Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Preview
Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is Capcom’s latest retro game collection. This newest package of 8 games is releasing May 16. It consists of Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Power Stone, Power Stone 2, Project Justice, and Plasma Sword. One month before the game’s official release, COGconnected got the chance to get a hands-on preview of 3 of the 8 games.
The first of Capcom Fighting Collection 2’s preview games is Power Stone 2. This arena fighter is one of the Sega Dreamcast’s most popular exclusives. It’s a game coveted by every Dreamcast collector. What makes Capcom Fighting Collection 2 different from the other Capcom collections is it collects games from the time when Capcom first started dipping its toe into 3D fighting games. Power Stone 2 has a gameplay style not seen in many modern games. The core combat is 4-player. Players run around a 3D arena environment, collecting items that randomly drop. There are weapons, power-ups, and gems. If a player collects 3 gems, they transform into a more powerful version of themselves. The modern equivalent would be something like Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm mixed with Super Smash Bros.
2D and 3D
Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro is representative of most of the games in Capcom Fighting Collection 2. It’s a gorgeous 2D team fighter, with characters from Capcom fighting games, like Street Fighter, and SNK fighting games, like King of Fighters. The game has a unique balancing system, where teams of 2-4 characters can be made, depending on how powerful each individual is. Players can choose whether they want to use the fighting systems from the Street Fight Alpha or King of Fighters series, which the game calls “grooves”.
Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein is a wacky 3D weapon fighter. It very much feels like Capcom’s response to the popularity of the Soul Calibur series. It’s the weakest of the 3 preview games in Capcom Fighting Collection 2, by far. Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro is an ultra-polished 2D fighter by the company that perfected the genre. And Power Stone 2 is its own unique, fun game. Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein is Capcom playing catch-up with Namco. While its gameplay is serviceable, it’s visually very impressive for a 3D fighting game. And its character designs are truly bizarre and fun. Plasma Sword likely won’t become a staple of fighting game tournaments, but everyone buying Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will get hours of enjoyment sharing Plasma Sword with their friends.
Loads of Features
All 3 preview games from Capcom Fighting Collection 2 are arcade perfect remasters of their original versions. Each game looked crisp, played smoothly, and had a wealth of options. While we can’t discuss all the features of Capcom Fighting Collection 2 in this preview article, we would like to shine a spotlight on some of the features the Collection has for every game.
Pressing the PS5 options button in the main menu brings up a training mode for the highlighted game. This feature worked for all 3 preview titles. Pressing the options button during gameplay brings up a menu with several features. An interesting one is quick save, so players can save their progress at any time in one-player modes of these long arcade games. There are the usual move lists, but also marquee cards that recreate the arcade cabinet displays with game controls. There are lots of display filter options. Online play includes casual matches, ranked matches, custom rule lobbies, and ranked leaderboards.
Incredible Polish
If the rest of Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is as polished and option-filled as the 3 games we got to preview, then it will be a must-own collection for retro fighting game fans. Lots of these games have been trapped in arcade and Sega Dreamcast exclusivity. There are lots of players out there chomping at the bit for modern versions of the Capcom vs SNK games and the Power Stone games. Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein is a really fun bonus to go with those two heavyweight series. The whole Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will be available on May 16 for all consoles and PC.
***PS5 code provided by the publisher***
Thank you for keeping it locked on COGconnected.
