for the release of the 15th Anniversary Collection. But has canceled all future figurines due to being finished with the franchise's license. NECA has taken over and has released their first wave of figures based on the character models from Street Fighter IV. The Neca figures are well received as the successor and on par if not better than what SOTA has created. The first round for NECA includes Crimson Viper, Ken Masters, and Ryu.
Street Fighter - 15th Anniversary Controllers
Before the release of Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, there were Button pads for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox made during the releases of the Anniversary Collection.
Each controller feature one of several characters from the Street Fighter series. With the Guile and M.Bison being Xbox only, and Akuma being the only variant useable on both PS2 and Xbox
Each controller;
- Comes in its own collector’s box donning the respective character and includes a certificate of authenticity.
- A special comic book preview of the Street Fighter series.
- N-Imation lenticular hologram in the center with each controllers respective character preforming an iconic move from the series, with artwork from UDON Entertainment.
The controller is also know for its shape. For instance, The L1 and R1 buttons have been moved to the face of the controller to mimic the layout of a Street Fighter arcade cabinet. . L2 and R2 buttons have had there positions tweak as well.
The D-pad is made in such a way to better allow for “quarter-circle” and “half-circle” moves, at the cost of miss-input. The D-pad is also quite a bit deeper than a normal D-pad on a Xbox or PlayStation, so there is a distinct “click” when it is moved in a certain direction. The overall shape of the controller is that of a Sega Genesis controller, However the Dualshock joysticks and the rumble have been removed.
There are only seven variants of each exclusive controller:
- The Ryu Edition - Red & White
- For the PlayStation 2 only.
- The Ken Edition - Red & Yellow
- For the PlayStation 2 only.
- The Chun-Li Edition - White & Blue
- For the PlayStation 2 only.
- The Akuma Edition #1 - Purple & Black
- For the PlayStation 2 only.
- The Akuma Edition #2 - Purple & Black
- For the Xbox only.
- The Guile Edition - Green & Gold
- For the Xbox only.
- The M. Bison Edition - Red & Gray
- For the Xbox only.
Street Fighter - 15th Anniversary Edition Arcade Stick
To further commemorate the Anniversary Collection, NubyTech premiered a new arcade stick, that is compatible with both the PS2 and Xbox, the stick is, in many ways, one of the most nostalgic and faithful arcade sticks available today. In keeping with a tradition of products that look as good as they play, NubyTech designed a stick equally at home at a major tournament or perched on a collector's shelf. The packaging is impressive, sporting Street Fighter artwork specifically commissioned by NubyTech to honor the series' past and present. From Street Fighter II to the Street Fighter Alpha 3 cast. The box has two top flaps, the first of which covers a plastic window, and the second of which opens to allow access to the stick itself.
Removing the stick from the box reveals it as a real heavyweight. The casing is heavy duty particle board with a very well finished plastic exterior, while the top panel is a pane of thick plastic that covers the full view of the custom character art. The overall dimensions of the stick are just a bit shy of briefcase size, which really add to the overall visual statement it makes. The bottom of the case opens to reveal a coil for storing the controller wire, and a port for the Xbox Live communicator headset is recessed into the front side of the case. Four rubber feet help the stick stay in place if you have a table in front of your gaming seat.
Reception
There is no edition to the original Street Fighter, as part of the compilation to complete the main non-Alpha trilogy, because of how the game did not receive the same global popularity as its second installment, it would instead later appear in another 15 years on the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection.
The initial Japanese release for Xbox was pulled from shelves within a week of release due to a sound bug. Though initially this was believed to be because the title was discovered to be region-free, Capcom confirmed the title's lack of regional lockout was not a mistake, but an intentional decision by the company.
Trivia
- The plot of Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition centers on M. Bison searching the world for new Shadaloo Warriors and old enemies by starting the Grand Master Challenge Tournament to recruit or brainwash the fighters, while the different plot of Street Fighter II - The Animated Movie centers on M. Bison searching the world for new Shadaloo Warriors or old enemies by sending Monitor Cyborgs worldwide to track down all of the fighters he is trying to recruit or brainwash. The game is canon while the OVA is non-canon.
Video
See also
- Street Fighter Collection (1997)
- Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (2006)
- Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (2018)