Capcom Fighting Collection 2 review — The casual fan experience

Opening this with the disclaimer - I am a casual. I have played some traditional fighting games throughout the years: Street Fighter 4 was the first fighting I tried, MVC3 was a huge part of my high school’s game club, the first Injustice was a regular multiplayer game in college. By and large the only fighting game I’ve put a lot of time into is Super Smash Bros. I’m much more familiar with the Nintendo cavalcade of platform fighters than the traditional crew in the four and six button fields.

Enter Capcom Fighting Collection 2, Capcom’s latest bundle of button bashing goodness. You’re getting eight games, each with their own flavor - Power Stone, Power Stone 2, Project Justice, Plasma Sword, both Capcom VS SNK games, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper. In addition to that there’s a museum of artwork to look at and music to listen to. For fans of the games, I’m sure you’ll appreciate seeing some of the sketches and design material that went into making these games. Though I will question why the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 section is just the key art with or without Ryu and Terry’s friends; only two art pieces.

Now onto the real meat of the collection - the games. I'll cover each of the games in their own sections to give you an idea of how each title plays from a more casual perspective. Most of these games play completely differently, run on different engines, and we're made by different development teams. They all offer something unique and I think that's where this collection really shines. What you're lacking in bonuses or extras you might get from other collections, you really get a different variety of multiplayer experiences with this collection. 

Seeing as how these are the more standard fighting games of the collection, I wanted to cover the Capcom VS SNK games first. You can pick various Capcom and SNK characters together in what was a dream matchup of the 90s arcade era. Both games have intricacies that change how each one plays, and of the two I do think CVS2 is the better game, though I don't think either game is particularly fascinating. You pick your characters and you go at it in a standard fighting game match, you have your meters for super moves, you pull off special moves with quarter circle movements, etc.  Each game has subtle differences beyond roster choices, and that comes down to how the ratio and groove systems work.

In CVS1, each character has a certain "cost" and you are given four points to allocate to your team of characters. Characters can cost anywhere from one to four points based on their general power level. King, Dhalsim, Mai, and Blanka are one point characters while Evil Ryu costs four. You come to find out that this system is incredibly unbalanced because you almost never have a reason to pick characters with lower numbers other than maybe just enjoying a character. 

Picking Evil Ryu and being able to sweep two and a half characters with no problem felt incredibly off balance. When playing matches for review, we generally had more fun sticking to one or two point characters just to make matches go on a little longer or feel more interesting. Luckily, CVS2 does actually improve in this regard. 

CVS2 in general improves on everything cvs1 does and the ratio system is the better change in my opinion. You can now select three of any character on the roster and then you choose one character to take up two points on your team. It gives them a slight boost to their general strength without completely overpowering one character or the other. In addition, the general aesthetic and roster size is much more impressive in CVS2, though there are still some downsides to both games in my opinion.

These are pretty vanilla fighting games. Don't get me wrong, they are still good games, but if you're not already into traditional fighters then there may not be much here for you. I don't have any attachment to most of the SNK characters and honestly the rosters aren't too impressive for something called "Capcom" VS "SNK" as both sides of the bout feel more like Street Fighter VS King of Fighters with special guest stars Morrigan and Nakoruru. Meanwhile, the groove system of CVS2 tries to offer ability altering changes like some offering air blocks and dashing while others can give you small hops and a more advanced special move system.

While the CVS games are obviously quality games, these don’t really appeal to my tastes. On their own I’d rate them a 7 and 8 out of 10. Seeing as how they’ve not been rereleased before this collection, it’s nice to see them return. If anything this is the best SNK fighting game on the market right now with a clean roster to boot. That being said, while the topic is on traditional fighters I’ll briefly mention Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper and Capcom Fighting Evolution.

While I won’t be able to breakdown what makes this version of Alpha 3 better or worse than the other versions, I had much more fun with this one than I thought I would. With a sizable roster of thirty-seven  Street Fighter characters, each with multiple styles of play thanks to the “-ism” system, similar to the grooves in the CVS games with their own tweaks and changes. I played a few rounds with Karin, my Street Fighter 5 main, and I had a blast getting my handslaps and anime laughs in. I didn’t play this game a ton but it was a good time and on its own I’d give it an 8 out of 10.

This next one is sort of a can of worms, quite literally depending on who you asked. Capcom Fighting Evolution is a 2004 game combining some of Capcom’s fighting game series into a crossover that combines not just the rosters but also the mechanics from all the games they’re pulled from. That sounds pretty incredible, right? Unfortunately, this game is quite infamous for not having much of a budget, so what you’re actually getting is a horribly unbalanced game with a cheap presentation.

There’s twenty-three characters taken directly from Darkstalkers, Red Earth, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 3, and an original character taken from the cancelled Capcom All-Stars, Ingrid, with each character being limited mechanically by what game they originate from. In short, my character from Street Fighter 3 and Red Earth can completely dominate the rest of the roster with their higher attack power and range.

To be completely honest, there is some fun to be had here. You’ll get some laughs while you and another player just pick random characters and throw hands. The artwork is actually rather stylish but with the unbalanced and lacking roster, this is just a novelty. It’s amazing to have access to it again as a huge part of game preservation is making all games, good or bad, accessible to play. This is, at best, a 5 out of 10 on its own even if it’s a 10 out of 10 inclusion.

Now with the traditional fighters out of the way, I can talk about what I think makes the entire collection really worth it, even for non-fighting game players. The rest of the collection are some of Capcom’s 3D fighters from the late ‘90s. Each one utilizes unique mechanics and tones, offering different experiences depending on the games you choose. One of the games that caught me by surprise was Plasma Sword.

I’ve heard the name yet never much about it, but this game feels incredibly fast. The roster consists of wild sci-fi monsters and dudes, all executing different combos by tapping buttons in sequence. With the wild supers and fast pace, Plasma Sword kind of surprised me. Turns out, it’s pretty fun to shoot lasers, swing swords, and constantly break out supers. This is an easy 9 out of 10 on its own. Some of the characters feel worthless, but if you find a few that click you can have a lot of fun going a few rounds. 

With this next one, I don’t know what I’m feeling here. Project Justice is a sequel to cult classic Rival Schools. You have a pretty large selection of characters based on different ‘90s schoolyard anime stereotypes. The high energy baseball player, the uber powerful little kid, the biker chick, the badass nurse, or the school ruffian. This game feels like an evolution of Plasma Sword but with some small changes that I did not enjoy. Even after using the Collection’s option to increase damage values, it still feels like matches dragged on because of how precise you need to be with timing and directions. 

Combos feel way harder to pull off. There are directional commands for attacks like a launching attack being on diagonal down and heavy kick, but getting consistent damage off of these launches felt inconsistent. There’s a lot going on when you add-in side stepping, supers, assists, and way more. It’s flashy, frantic, and the character tropes hit the same nostalgia I get from anime like School Rumble, but it’s too complicated for my taste. I’d give it a try because you might have fun mashing buttons, but I’d give this maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10 on its own.

The last two games in the collection are Power Stone and Power Stone 2. I grew up with both on Dreamcast, later played the PSP rerelease, and now these arcade version ports. For those out of the loop; Power Stone is a 3D arena fighter where you select somewhat stereotypical combatants to partake in a fight for the Power Stones and the treasure they lead to. Ask most people and they’ll say the same thing - it plays like a 3D Super Smash Bros. I’d say that’s the most apt description as each stage has hazards, unique gimmicks, and tons of items to bash each other with.

Power Stone is a more focused one-on-one affairs with hectic item drops. There’s a standard arcade mode, but the real meat is the multiplayer. You even get the two secret boss characters, shifting the whole experience to multiplayer. This is further enhanced with the collection’s online functionality. Being able to hop into a lobby with fellow Editor Flynn led to tons of fun to be had, especially with Power Stone 2 as it has a cooperative arcade mode complete with boss fights.

Setting up a lobby and being able to quickly match each other really ups the value of the collection. Using quick saves to reload the character select menu for local matches works well enough but being able to get in and out of matches in online lobbies feels more fun. There will be a patch to the collection at or near launch that will also let offline matches work in a similar way as the online mode.

Both games are a hoot as you’re throwing bombs, shooting guns, stomping heads, shooting missiles, and way more. Power Stone 2 even adds to it with multi-event stage changes like the ruins boulder chasing sequence or the ice flows destroying ships. These two are still easily the best of the collection and if you’re gonna get the collection, add these to your multiplayer shenanigans with friends. On their own they each would get a 9 out of 10.

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is a bit lacking in extras but just having these games back with online functionality makes it all worth it. The two Power Stone games are the main highlight but there’s no bad game in the collection and the 3D games included offer a lot of unique, fast paced experiences. While not perfect, this has been a great multiplayer mainstay that I’ve enjoyed quite a bit.