There’s an argument to be had about when Capcom’s brightest moment has been. Was it in the 90s, where Street Fighter 2 practically inventing the fighting scene, while Resident Evil lurched into people’s consciousness? Or perhaps it’s happening right now, with huge franchise hits like Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragons Dogma 2 sitting alongside more esoteric offerings like Kunitsu-Gami.
For me, many of Capcom’s best moments came in the early noughties when they were firing our hits for the Sega Dreamcast like Power Stone, Project Justice and Capcom vs SNK. As luck would have it, that’s the period covered by Capcom Fighting Collection 2, and there’ll be fewer arguments about when the brightest moment was, because it’s now, today, as you can play all of these games on modern hardware, whenever, and wherever you want.
Capcom Fighting Collection 2 pulls together eight iconic games that originally launched between 1998 and 2004, comprising the double header of Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 and its sequel, Capcom vs SNK 2.0, Power Stone 1 and 2, Plasma Sword and Project Justice, the enhanced version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, and the lesser-known Capcom Fighting Evolution.
My first stop had to be Project Justice. This was once the jewel in the crown of my physical Dreamcast collection, and the school-based anime-influenced combat is just as alluring as it was originally. The team-up action forces you to think more carefully about your match-ups and how you approach the 3D space, and the character artwork remains simply stunning.
You’ve then got the complete Power Stone experience, with both the original game and its sequel here in full. All the titles here are the arcade versions, and with Power Stone that seems to ensure that the visuals are just that little bit more coherent and smooth. There’s online multiplayer across the board as well, and that’s enough, frankly, to sell us on the entire collection.
Power Stone is a 3D arena battler for up to four players, and it’s simply incredible to have access to it without having to successfully tune in an RF channel on your TV, or figure out ways to emulate your discs. You smash, mash and bash your opponents with everything humanly possible, aiming to power up via collecting gems so you can decimate everyone in front of you. If you’ve been playing recent arena battlers like Party Animals, it’s easy to see the influence that Power Stone had on the genre, and it still holds up today.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper is the purest Street Fighter experience on display, and there’s definitely an argument to be had that it’s the best Street Fighter game of all time. The animated visuals are simply perfect, the gameplay is unbelievably tight, and the roster is nigh-on perfect. Being able to take it on the go with the Nintendo Switch is brilliant, with the only weak link being the Joy-Con. I may well have just finished off them off with a heavy week of Fighting Collection play.
It’s almost an embarrassment of riches when we arrive at the two Capcom Vs SNK games. These two titles brought together long-time rivals Street Fighter and King of Fighters, giving you the option of different play styles and team make-ups, and let you loose. I spent so much time playing the original versions of these two, and they’re perfectly presented here. As with Power Stone, the sequel is the superior game, but there are some interesting changes to the control scheme between these two to make it worth spending time with both.
The two lesser-known titles for most players will be Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein and Capcom Fighting Evolution (or Jam if you’re from Japan). Plasma Sword is a one-on-one sci-fi 3D fighter which nabbed a Dreamcast port, and many people will know its lead character Hayato from Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The arcade version found here is so much quicker and smoother than the Dreamcast version ever felt, and while the 3D models are a little simplistic when viewed up close, in action they’re still visually exciting and alluring. It’s a great addition to the collection, and something that fewer people will have experienced.
That’s probably even truer for Capcom Fighting Evolution. While it received ports to the PlayStation 2 and the original Xbox, this has never been considered a top-tier Capcom effort, not least because it’s fundamentally five different games mashed together. There’s characters, art styles and play styles from Street Fighter II, III and Alpha, Darkstalkers and the largely unknown Red Earth, and, though its major draw is letting Ryu fight a dinosaur, it’s far more unbalanced than any other title here. It’s a curiosity, then, and definitely something you’ll want to check out, but there’s less longevity here than the rest of the collection.
Various enhancements make sure that you’re playing the best version of each of these games. From the ability to quick save at any point, access to training modes, rollback netcode for online play, through to the ability to remap controls or perform one-button combos, these games are more welcoming, comprehensive and accessible than ever before. Another great inclusion is access to both the western release and the Japanese version of each title, giving you a complete view of each game, and, if you’re so inclined, the ability to dig into the minutiae of any differences between the two, while there’s over 800 pieces of artwork to pore over in between hitting people in the face.