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Anybody who’s heard of Capcom already recognizes them as a irrefutable gaming pioneer, not only in the competitive fighting genre, but a leader of the twilight arcade era of the ’90. They’re also well known for releasing compilations that highlight many of their best and brightest from the period, to varying degrees of success. Enter Capcom Fighting Collection, a game that lives up to its name by offering a nice mix of ten better and lesser known gems from a very different era of arcade fighters.
Never one to waste an opportunity, this anthology serves as a fine showcase for some of Capcom’s lesser-known arcade fighters, as well as a celebration of the 35th anniversary of Street Fighter. Because of this, the package is really geared more towards the Capcom purist than casual fighting fan, though even curious combatants should fine much to love here.
via YouTubeAmong these ten games, Darkstalkers (known as Vampire in Japan) is heavily represented with the original the original Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (1994) and all four sequels and expansions making up the bulk of this compilation – two of which, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (1997) and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (1997), were exclusive to Japanese arcades until now. Incredible artwork and impossibly smooth hand-drawn animation make these games look as great as ever, which is really saying something.
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness (1995) is another cult classic that takes fast-paced 2D action and amps it up in mechanized VA pilot form, while the most notable inclusion is 1996’s Red Earth (War-Zard in Japan), a boss rush-type title with pseudo-RPG elements. It kicked off the then-sophisticated (and ill-fated) CP System-III JAMMA board upon its release – officially making its first ever home port here.
Elsewhere, we have Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition from 2003, being the only game directly related to the SF 35th anniversary; essentially a swan song cauldron of every popular Street Fighter II iteration that came before it. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Super Puzzle Fight II X) (1996) and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (Pocket Fighter) (1997) provide some much welcome – and simplified – offbeat chibi-style action.
The entire presentation of the main menu is straightforward with a simple UI and sprinkled with just enough visual splash and a jazzy/hip-hop background tune to make it reminiscent of Capcom’s nineties heydays.
Each game is relatively untouched 1:1 to its arcade counterpart, so what you see is what you get in terms of the authentic coin-op experience. It’s a bare-bones affair, but the included quality-of-life (QoL) additions offer essential replay value. For instance, you can expect a basic training mode for each title, graphic display modes (i.e., CRT and LCD filters) with switchable 4:3 border marquees, and adjustable in-game options that were commonly accessible to machine operators back in the day.
You can also pause during offline gameplay, reference move commands, create quick save states, and even change the ROM region and boot screen (sans ‘QSound’ attract intro) too.
You might come for the nostalgia, but you’ll say for the online multiplayer, which is going to be the biggest reason fans pick up Capcom Fighting Collection. Thankfully, it’s worth staying for as the overall performance was solid in both regular matchmaking and private lobbies (note: most of my time was spent pre-release with a colleague, and if things change after release I’ll be sure to update this review).
Capcom opted to build their own bespoke netcode rather than utilizing GGPO, and in almost all cases abnormalities like lag and gameplay freeze was nonexistent- or least virtually undetectable to notice in the majority of my sessions. The rare moments where lag did occur was typically from opponents whom I suspect were connected wirelessly so there will be expected hiccups with mismatched pairings. Fortunately, you can attempt to reign in latency issues with adjustable input delay in the options menu.
It should go without saying but direct Ethernet/LAN setups are always best, so if you have the means, by all means use them.
Capcom Fighting Collection offers devout Capcom purists plenty to dig into, especially with the Darkstalkers lineup and previous Japan-only exclusives. Perfect 1:1 arcade versions now fully playable online would be enough for most, but you also get a gallery of official artwork, concept sketches and even arcade marquees/brochures, to the jukebox featuring all the fantastic music heard in-game. Mostly, this serves as a legitimate approach to finally enjoy these games without having to resort to arcade emulators (re: MAME or FBAlpha) to experience them. For longevity, convenience and authenticity, this polished compilation is a complete no-brainer for the devout World Warrior or Darkstalkers fan.
