I was looking on eBay the other day at arcade machines, as it's coming up to my birthday and I could do with something, you know, a little special. But then, when I see the prices, and look at my non-disposable income, which isn't disposable because I come from the tighter region of the UK, meaning I don't spend unless I have to spend, and even if I have to spend, I'll try to spend as little as I can get away with, an arcade machine with Street Fighter on is out of the question. The truth is, you could probably build your own, starting with Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for the PS2. £20.

All you'd need then is a cheap PS2, which you can pick up now for less than a ton, a cheap arcade stick for £20, and a second hand ten year old 19" TV for around £20 or less. So that's one hundred and sixty quid and a bit of DIY MDF work, and you've got yourself an arcade machine with five (or six if you're in an unlocking mood) Street Fighter games from Capcom - but, well, I don't know. Can I be bothered?

With the arcade machine idea out the window, I was left with my PS2 and a copy of Street Fighter Alpha Anthology to enjoy without the DIY work. This Anthology, a collection of collectables, the holy grail of fighting games, contains Street Fighter Alpha 1, 2 & 3 and even the gold edition of 2 - Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, or Pocket Fighter as it might be known on other shores, also makes it into the Anthology, with its midget versions of popular Street Fighter characters in heavy animé style, complete with superb special moves and a unique levelling up system, which you achieve by collecting gems. Power Stone anyone? By completing all of these games, plus Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper (which you can unlock by completing the SFA3 standard) you then get awarded with Hyper Street Fighter Alpha - so for £20, not only are you getting your money's worth, but you're also getting a legacy of retro games that will have any group of rowdy tanked males shouting abuse at each other, while bashing hell out of your controllers, in a matter of minutes. It's fighting at its best, and it's easy to see why…

Street Fighter could have been before my time. It could have also have been because I sucked at fighting games in my Megadrive Genesis days, bar Streets Of Rage, but that's a different kettle of fish anyway. So I left the series alone, and the series left me alone. But every so often, the series keeps coming back to rub my nose into what I have been missing out on, like Street Fighter Anniversary Collection on the Xbox for example. Although that only came with two measly Street Fighter games for the same price as this PS2 Anthology, I did become quite accustomed to the gameplay and before long I was bashing my way to success, like any Street Fighter player would. And now with this Anthology, it just makes me wish I had played them back in the day. But I suppose that's what an anthology is for, to right those wrongs of not playing a massively popular game at the time. I know I'll say the same about Halo & Halo 2 when the Halo Anthology comes out in ten years time, won't I Geoff? [Sigh. He's never completed the campaign of either game, and yet has the audacity to call himself a games reviewer. Send him a message via the contact form to explain just what he's missing out on, because nothing I say seems to make a damn bit of difference! Ed].

For those who don't know what Street Fighter entails, all three of you, let me try and clear things up for you. Street Fighter is a classic 2D beat'em up franchise, with a wide variety of characters, all with their own unique moves and fighting styles. That is, at least, after the first Street Fighter game, where you could only play as either Ken or Ryu - and they played exactly the same. If you looked up Street Fighter in a dictionary, you might find the definition of public arcade. Truth is, Street Fighter started the whole fighting game revolution off. Sure, fighting games existed before a bunch of Street Fighter games appeared, but it was this franchise that made the genre a whole lot more mainstream, and brought the concept of one-on-one battles between two super-powered fighters kicking seven bells out of each other, against colourful 2D backdrops, to the masses.

The Alpha prequels - storyline wise - came between the first Street Fighter, the one that nobody talks about anymore, because of its limitation of only two playable characters, and Street Fighter 2 - the one that everybody loves. Alpha games include lots of playable characters - and the character charter seems to increase with every Alpha game, the third and final one pretty much housing all of the characters from all of the Street Fighter games that had been released at the time. Though every game had a hint of Japanese influence to the visuals, the Alpha games were really animé heavy, to mimic the animé films of that era. And crazy animé shows always have flashy moves, so the Alpha games were home to loads of super moves too, moves that the traditional Street Fighter games before and beyond Alpha didn't include.

I love the Alpha series of Street Fighter, as it has that animé vibe running through it. In the same vein as Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 for the PS2, a classic example of an animé style fighting game, I can't help falling in love with the visuals of this Anthology. If they look good now, imagine how they looked back then! Unfortunately, my HDTV didn't come in time for this review (mainly because I was too tight to order it last week) but I can only dream of what this game would look like on a LCD TV. I know it's not a High Def game, but animé on LCD is a wonder to behold. Playing the Alpha games in order will give you a good feel to how the series progressed over the years, noticing changes such as better combos and better balance in characters, and then more characters, and familiar and new characters in Street Fighter Alpha 3; just seeing the foundation and then the brick and mortar, and then the furnishings on the entire series brings a tear to your eye.

You know what's good about this collection? All the games bar SFA2 Gold are open to arcade abuse. You can be the arcade master, tweaking things like version numbers and giving certain players unfair advantages (ever wondered why you could never win at the arcade?) - you can even paint your Street Fighter characters different colours, tweaking each colour of your favourite character to your own tastes. That includes skin colours, hair, items of clothing, you name it, and it can probably be coloured to your fashion. Who needs an arcade machine after this final nugget of information? The sound in this game is just as good as it ever was. Retro beat em' ups always sounded ace; you've got your distorted grunts and your cheesy "Select your character" phrases at selection screen, but all of this makes the games what they are (or were) - it's nice that the essence is still captured here.

It's hard to review a collection of games with such a legacy - especially when I'm not the biggest Street Fighter buff. Some fan reading this will probably be shaking his fist at my rather limited knowledge of these Alpha titles! What I do know, however, is that 2D beat 'em up games have rarely been as instantly playable, fun and addictive as those comprising the Alpha Anthology - once you get stuck into these games, you'll forget all about the idea that they're 'retro' and become compulsively hooked on playing them for hours on end. What I also know is that Street Fighter will always live on, and the fire of Street Fighter Alpha is yet to be dowsed. So, if you fancy six classic games with arcade tweaks included, six pieces of time, six morsels of gaming history, then look no further than Street Fighter Alpha Anthology. And for £20 or $30, even somebody as tight as me can afford it!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).