Capcom Fighting Collection 2 Review

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 review

by Matt Kamen |
Published on

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC

Capcom has been on an absolutely blinding run of retro compilations in recent years, with the likes of 2022's Capcom Fighting Collection and 2024's Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection ensuring some of the finest beat-'em-ups in gaming history continue to be available to modern-day players. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 adds to that growing library of classics with eight more entries — and while it may not have the breakout, big name titles that graced its predecessors, it's possibly the strongest package yet.

This latest compendium revives (in original release order) Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein (1998), Power Stone (1999), Power Stone 2, Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, Project Justice (all 2000), Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 (both 2001), and Capcom Fighting Evolution (2004). All are playable in their international English language versions or Japanese original forms (where Plasma Sword was known as Star Gladiator 2 and Fighting Evolution was Fighting Jam), and each has a custom training mode to bring players up to speed with their varied systems.

Like earlier collections, the assortment here is presented in their original arcade forms, which is both blessing and curse.

Overall, it's a fantastic, varied, and vibrant line-up, representing a golden era of the genre. These games were originally released during a period when Capcom was experimenting with both fresh characters and settings — check the ambitious Star Wars influenced background of Plasma Sword, or the globe-trotting, steampunk, almost Jules Verne-esque adventurers of Power Stone, for instance — and new play mechanics, exploring how fighting games could work in 3D. There are some oddities in terms of what's not here though. Project Justice was a sequel to Rival Schools: United By Fate, and given both were fairly instrumental outings for Capcom's experimentations with 3D fighters, the omission of the first game feels an oversight, or at least a missed opportunity.

Like earlier collections, the assortment here is presented in their original arcade forms, which is both blessing and curse. For some, like Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, that arcade release was the definitive version of the game, packing in extra characters and giving the gameplay a polish. This collection is the first time that original arcade version has been available outside Japan, so it's of some historical importance too. There's one small but — to hardcore fans — welcome tweak to the port, though: the ability to "crouch cancel", a technique from earlier versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 that enabled massive combos, can be enabled here, after being removed from the original arcade release.

For others though, the arcade edition alone feels like a bit of a consolation prize. This is especially the case for Power Stone 2 — the Dreamcast edition was an absolute joy to play as a group, and while the arcade version still allows up to four players, it lacks the additions made for the home version. It's a real shame, as if history had zigged instead of zagged, Power Stone 2 would likely be the de facto party fighting game instead of Super Smash Bros., but it's not as easy to see why that would have been the case purely based on the arcade edition.

For fighting game devotees though, it's going to be those Capcom vs SNK crossovers that will be the shining light of the package. Pitting characters drawn from both studios' premier series against each other, the games were notable for their use of a "ratio" system, testing players to balance (and in CvS2, tweak) power levels for teams of fighters. They may look similar at a glance, but both of these games have incredible depth to them, and still feel like revolutionary entries in the canon of fighting games, a quarter century on.

In keeping with Capcom's prior collections, there's also digital museum full of concept art and designs, and a music player for each entry's soundtrack. Whichever game you're diving into, there's rollback netcode for the entire package, which — to the uninitiated — basically means online versus play should be consistently smooth. It's also possible to play around with display modes, presenting the games in as close to their original presentation as possible or blown up to modern widescreen proportions (don't do that though, they were never meant to be seen or played that way). Combined, it makes for a gaming archivist's dream.

While a few bugbears persist from earlier collections — chiefly that there's still only one quick save slot for the entire package, rather than allowing one per game — Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is a great addition to the series. A nostalgic but still frequently thrilling assortment of stone-cold fighting game classics.

Just so you know, we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website - read why you should trust us