Is it a copout to say my current contender for GOTY is a collection of a bunch of arcade ROMs from the 90s / 00s? Not when it's arguably the ultimate love letter to an entire genre.

Ignoring the specific games included for a second, this package is od. First home release of many of the games here, ALL games have a training mode (even those that never did in their old console ports!) completely themed around them, online with rollback netcode for EVERY game instead of Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, unique banner art for every game instead of just using stock art of characters (many of which were not from the specific game you were playing), first releases of artwork that has been thought to have been lost in time, and the cherry on top: all perfect arcade emulation where you can choose the USA OR JPN version of each game when available! This goes beyond characters changing names or some different sprites / animations, some games contain small balance changes between them. For example: the JPN version of Hyper SF II's Super X version of Zangief has the 90% guaranteed stun on Zangief's air 8HP, where the US version of Hyper SFII's Super Turbo version of Zangief doesn't have any special properties for that move.

For specific games: this is the first home release for Red Earth PERIOD, this is the first time Hyper SF II, arguably the best version of Street Fighter II, has gotten a home release since 2003, this is the first Western home release ever for Cyberbots, the first Western non-PSX release of any post-Night Warriors Darkstalkers game (the main appeal for many I am sure), but with that there is the one major missed opportunity. I know I just praised this for using Arcade ROMs instead of home ports, but there's this specific home port of Vampire Savior in Japan that has all characters from every version plus Dee, the non-canon character of Donovan succumbing to his vampire side and Demitri's dying body fusing his head on Donovan's body a la Dio to Jonathan Joestar (in what """""may""""" be a """""coincidence,"""""" Capcom produced a Jojo fighting game around this time [sorry for the run-on parentheses and brackets but I've seen a lot of complaints about Jojo's Venture and Heritage for the Future not being here. I get it, would be truly "complete" with them but they don't have the license, it's unfortunate but was unrealistic to expect it along with the Marvel licenses imo.)

Now that I've 100% completed this with every achievement, I would be completely OK with this replacing fightcade for these games. The convenience is too good to ignore, Capcom still gets financial support for something they absolutely deserve, but the only thing I have an issue with is that I have noticed sometimes after unpausing that it can take a second to get control over your character again or if you're holding back or down you'll have to go to a different direction before it reads going back or down again. Really makes playing Boxer or Dee Jay in Hyper a drag if you need to pause lol.

I didn't want to rate this until I finish every game here but not even halfway through completing them, this blows Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection out of the fucking water. It's a very good sign for Street Fighter 6 that its in the hands of the people who put this collection together, they clearly care for and love fgs a lot.