Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

The genre of fighting games is over 30 years old, and it is impossible to talk about it without immediately thinking about the series that largely defined it - Street Fighter. Although the original Street Fighter was a chaos not well received by gamers, its sequel was a revolutionary breakthrough in the industry and set the bar to strive for for other fighting games.

A lot can happen in 30 years, so let's rewind to 2016. Capcom just released Street Fighter V, receiving mixed reactions from players and critics alike. In short, it felt like the game lacked content, and game dynamics and systems lacked polish.

But after four years of updates, tests and improvements, Capcom released Street Fighter V: Champion Edition. What does the latest release offer us? And most importantly, does it feel like a better / more complete game? Let's find out.

Here comes a new challenger!

Street Fighter V: Champion Edition is a 2D arena fighting game where two fighters fight each other. You will beat your opponent with various punches, kicks and special moves, trying to reduce his health to zero. The basic concept of the game hasn't changed much since the early days of the franchise, but that doesn't mean that the fighting game series itself hasn't evolved.

If you've played Street Fighter IV, you will feel right at home here as the fighting game takes the best of SFIV and brightens it up even better. Two special scales will grow as the battle progresses, and when filled, they will allow you to unleash powerful moves on your opponent that can help turn the outcome of the battle. Pause the game to access a list of commands that guide you on how to use different abilities and character combinations.

What's new in Street Fighter V: Champion Edition?

There is plenty of content in Street Fighter V: Champion Edition. The fighting game now has 40 playable characters (up from 16 in the original), and each of them has several skins, their own tutorials and story missions. And for more versatility, each hero has two V-skills and two V-triggers to choose from. We've added several arcade modes and levels, as well as a new campaign, which is pretty nice. All of this is immediately unlocked and available for play.

This is a great change and a very welcome addition to the original Street Fighter V, which suffered from a lack of content that was later hidden behind the walls of paid add-ons. Street Fighter V: Champion Edition delivers everything we've come to expect from a fighting game in the 2020s, with tons of options, choices, and content both online and offline.

Balance is the strength of Street Fighter V: Champion Edition

In competitive games these days, things are not so simple. Having gathered players on the professional stage, the developer needs to hire the best testers in the world so that they find all possible and impossible holes in the mechanics. Because of this, the definition of "balanced play" in the 2020s is not exactly the same as it was in 1995. And in this respect, Street Fighter V deserves one of its greatest praises. Even at the highest competitive level, we see amazing variety in the finals of most tournaments, where professional players go for success with their favorite characters.

While there were occasional problems along the way, Capcom did a pretty good job as Street Fighter V grew. The game was balanced and adapted to the ever-changing meta and additional content. Thanks to this, professional players have more choice among characters, and casual players can simply have a good time in the game, because the determining factor in victory depends more on the player himself than on the chosen hero.

Graphics & Audio

The series has always had a thrilling soundtrack, and Street Fighter V is no exception. The battle is fueled by both completely new compositions and remakes of already familiar tunes. All characters and various game endings are fully voiced. But the voice has a problem - at times it lacks synchronization with the lip movements of the characters, as if watching a movie with poor dubbing.

Visually, the game follows the exaggerated style first seen in Street Fighter IV models. Chun-Li has massive legs that convey a sense of power, Balgor's eyes almost pop out of their sockets, and Blanca looks like she can replace the Marvel Hulk. The game also offers a huge bunch of costumes to customize 40 different fighters. Some of the skins present great nods to classic Capcom franchises such as Mega Man, Ghosts n 'Ghouls, and Resident Evil. They originally came at an incredible amount of money, but now almost all of them are included in the Champion Edition.