BitSnark

Are you a Street Fighter fan? Do you want buy everything you already own again in unique collectors box thing? Then this $149.99 collectors edition, celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the franchise is for you!

Oooh, pretty.

The Street Fighter 25th Anniversary collectors edition contains the following goodies in both 360 & PS3 editions:

Games

-Street Fighter X Tekken (including all character and Swap Costume DLC)

-Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (with all costume DLC)

-Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

-Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition

Video

-New documentary Blu-ray that highlights the lifelong love affair fans have had with Street Fighter, and how their dedication has affected the game.

-Street Fighter IV, Super SFIV anime movies

-All episodes of the Street Fighter animated series

-Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Light-up Ryu statue

-Brand new statue with light up base. Eight inches tall and frozen in mid Shoryuken.

11 disc soundtrack

-Game music from the past 25 years, including remixes and fan-created music.

64 page hardcover art book

-Containing pieces from fans all over the world.

Ryu’s belt

-Full size martial arts black belt for the aspiring World Warrior. Includes Ryu’s “Furinkazan” in kanji.

Certificate of Authenticity

-Like any good collector’s set, this comes with a lovely piece of paper telling you how limited and special it is. They’re all individually numbered, so get one before they disappear and you have to spend your money on such trivial things like food, bills and rent.

Right.  I couldn’t help but notice that the set comes with ‘all episodes of the Street Fighter animated series’.  There is something very important that needs to be distinguished here; is it the decent Street Fighter II Victory anime TV series, or is it the gut-wrenchingly cretinous US cartoon show that looks like it was designed by Hanna-Babara (Ken Masters looks like Prince Adam from He-Man for fuck’s sake)?  Since if it’s the former than the great, but if it’s the latter, than this set can fuck off and die on the principle of that slight alone.  For the uninitated, here are videos from each so you can see for yourself.  It’s also worth noting that the Street Fighter II Victory series was directed by Gisaburo Sugii, who was also in charge of the fucking excellent Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Also, one other thing that bugs me about this uber-collectors set is that it isn’t really complete.  Would it really have hurt them so much to put ALL of previously released Street Fighter games in one place? Even the shit ones too, like Street Fighter: The Movie and Street Fighter EX3  would have been nice for completist sakes.

As a collectable curio for the ardent Street Fighter afficianado, the notable omissions of other Street Fighter titles is notable and prevents the set from being a ‘must-have’ in any real shape or form and much of the content on show here would likely be duplicated in the collection of any fan worth his or her salt.  Still, for those who have perhaps fallen out of touch with Capcom’s premier fighting franchise, this represents a luxurious if not terribly comprehensive manner with which to reimmerse themselves in the delights of Capcom’s long running fistic dynasty.

Capcom has also released a trailer for the set which you can see below:

The Street Fighter 25th Anniversary set is currently due to arrive in North America on September 18th, 2012 on 360 and PS3 platforms.  An EU/UK date has yet to be confirmed by Capcom.