It’s an entertainment trend practically as old as time: take an old favorite, jazz it up a bit, and sell it. We see it in the movies, we hear it all the time in our music, and, of course, the recent trend of repackaging classic games in compilations of one form or another should come as no surprise.

Of course, there’s simple repackaging, and then there’s creative repackaging; Capcom, in the spirit of the Christmas season, is giving gamers a double dose of Street Fighter goodness. First, the “creative” repackaging: Capcom Fighting Evolution. In fairness, now, CFE isn’t, strictly speaking, restricted to Street Fighter canon; you will find combatants from SF II, SF III, and Street Fighter Alpha, but there are also characters present from Darkstalkers and Red Earth. For those of you who like extras, there will be some additional unlockable fighters, as well.

It’s also worth noting that the battles will be tag-teams, after a fashion. Users will select two fighters from the stable of Capcom heroes and villains, only instead of switching out fighters when a character’s health is low, à la Marvel vs. Capcom, one combatant fights the first round, and the second combatant fights the second round.

Finally, for the 2D-fighter purists, Capcom Fighting Evolutions will include a six-button control scheme. For those of you who own an arcade stick for your PlayStation 2, it’ll be old hat. For those of you still using your traditional game controller...not so much. It’s still doable, of course, but it’ll take a little more getting used to than the classic format. Either way you look, though, the fighters you’re using still have their original combat styles, so at worst, it’s a new button layout to get used to. At best, it’s the classic fighting action you remember.

On the more traditional side of things, you’ll find Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. Where CFE is fan-service, after a fashion, SFAC is more comparable to, say, Midway Arcade Treasures. Kind of. It’s not precisely the same, because SFAC contains Hyper Street Fighter II, which is a blend of five of the games in the Street Fighter II anthology, and then Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, the underrated fighter last seen on the Sega Dreamcast.

Hyper Street Fighter lets you create matchups between the fighters from the various versions of Street Fighter II, which is cool in and of itself. Additionally, though, you also have access to the SF II introductions, soundtracks, images, and character background information from each of the SF II titles. All told, Hyper Street Fighter represents a fusion of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, and Super Street Fighter II Turbo.
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, on the other hand, includes a “GradeJudge” system, which grades players based upon the skill displayed during the match. The more skillfully you fight, the higher your grade will be. There’s also three Super Arts move available to each character, the better to complement the Parry and Leap attacks.

Plus, if all of that isn’t quite enough for your $29.99, the PS2 version also includes Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Much like the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection would appear to be one of the better values available when it comes to these vintage compilations. We will have a full review of both Capcom Fighting Evolutions and Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for you in the near future, so stay tuned for more!