Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (PC) Review

It took Capcom a long time, but kudos to it for sticking to its plan and not abandoning the disappointingly incomplete Street Fighter V to its fate, and start working on an - inevitable - Street Fighter VI. The result of that perseverance is one of the best fighters one can currently enjoy. Champion Edition is so... complete in terms of content, that it feels like a brand new game, although it isn't. This is basically a bundle of everything that has been released so far for the core product, bar a few premium-only stuff that still need to be purchased separately.

To be more specific, Street Fighter V now has all 40 characters, each with at least five different costume choices, and a couple of colour presets, with every single fighter having a pretty neat costume from other Capcom franchises, like how Cammy can turn into Jill from Resident Evil, or how Menat can turn into a, uncannily accurate, Felicia from Darkstalkers. More importantly, you now have more play styles to choose from, making it even harder to not find someone you'll like, plus a second V-Skill for everyone, further varying the available roster.

In terms of modes, there's a fully-fledged Arcade mode to have fun with, which is divided between different Street Fighter eras, with tons of different endings to acquire. One can also experience the complete cinematic story, as well as all individual character mini-stories, and finally various challenges, missions, and so on. This is truly Street Fighter V as it should always be... minus one serious oversight: the weak tutorials. This is still a title where you have to do research on your own if you are to learn it, which is pretty sad for such a popular fighting franchise.

In conclusion, this is great. How great? In some ways better than the competition, in others weaker, but as a whole, definitely one of the best choices currently in the genre, at least for mid-core players - a thousand pardons to the hardcore crowd, but this critic (surely not a fighter pro) couldn't make any comments that would help you decide whether this is better than your beloved SFIV, which, in all honesty, feels a bit more balanced, even to lowly yours truly. All is well? Sadly, no. While the game as a game is a must-have, it's a slight technical mess, at least on the PC.

If you are coming straight from the non-updated SFV, you'll notice that picking a character, stage, and then going to the ring is much faster in the Player Vs. CPU matches of the Versus mode than what it used to. When it comes to everything else, though, the load times can be quite long, despite this being light on content compared to other fighters. After all, the camera doesn't rotate around the characters, since there's nothing there. The most serious flaw right now, though, is the disappointing netcode, with frequent connectivity issues and "teleportations" during online fights.

Now, those who already have the core title can purchase an Upgrade Kit for a sum that's, currently at least, one third of a triple-A title. Those who don't care about the extra content, can simply get the free update that only applies the various balance changes and so on, and lets you experience the game along with everyone else, bar extra characters and so on. It's understandable that some won't like how they essentially paying for something that should be complete in the first place, but don't let anyone tell you that Street Fighter V: Champion Edition isn't one of the best of its kind.