March 29, 2024

The Capcom Fighting Collection is a nostalgic journey, letting fans relive the legendary games that changed the fighting games genre forever. The Capcom Fighting Collection, as its name clearly indicates, is a collection of fighting games from Capcom, some of them which never saw release outside of Japan but all of them cult classics that took the market by storm.

AT A GLANCE
Release date
: 24 June 2022
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Final Score: 10/10

There are 10 games that come with this collection:

  • Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
  • Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge
  • Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire
  • Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (until now not available outside of Japan)
  • Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (until now not available outside of Japan)
  • Red Earth (First released outside of arcades!)
  • Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
  • Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
  • Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition
  • Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix       

As any fighting games fan would confirm, this is an excellent collection of games, each of them a gem in its own rights. All of these games can be played online or locally, and also have achievements to unlock.

Darkstalkers is a gothic horror fighting game that features the reimagining of classic characters like Dracula the werewolf, Frankstein, here Demitri the vampire, Jon Talbain the werewolf, and Victor von Gerdenheim as the Frankenstein monster. Also, other originals have appeared as guests in many other Capcom games such as Felicia and Morrigan.

It is a testament to the greatness of these games when you see just how well these titles hold up today and have a unique charm that many games with flashy visuals and moves find difficult to emulate these days. With a visual section that presents animations both in front and in the background of its scenarios and a fierce fighting style, the Darkstalkers series is truly a great example of old is gold.

Other games in the collection such as Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix feature a chibi-style visual style of various Capcom characters with some of the wackiest and funniest moves. Games such as Cyberbots, which was released in 1995 and pit various robots against each other with some peculiarities such as the possibility of modifying limbs and weapons as well as Red Earth, on the other hand, which is inspired by fantasy and has some role-playing elements to it represent the more lesser-known games in the collection, which are nonetheless great additions.

Cyberbots works very differently from regular fighting titles. The mecha have not only attack actions, but also have a button dedicated to projectiles and another to move through the air through thrusters allowing for more vertical action. While staples like combos are still present, the pacing of the game makes them a rare sight. Instead of executing frenzied attacks, the goal of the game is to take things slowly and dish out damage while making sure you don’t overdo it, making retreat whenever possible. The limited success of the game, as well as its peculiar gameplay style, kept it from leaving Japan, but thanks to the collection, fans outside of Japan can finally enjoy it.

And of course, there’s Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition. This is the ultimate version and feels like one. AI remains a challenge, especially for newcomers. The pace of the game was a bit slow-paced, so don’t expect the fast-paced action of the most recent installments in the series. The settings are beautiful and give a shine to iconic backgrounds not only of the franchise but represent the golden age of the fighting games genre. The excellent sound is delicious, doing justice to a legendary saga.

Although some of these games have seen re-releases in the past, there are some great additions to this collection that makes it worth buying. There are options in combat including a full move list, controller customization, quick save/load, and the ability to change wallpapers, display filters, and change the screen ratio from Full 4:3, Original, Original 4:3, to Wide. You can tell they put a little love into the launch of this collection instead of making a straight re-release with upscaled sprites. There is even an option for new or novice players, it helps them with the difficulty, and even some games have options where you can perform special moves just by pressing a button. What’s more, you can switch between the Japanese and English versions of each game.

The Museum is a space where you find lots of illustrations and development materials from the different video games. It also has unpublished art that has never been shown before and a lot of recorded music tracks.

Multiplayer is also present, allowing for both ranked and casual play. There’s even a leaderboard for ranked matches.

Most surprisingly, there are a lot of bug fixes such as Guile’s Somersault Kick is fixed which would sometimes execute with the wrong strength in Street Fighter II, or a bug where the first two digits of the high score would disappear in Darkstalkers.