Grave Gamer News & Views — ryu

Purdy Cover Art of the Day: Ultra Street Fighter IV

Ryu by Anirudh Sainath

Evil Ryu by Leon Jo

Batman vs Evil Ryu by Joe Ng

Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set Looks To Dragon Punch Your Wallet

Capcom did mention big things were planned for the seminal fighting franchise’s 25th, they just didn’t mention expensive things were planned.  At $149.99, Street Fighter purists can celebrate twenty-five years of embarrassing losses and resounding victories by purchasing a set that bundles most titles any self-respecting fight stick owner probably already has (multiple versions of).  But who am I to steal the collection’s thunder?  I think I recall trying to convince you to sell your firstborn for this, so what’s another pawned kid?

Coming to North America September 18th for the PS3 and Xbox 360, here’s a rundown of what the Collector’s Set nets you:

• Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Street Fighter X Tekken (the latter two bundled with all character and costume DLC – did they just drop a firm time slot for SFxT’s downloadable fighters?).
• Two-disc Blu-Ray set featuring a documentary about the series, plus a bunch of Street Fighter anime including movies based on II and IV as well as the animated series (presumably the Japanese one and not the Saturday morning eye-gouging).
• An 11-disc soundtrack of assorted music (like Guile’s Theme) and fan remixes (like Guile’s Theme Remixed).
• Light-up Ryu statue to intimidate the rest of your collectibles.
• A replica of Ryu’s black belt, saving you hundreds on karate lessons.
• 64-page art book equipped with professional and fan illustrations, plus a certificate of authenticity (in case you’re not convinced).

The set definitely deserves credit for its outright bodaciousness, and I understand licensing and technological hurdles keep a vast majority of releases out of this set, but I’m still cross to see Street Fighter benchmarks like the Alpha series excluded from the 25th celebration (not too upset about the EX series missing but would have welcomed their inclusion as a painful novelty).

Also, which anniversary do we have to get to in order to get a VS. series collection commissioned?  Flea markets the state over have failed to procure a copy of X-Men vs Street Fighter at an affordable price point for many years now and goddamn would it be good to have that rectified.  Forgive me for pulling the spotlight away from light-up Ryu.  Just musing at you, Capcom.