Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (2020)

Street Fighter V came out so long ago that I was able to rent it at an actual video store. As a huge fan of the Street Fighter games and coming off the impressive Street Fighter IV, SF5 had huge shoes to fill. Unfortunately, the game was released in such a half-assed, disappointing way that the original release of this game actually made me mad. One could finish a character's story mode in less than 5 minutes, the roster was small, and the game was very clearly geared towards the online player. The title was intentionally restrained, and as someone who didn't have the internet in their home to play games at the time, this felt like a slap in the face to a lifelong Street Fighter fan like myself.

But with Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, like so many other extensions of core SF games, Capcom heard the complaints from the community and truly outdid themselves with this release. As I've worked my way through the history of Street Fighter games over the last year, no game has taken me as long to complete everything as Champion Edition has. It's as though Capcom decided to make this release the polar opposite of what the game originally was when it was released.

This roster has expanded greatly, and when put together, the short arcade modes come together to make a hefty narrative. It's appreciated how well these stories connect and expand this world in clever ways. The arcade mode is also massive, as there are six different forms of arcade mode, one for each mainline Street Fighter series so far, each only using the characters from that era. A Street Fighter arcade mode shows the few characters that have made it to the modern era from that first game, while the SFV mode throws this gargantuan roster into one arcade mode.

There are challenges and different ways to test your skills and plenty of things to unlock. I didn't do close to everything (I unlocked all the characters, played each version of arcade mode with all the characters, and all of the story mode), and I still hit about 50 hours in a game that took me months to work through.

And yet, I also wonder how much of those hours was spent waiting through extensive load times. The biggest issue here is that even if you aren't playing online, this game takes forever to load each round. Especially when you're playing the SF5 arcade mode, where you're working your way through 10 rounds, as well as bonus rounds, beating the game with one character can take far too long. Online is even worse, and took forever for me to match with a character, which doesn't bother me nearly as much as taking an eternity to play the game as it is on disc.

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition continues Capcom's trend for keeping the best game in a SF run for last. This is packed with gems and things to do, and this is an excellent way to manage the fumble that was the game when it was originally released.