I remember the first time I fired up Fortune Ace on my gaming setup - that initial loading screen gave me chills, and not just because of the nostalgia factor. What struck me immediately was how this game manages to deliver such consistent performance while preserving the authentic feel of classic fighting games. As someone who's been playing fighting games since the arcade era, I've seen countless collections that promise preservation but deliver mediocre emulation. Fortune Ace is different - it maintains that perfect 60 frames per second even during the most chaotic super moves, something many modern collections struggle with.

The character selection screen perfectly illustrates Fortune Ace's attention to detail, though it also reveals some of the game's quirks. You've got Ryu from Street Fighter 2 throwing his classic fireballs with that familiar timing I've practiced for decades, while just a selection away, Chun-Li represents Street Fighter 3 with her more evolved move set. This creates an interesting dynamic where characters from different eras clash with their original mechanics intact. I've spent about 15 hours in training mode just testing these matchups, and the consistency never wavers - whether you're executing Ryu's Shoryuken or Chun-Li's Hoyokusen, the input recognition remains flawless across all characters.

Where things get really fascinating - and occasionally frustrating - is when you dive into the more obscure characters. The Red Earth fighters are absolute gems to discover, but they operate on what feels like an entirely different rulebook. I remember my first match playing as Leo from Red Earth - his transformation mechanics and unique super meter had me scratching my head for a good hour. Compared to the straightforward Street Fighter Alpha characters, who might need just 2-3 matches to understand, the Red Earth crew demands at least 10-15 matches before you stop feeling completely lost. The performance holds up beautifully, but the learning curve is steep.

What impresses me most about Fortune Ace is how it maintains rock-solid reliability despite these mechanical disparities. During my testing across 50+ matches, I never experienced a single crash or noticeable frame drop, even when four super moves were happening simultaneously on screen. The netcode holds up remarkably well too - in my experience playing about 30 online matches, the input delay never exceeded 2 frames, which is pretty impressive for a collection featuring games originally designed for arcade cabinets.

That said, I have to be honest about the competitive scene potential. While Fortune Ace delivers technically, the weird character groupings and mechanical mismatches create a barrier for widespread adoption. I recently participated in a local tournament with about 40 competitors, and only 3 of us were brave enough to enter the Fortune Ace bracket. The Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 sections? Packed. There's something about the disjointed nature of the roster that keeps it from catching fire in the competitive community, despite its technical excellence.

The preservation aspect is where Fortune Ace truly shines though. Playing these characters exactly as they were originally designed feels like visiting a gaming museum where everything actually works perfectly. I can switch between teaching my nephew Ryu's basic combos from Street Fighter 2 to showing him the complexities of Hydron from Red Earth, and the game handles both experiences with equal polish. It's estimated that about 75% of these character versions have never been properly emulated before, making this collection genuinely significant from a historical perspective.

After spending roughly 80 hours with Fortune Ace across multiple platforms, I can confidently say it's set a new standard for how to preserve and present classic fighting games. The performance is consistently excellent, the reliability is unmatched in my experience, and the attention to original mechanics is commendable. Will it become the next big esport? Probably not with about 15 other major fighting games currently dominating the scene. But as a technical achievement and a love letter to fighting game history, it's absolutely worth your time and money. The developers clearly put their heart into making sure every Hadouken, every special move, every super combo feels exactly as it should, and that dedication to authenticity while maintaining modern performance standards is what makes Fortune Ace truly special.