It's easy, even obnoxious, to be the "You weren't there maaaan..." guy. No-one likes that guy. But it's hard to put into words what it was like when Street Fighter II exploded onto the arcade scene back in 1991. It was an absolute phenomenon, one that nobody saw coming.
Seemingly overnight, everyone was thirsty for info of this exciting new fighting title. You'd visit your local arcade weekly, desperately hoping they'd have installed the game. Then whole weekends were spent pumping coins into the cabinet, fueled by an expensive desire to become the most unstoppable in your 'hood. At that time in the schoolyard, Street Fighter II supremacy was everything.
Once the SNES release was announced, things went into overdrive. People were frantically looking into console mods and the (then-impenetrable) import scene, paying upwards of £200 to get hold of the Japanese release because Fuck PAL. The addiction spread hard and fast. Street Fighter II wasn't just a video game, it was the video game. In fact. People were calling it the best video game of all time.
It's been over two decades since then. Capcom's iconic fighting game has left a plethora of best-selling titles in its wake. Mainline releases, spin-offs, remakes. Hell, even great anime, comics and ill-advised movies and cartoons. Street Fighter is a globally recognised brand, a reputation built through a storied history of quality titles that never forgot the base pleasure of locking two rivals in battle, driven by the desire to become the greatest World Warrior.
Now, some thirty years since the launch of 1987's Street Fighter, Capcom have released a compilation of the franchise's mainline '90s releases. Developed by Digital Eclipse, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection presents a decade of fighting game excellence, all in one neat package. Let's knuckle up.
via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/review-street-fighter-30th-anniversary-collection-504870.phtml