Though this isn't the collection I hope it would be,it is still a worthy addition any fan of fighting games should own.
Hyper Street Fighter 2
Hyper Street Fighter 2 is a upgraded version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.It contains every excellent aspects of SSF2T with one twist:You can select the different versions of each character from previous versions of Street Fighter 2!Remember how Ryu's Hadoken was so powerful in the original SF2 and could easily stun the enemy dizzy with as little as two shots?And remember how they reduced it as newer versions of SF2 were released to balance the gameplay?Well you could select the original Ryu and start easily blasting the enemy AI away or easily repeatedly stun your friends and beat the crap out of them!Basically,you have over 30 characters to play as!However the major flaw wirh this is that some version of each chracters offer no advantage over other versions at all and may even be completely useless in terms of effectiveness in the game.For example,SF2:Champion Edition Vega has no advantages what so ever against other versions of Vega and in fact is significatnly weaker than newer versions!By just jamming all charactersended up making HSF2 a highly unbalanced fighting game.Additionally it really ticks me off they didn't include the enemy AI versions of each character in versions SF2 released previously.I mean if they are going to jam all previous characters as playable in one package,why can't they incldue all enemy AI versions of each game in this package.Plus the enemy AI is insanely difficul!Even in easy mode,I couldn't get pass the first enemy I fight without losing like 80 times!Even long time veterans of Street Fighter 2 will end up getting angry and slamming their controllers on the ground or yelling at the TV for losing ot the ridiculously hard AI!One other thing I am irritated about is the fact that they did not include all stages of each SF2 game.This may be minor,but hey this is an anniversary collection!However there are good things in HSF2.The game allows the option of using the different version of the soundtracks to be played during ingame matches.For example,you could be fighting in Ryu's stage with his SF2 theme instead of his SSF2T stage.They also included cool catchy modern remixes to each characters' songs!Also comes in this game is a gallery moder where you can listent to all ingame soundtracks in the game and watch the introductions of each version of SF2.However,they did not include the each characters' ending in this gallery!They did include the Street Fighter 2 anime movie as a bonus.However they censored the film,taking out cuss words and some blood and violence.They even took out Chun Li's naked bathroom scene.
Capcom tried to make an ultimate edition of SF2 to please fans.But they didn't add alot of things they shoulld have!Overall,HSF2 is not a good as it should have been.
Hyper Street Fighter 2 Score:6.5 out of 10
Street Fighter 3:Third Strike
Considered the best version of Street Fighter 3,SF3:Third Strike is still played and beloved by fighting gamers around the word.I can understand why.Graphically the game is still beautiful.The graphics is on par with modern 2D graphics!The musical score is quite catchy.The voice acting and sound effects are probably the best in the series before Street Fighter 4.Now the gameplay is simply the best aspect of this game.Containing a new cast of characters with only Ryu,Ken,Akuma,and Chun Li back from previous games,many fans were thinking of skipping this and every other versions of SF3.But its good they didn't because they found a deep fighting game when they played this!Every character in SF3:TS with the exception of Ken ,Ryu,and Akuma,plays wildly differently.Simply playing as say Rhemy has a completely different gameplay style from say playing as Mikato!The characters are literally completely well balanced:No character is better than the other!And unlike HSF2,the enemy AI is not insanely diffficult and can easily be adjusted to suit your skills!Simply,SF3:TS is the best Street Fighter game released before SF4!
Score:10 out of 10
Differences from the PS2 version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
The XBOX version dosn't have much difference.The graphics are slightly better and crispier than the PS2 version.But there is one difference that makes buying the XBOX game worth it even if youy already have the PS2 version:ONLINE MULTIPLAYER!The Online Multiplayer is awesome!IThis is one of the only Fighting game titles available with XBOX Live multiplayer along with Guilty Gear X2# Reload(which is simply the best fighting game ever made!) and Capcome does the multiplayer right!There are hardly any lag and man multiplayer mode in both Hyper Street Fighter 2 and Street Fighter 3:Third Strike is intensely fast paced and breathtakingly awesome!
I really wished they added specific addtitions to HSF2.Had they done that,this could have really been an ANNIVERSARY EDITION.But the awesome multiplayer mode and the perfect Street Fighter 3:Third Strike makes up for it!Simple,Street Fighter Anniversary Collections is simply the one of the best Fighting games on the XBOX,both single player mode and multi!
I give Street Fighter Anniversary Collection an outstanding 9 out of 10.