I am back in 1991 again at the Annapolis Mall (I can’t remember the official name – roll with it). I’m playing Street Fighter II for the first time and loving what would be a long affair with Capcom fighting games. That relationship lasted for a long time, maybe hitting its peak at Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter (Japanese import – still the best), and once in a while I enjoy going back and remembering how wonderful it felt to be head-over-heels in love with a genre that seemingly hasn’t lost its luster in decades.
As the years have come and gone, I have seen it all and experienced nearly every type of fighting game. From 2D to 3D, and somewhere in-between. I’m not quite an Esports competitor in this genre, but I’m still a huge fan and want to see it continually improve and go forward. The only way to go forward with the genre is to understand and appreciate where it came from. Well, Capcom is ready to provide an obscure history lesson for those who need to know. They have brought a buffet of fighting games to one single collection with Capcom Fighting Collection, and not all of them are hits, but certainly, most are unique.
Let’s dig right into it.
Old Fashion Familiars and Freakishly Fun Games
The collection has a variety of games in it that harken back to some familiar names. The most popular of the group is Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition (2004 on the PS2), which is straight-up Street Fighter II at its quickest and finest as it celebrated 15 years of street fighting. Featuring colorful costumes, new moves for some of the fighters, and what I consider to be the ultimate version of the game, it had a lot to offer up to fighting fans. Along with different ways to play, including various methods to power up and win, you’re guaranteed to curse due to the NBA JAM-cheapness of the CPU characters when the going gets tough for them. It’s as if the game was made by FromSoftware. Hmmm…that would be interesting. ANYWAY. It’s a familiar name and a good start for this collection, as well as an interesting selection to include. I’m sure there is another Street Fighter collection coming out in the future. AHEM.
The collection goes from grown-up street fighting to miniature street fighters with Super Puzzle Fighter II and Pocket Fighter (also called Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix in the United States), the latter of which I have never played before in my life.
Starting with the former, Super Puzzle Fighter II is an interesting mix of Baku-Baku-like gem games with a fighting flavor to it. You pick your fighter as you would in any Street Fighter II game, and you essentially outduel the other fighter with Columns-like gem puzzle stacking. The goal in this game is to stack as many gems as possible and then unleash tiny orbs on the correlating colors to burst the gems and create the best possible combo in the process. If you create a massive combo, all those gems fall into your opponent’s side. It’s crazy and brutal at times. While I wouldn’t exactly say that this game has great balance with what your gem drops end up being, it still is entertaining as hell, as well as slightly addictive. Would I consider this worthy of a fighter collection? Eh, but it’s still fun.
What is worthy of fun, and incredibly adorable, is Pocket Fighter. For transparency’s sake, I had no idea what I was doing in this game, as I was transfixed on the cute little fighters beating the hell out of each other. I thought this would be another gem puzzle game, but thankfully they only used gems and not puzzles to make this game interesting. I believe that you collect fallen gems of your enemy in the game and build up an arsenal to wipe the enemy with a special move once you max a particular gem color out. A lot is going on in this game and I just went with it. It’s fun, it’s cute, and it’s brutal. It’s a neat inclusion in the collection.
From this point on, the collection gets slightly confusing but does bring some unique titles that never made the shores of the U.S. in any capacity. The Darkstalkers series is a huge part of this release with the inclusion of the first game, its sequel (Night Warriors), and three Japanese versions of the game (Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers 3), Vampire Savior 2, and Vampire Hunter 2). The latter two are the unique releases in the Capcom Fighting Collection, though they aren’t so separate when it comes to gameplay and most of their characters. From what I can tell, the biggest difference between Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2 is which fighters are included. Most of what you get between the two is cosmetic, which is a big deal for most gamers, but not me. I think that growing the number of characters should have been considered for both, but I understand at the time they wanted to keep people in Japan coming back to the arcade for new updates to the game. Regardless, both games are making their debut in the U.S. for the first time and are delightful and imaginative, and their character difference, plus the inclusion of a badass health bar, make them special enough to be the crown jewels of this release.
From there, the games get kind of questionably fun. The inclusion of Red Earth (Warzard in Japan) is neat, as I have never played this one before. It reminds me of NEO GEO fighting games of the past not called King of Fighters, where you have massive fighters and it’s all story-based. What is remarkable about this game is that you can use passcodes from characters to pick up where you left off or you can just keep continuing to finish the game. What’s even cooler is that the game will save your damage progress against enemies, so when you do continue the game after dying, you can pick up where you left off. Well, most of the time. Sadly, this game is limited on controls, and it feels clunky and unbalanced at times. I know that fighting games certainly have their easy characters to play and their more difficult ones to master, but this was highly uneven between the four initial starting characters. I did play the hell out of it and enjoy the masterpieces that were the enemies (such a variety, including an evil Papa Smurf).
The worst fighting game in this collection is Cyberbots, which is just slow and clunky. It was un-fun during my few plays of it and mostly forgettable. I don’t remember when the cool robot fighting games became a ‘thing’, but I’m glad that period of life is over with, as this just didn’t do much when compared to the rest of the games in the collection. The robots felt like they were running in mud when fighting and there was way too much going on during fights. I applaud the effort of making it seem complicated and entertaining, but it did fall short when compared to the rest.
This collection has some goodies in it and some classics. It also has a variety of different flavors to choose from when you’re in the mood for the out-of-the-ordinary. They’re not all gems, but they’re mostly fun and a good reminder that Capcom is the king of the fighting genre.
Additional Goods
While the games are the highlight of the Capcom Fighting Collection, it also has features that make the experience just a little bit sweeter. For example, you have complete control of the settings for each game. You can change difficulties, and rounds, and turn on free guard if you are so inclined. You can also turn on the boot display, which gives you the game’s version number and warnings. It’s neat to see so much customization for the arcade experience included in each game.
The collection also includes looking at art for the game, which is brilliant, and listening to game soundtracks, something I know is a huge deal in the gaming community. While I would have loved to see the history of each game, even if it were brief, I think most fighting genre gamers out there will appreciate the effort. These are nice little additions to the overall package.
Conclusion
The Capcom Fighting Collection brings some unique titles that most U.S. gamers haven’t laid eyes on before. While not all the games in the collection are worthy to be in it, the Darkstalkers-centric theme makes it worth a look.
