Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Review – A Retro Fighter Delight

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Review

Retro fighting game fans rejoice, because Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is upon us! This latest retro fighter bundle from Capcom covers 8 games from the late 90s and early 2000s, with many of these titles being trapped on arcades and the Sega Dreamcast until now! This is an interesting period because it’s when Capcom was making the transition from just 2D fighting games to 3D fighting games. The two main series in this collection are Capcom vs. SNK and Power Stone, but there are plenty of other games for modern players to discover!

Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro and Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 are long-awaited classics. They are gorgeous 2D team fighters, with characters from Capcom fighting games, like Street Fighter, and characters from SNK fighting games, like Fatal Fury. 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, or “grooves” as the game calls them, from the Street Fight Alpha or King of Fighters series.

No Longer Lost

Power Stone and Power Stone 2 are very different from the Capcom vs. SNK games. They’re arena fighters that remain coveted by every Dreamcast collector to this day. Having them on modern consoles might be the main selling point of the entire Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Power Stone 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.

Capcom Fighting Evolution is a mashup of fighters from multiple Capcom games, including Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III, Street Fighter Alpha, Dark Stalkers, and Red Earth. It’s a 2D fighter with 2 person teams. The only quality Capcom Fighting Evolution has going for it, is the novelty of playing as characters from different Capcom games. Aside from that, it’s pretty bland. And the roster feels like half of what it should be, with only 4(ish) fighters from each game. While the game is a neat inclusion, it’s definitely not one of the titles I’ll be going back to in Capcom Fighting Collection 2.

More Street Fighter

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper is an interesting inclusion. Street Fighter Alpha 3 is already available in the Street Fighter 30^th Anniversary Collection and in Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium. That version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 is the vanilla arcade version. Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper is a late arcade re-release that includes some bug fixes, and characters from the home console versions that weren’t in the arcade version. Although Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper might seem redundant, the hardcore Street Fighter fans will appreciate its inclusion, as it’s the best version of Alpha 3.

Project Justice is the sequel to rival schools. It’s a 3D fighting game, but actually plays quite similarly to Marvel vs. Capcom 2, where players choose teams of 3. Project Justice looked like it was going to be a Virtua Fighter, or Tekken clone, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a game that played much closer to a Capcom 2D fighter. The school setting, wacky character designs, and massive roster made Project Justice a game I’m really excited to play more.

Not Everything’s a Classic

Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein is the oldest of the games in Capcom Fighting Collection 2. It’s a wacky 3D weapon fighter that very much feels like Capcom’s response to the popularity of the Soul Calibur series. It really feels like Capcom is playing catch up with Namco, instead of trendsetting. While Plasma Sword’s 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.

All 8 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. From the main menu, players can adjust controls, choose game difficulty, choose round times, choose cool down times, adjust game speed, pick between North American/ Japanese versions, and between censored/ graphic game versions. Pressing the PS5 options button in the main menu, brings up a training mode for the highlighted game. Some games have to have their arcade mode, and versus mode picked from the main menu, for whether players want an experience closer to arcades, or home consoles.

Multitude of Options

Bringing up the pause menu 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, controller settings, and display settings. There are also marquee cards that recreate the arcade cabinet displays with game controls. Online play includes casual matches, ranked matches, custom rule lobbies, and ranked leaderboards. The menu before game selection also has a Museum with artwork, and music from each title.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is incredibly polished and option-filled. It’s 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. The only thing keeping Capcom Fighting Collection 2 from a higher score is that all the games aren’t created equal. And Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper is another version of a game found on several other collections. The modern retro fighting game scene has never had so many rich options. Thank you Capcom!

***PS4 code provided by the publisher***