If there’s one thing that Capcom can be proud of is their fighting game variety. Surely, they’ve made their name known to the world of fighters by pretty much forging the genre by themselves, but even so, the laurels that Capsule Company got for Street Fighter didn’t stop them from being extremely creative with other franchises. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is a testament of that, bringing an incredibly varied selection of some of their best releases to date that will easily please just about any type of player out there, fighting game fan or not.
In case you haven’t been keeping track, Capcom has been putting out a number of these collections lately, and for the most part, it’s been a pretty good crop. With Capcom Fighting Collection, for instance, we got to see some of their crazier ideas in action with titles like Red Earth and Cyberbots, all the while giving us almost all of the criminally overlooked Darkstalkers. While with Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, the focus was on their excellent team-up with Marvel Comics and the classics that came out of it, which are too many to list on a review that’s not even about that game.
So with Capcom Fighting Collection 2, we get to dive deep into early 2000s nostalgia. The Dreamcast was so wonderfully supported by Capcom with the release of both Power Stone and Power Stone 2, as well as Project Justice and Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein, not to mention one of the best ports of Street Fighter Alpha 3. All are here to be enjoyed by veterans and discovered by newcomers, and in the best form they’ve ever been. Early polygonal games rarely age very well, but these are the rare exceptions that still play ridiculously well, with tight controls, amazing rhythm and glorious flow to combat.
It’s been a literal dream getting to play Power Stone 2 especially, given that it was one of the few titles that has eluded me over the years, being sort of a Dreamcast collector from back when it was still economically feasible to buy retro games. A souped-up and by all means the natural evolution of the first game, which was no slouch to begin with, it’s one of the most balls out multiplayer fighters you’ll ever play, with chaotic action that matches and often surpasses that of Smash Bros. No joke. Fights take place in big, open, multi-layered arenas that have you constantly keep on the move, all the while beating the shit out of your opponents as a two-player team with or against the CPU.
Project Justice is the sequel to the PlayStation 1 hit Rival Schools. With much better visuals and an even larger cast, you can’t go wrong with its lightning quick and extremely fun to get into 3v3 gameplay. I can see myself sinking lots of time into this one as it’s so smooth to play on a tournament stick, which I’m lucky to have and play on the PC, 15-ish years after the Xbox 360 ceased to be popular, its original platform. I can say the same about Plasma Sword, adding that the side dodge is so good it should be illegal, but at least the developers knew that and managed to add a few counters if you can time them right.
Now, just between you and me, Street Fighter Alpha 3 (in its UPPER form present here) is the best out of the Alpha games. Yeah, 2 has its share of fans who swear it’s the top one, but Alpha 3 grabbed me and never let go in the nearly three decades since its release. The expanded cast, incredibly enjoyable journey mode and polished 3-style fighting system were only really matched by the two other inclusions in this packed to the brim collection: the Capcom vs SNK games, better known to the community as CvS.
Those are some of the finest fighters videogames were ever graced with, unquestionably. Starting with Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, the dream match finally happened and the two juggernauts finally decided to put their decade-old rivalry to the test, having their cast duke it out in a 3v3 bout. In it, you get to pick between either companies’ grooves, wherein whichever other is molded into the art and gameplay style to follow the other.
With Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, that idea was expanded to include three separate styles for each of them, to represent some of their best games’ signature systems, such as Street Fighter III’s absurdly cool parry mechanic and the truly busted rage ultimate attack meter from Samurai Shodown that builds up as you take damage. How all of these insane variations gelled so well into the amazing fighter that CvS2 is is a miracle that could only be born out of some very talented developers, so much so that it remains a popular game played at tournaments like EVO to this day. It’s THAT good.
This is the point in the review where you’d ask: Eduardo, is there anything that could be considered bad in this compilation? How can it be so close to perfection and still not get there? The answer is Capcom Fighting Evolution. This much maligned game is the result of trying to catch lightning in a bottle and failing miserably at it. It’s a versus fighter in the vein of what Capcom themselves had already been so successful with, only keeping within their own catalog, tying together a whole bunch of franchises into a single game.
There’s a little of everything in it along with a couple of new additions, and that mix just botched its landing thanks to Capcom’s situation at the time of its inception, where they hurriedly tried to throw together a game in order to try and reign in the old guard. It didn’t happen. Released for PlayStation 2 in the mid 2000s, it’s a bloated, unbalanced, messy fighter with none of the magic that made the Versus games so good to begin with. It doesn’t help that the conflicting art styles made Capcom Fighting Evolution look so odd, and new character Ingrid with her 3-level super meter pushed it over the edge in terms of sheer cheapness.
But it goes without saying that compilations such as Capcom Fighting Collection 2 have a historical importance in making even failures available for players to decide for themselves whether they like them or not, and I’d much prefer having a bomb like that in a readily available form. And in that, Capcom does so masterfully well, having not only it but all games in this collection looking sharp with plenty of visual options at your disposal, from multiple filters and special effects and screen borders, much like their previous efforts.
There’s also a silly amount of gallery pieces to keep you busy while you wait for your next online match or three, which are powered by rollback netcode that works near flawlessly, pumping new life into these classics for hopefully generations to come. The museum is robust. You can view original design files for each game as well as original art that includes ads, move lists lifted straight off the arcade cabinets from the time, and, of course, plenty of character portraits as well. I’m always pleased with Capcom’s treatment with these and I was certainly not disappointed here.
You just can’t go wrong with Capcom Fighting Collection 2. There’s truly something for everyone here. Out of all of their recent releases, this is the one that’s by far the most varied, with a cavalcade of options that are bound to please even those who aren’t remotely interested in having to actually sit down and practice a fighting game. Power Stone and its sequel are incredibly playable and quick to get into and just dumb fun. Dig deeper and you’ll find something to fall ever worst in love with. Trust me, just get this thing, son.
