Capcom Fighting Collection Review

It is the 35th anniversary of the Street Fighter series, and to commemorate this, Capcom has released a collection of 10 fighting games that came out between 1994 and 2003. These 10 titles are not only from the Street Fighter franchise but also from other popular Capcom series. The collection includes Red Earth, Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness, five games from the Darkstalkers series, and three from Street Fighter — Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix — the latter two of which are spin-offs from the main series and feature adorable chibi characters. Previously, players outside of Japan have been unable to try out all the Darkstalkers games until now, and this is the first time Red Earth has been playable outside of an arcade.

There have been tons of 2D arcade-style fighting games available to play, some even featuring characters from franchises in the Capcom Fighting Collection. The Wii had a great fighting game called Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, so the characters from Darkstalkers (Demitri, Morrigan, and Felicia) had very familiar playstyles for me. The English and Japanese versions are available to play as soon as players start; however, two of the titles, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers' Revenge and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire, are Japanese versions only. To make the games look just like they did in the arcade, players can change the screen display size between original, original 4:3, wide, full, or full 4:3, along with a filter for the screen. Seven different filters are available, but the filter Type D feels like a CRT MAME display. These options are great for people who have played these games in the arcade and new players to these classics who want an authentic experience. These titles are the same as when they were first released in arcades years ago, so remember that characters and bonuses included with later versions of the game will not be here.

The menus and the navigation in the collection are great; it is straightforward to access all the different titles presented here, along with the super catchy music and colourful wallpaper for the sides. If players are not fans of the wallpaper and find it distracting, they can turn this off. Each game has a museum with a gallery featuring art from the title, instruction manuals, and concept sketches. The entire soundtrack for each game is also here; players can select one song to listen to or enjoy the soundtrack in its entirety. My favourite was the opening title song from Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness; it reminds me of some of the music from Mega Man X!

With 10 games in this collection, there is no shortage of traditional 2D fighters, but one of the titles is quite different; Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is a versus game, where you battle against other adorable chibi characters by trying to clear gems on your side of the puzzle before they hit the top. Two gemstones fall at a time, and similar to titles like Puyo Puyo, you want to try to keep the same colour of gems together. The stacks grow until you get a chaos gem; this will act as a bomb and destroy the group it touches if it's the same colour. If it doesn't match, then nothing will happen. This game is incredibly addictive and worth trying out. 

All of the Darkstalkers instalments are here, featuring characters based on well-known creatures like vampires, Frankenstein's monster, and a werewolf. The monsters all look good, and each of the instalments features a different variety; some like Demitri are always present, but the lesser-known creatures change a bit from title to title. The action in all of these games is incredibly speedy; at times, it felt like it was on fast-forward and going double time. Though this was nice, when someone gets knocked out, it flashes K.O. on the screen, and the monster is already getting up, ready for the next round! 

Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition is here, along with another chibi-style fighting game: Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix. Cutesy mini versions of the characters you love fight it out and collect gems from your opponent or get them from treasure chests appearing in the stage. These gemstones will power up your attacks to strengthen them. The animations for your chibi are super cute and over-the-top silly, adding to the charm of this title.

Red Earth has players taking on mythological monsters in this fighting RPG where you can level up your character between fights. Every fight in this game felt like a big boss battle as the monsters were all huge and epic looking. Cyberbots allows you to play as a pilot of a mecha; once you select the pilot, choose a class from four available, along with a specific machine. The action here is slower than a title in the Darkstalkers series, but it was still fun to fight with the enormous mechas and their variety of weapons.

There is tremendous replayability here, with 10 games and specific challenges for each one to complete. When you complete one of these missions, you earn a "Fighter Award". Some are easy, like playing a game for the first time or performing a special move, and others are more challenging, like completing the game. Each game has a training mode to teach you what to do for that particular game and lets you practice before you get into the main title. The good news is that if you find one of the games too difficult, you can select how hard you want it to be by adjusting the star rating between zero and eight stars. Each game also allows you to do a quick save if you want to quit and resume later, but be warned that the collection only saves one of these files total, not one for each of the 10 titles.

Capcom Fighting Collection has two-player local multiplayer and supports two to nine players online and the ability to be a spectator. So when you get tired of fighting against the A.I. characters, hop online for a battle against players from around the world and see if you can make it on the high-score rankings. However, there is no cross-play, which is a shame; it would have been nice to have the option to battle against players no matter which system they were using. 

If you are a fan of arcade-style fighting games, you can't go wrong with the Capcom Fighting Collection. With 10 titles, challenges to complete, and multiple difficulties, this collection will keep you busy; if you ever get tired of playing on your own, you can battle against a friend locally or online with two to nine players, and there's even a spectator mode if you just want to watch your friends fight. It's just too bad there isn't the option for cross-play, as it would have been great to play with friends who own different consoles. Now I'm going to go and play more Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo; this game is so addictive!