Doesn’t time fly? In a year where Burnout Paradise is getting a 10 year anniversary remaster, it’s scary how fast things come and go. Yay, we’re all going to die someday! Ahem, anyway, it’s been just over two years now since Street Fighter V hit consoles with a disappointing thud and after hearing a lot more positive things as of late about the state of the game, it’s time to jump back in and take a look. And by the looks of things, the game is finally where it should’ve been at launch. So, congratulations Capcom?
The Arcade Edition as it is dubbed came out in February and is a free update for those that already own the game, finally adding an Arcade Mode that a lot of people were asking for. It’s integrated in quite a clever way as well. It’s split into six tiers, each with a different number of opponents and each tier is named after a specific Street Fighter game. The gimmick being each tier only consists of characters from that specific game. So choose Street Fighter II if you want to do battle with Cammy, or maybe you prefer some of the newer characters so choose V if you want to go against Rashid.
It’s all presented well with the classic plane sound as it flies to each opponent’s country, sadly though it’s just the regular announcer, not the classic Street Fighter II one. Music during each win or lose screen is remixed from the classic games too, it’s a nice little celebration of Street Fighter’s history a couple of months before the 30th Anniversary Collection hits.
Considering it’s been over a year since my last check in with the game, the game has seen significant changes with roster, menu layout and various other additions. Firstly the roster has a whole crop of new talent, most of which I’m unable to use because I lack the necessary fight money to purchase them. And no, I’m not spending real money on a game when Yakuza 6 is just around the corner. Sorry! What I will say though is that the roster now feels suitably beefy with a number of classic and new characters bolstering the game. From the likes of classic Sakura to the screen filling size of Abigail. There’s a good range of styles on display.
Earning fight money seemed to be a slow process from what I witnessed. You do have challenges to complete in a day as well as the usual online and offline modes. Seeing as it’s been a while since I last played SFV the store is thrilled to the brim with stuff. Other than characters there’s also stages and costumes. It would take you many months to afford them all.
While Arcade Mode was my main reason for jumping back in, I did stop around for a bit following this, reminding myself how good the actual gameplay is. It all came flooding back as I delved back into online, trying out the second V trigger moves that are also new to Arcade Mode. It’s a shame that this isn’t the version of Street Fighter V that launched back in 2016. Rather than the online focused, bare bones release that we got it would’ve been full of content and that would’ve come across in the sales and reviews.
So I think for the first time I’m ready to wholeheartedly recommend Street Fighter V to anyone, not just the die hard, EVO watching fans. It was a solid base game looking for content. Now it’s a solid base with enough content to satisfy anyone. Maybe next time Capcom this is how you release your full price game.