Capcom
Fighting Collection by developer and publisher Capcom—Microsoft Xbox Series X|S review written by Nick
with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes.
Capcom Fighting Collection is simply one
of the best video game compilations I have played in a long time. One could
quibble that it is a little Dark Stalkers heavy, but the mix of familiar and
new with lots of extras makes this a thoroughly enjoyable release.
First, the collection of games:
●
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
●
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’
Revenge
●
Vampire Savior: The Lord of
Vampire
●
Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’
Revenge
●
Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of
Vampire
●
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary
Edition
●
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
●
Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
●
Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
●
Red Earth
That’s a pretty robust list, and while I
was familiar with several of the titles, there were some new ones to me as
well. Of course, the first thing to note is that half of that list is made up
for the excellent Darkstalkers titles. These always felt like a slightly
floatier Street Fighter series, with some similar mechanics all wrapped up in a
gothic theme. Vampires, werewolves, mummies and more make up the colorful cast.
While I had played a few of these titles
heavily back in the day, two of them were Japanese-only titles (Darkstalkers’
Revenge and Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire) that I had never played
before. Admittedly, I wasn’t getting much out of the cut scenes sprinkled in
between the fights, as I couldn’t read them – but I seldom played old school
fighting games expecting narrative depth.
I was there for the combat.
To that end, the Darkstalkers title holds
up really well today. Some of the games showed more evolution than others. For
example, the differences between Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors and Night
Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge are rather minimal. Still good stuff, but
perhaps not all that different from one another.
Then when you get into Vampire Savior 1
& 2 as well as Hunter 2, the style of the visuals shifts a bit. Whether it’s
the characters and their designs (like Q Bee) felt fresh. The graphics and
music were excellent for the times, but of course all of it is dated by modern
standards. That said, the environments were more engaging here than the prior
two games I discussed. It’s odd to use terms like ‘Gothic’ and colorful
together, but those are the adjectives that come to mind. Character designs
(such as the brightly colored Red Riding Hood inspired character) pop against
the often gray / brown / dingy backgrounds.
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary
Edition likely needs little to no introduction. The Street Fighter II game (and
it’s numerous spin-offs) were hugely popular in the arcades when I was a
teenager, and I dropped a lot of quarters into those cabinets while I was
sucking down Big Gulps at my local 7-11. Classic combat, brisk pacing, familiar
characters – probably the biggest hit of nostalgia for me in the entire
package.
Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness was a game I
had no context on, having never played it. Immediately it felt a little
different because you pick a character – but all that does is play out the
story for you differently. The combat has nothing to do with the character, but
the type of mech you choose. There’s different classes and subclasses of mechs
that act as your actual combatants. There’s a sort of clunky simplicity to the
combat, which uses fewer buttons than some of the games, and giant
metal-covered machines probably should feel a bit less graceful than an expert
martial artist.
Throughout combat there’s an interesting
sort of tension that gets applied where you can damage the machine and it has
implications such as cleaving off your opponent’s arm, weakening their attack.
It sort of reminded me of the Samurai Showdown titles where you could get
disarmed (but more literally) and working from a limited position in combat
until you retrieve and reconnect it.
Super Gem Fighter Minimix is an odd one,
and probably my least favorite of the titles. This sort of thing is subjective
of course, but a simplified, clunkier version of streetfighter where the focus
is more on gathering gems to boost up your character than outright fighting
your opponent is just sort of an odd premise. It’s cute, it just always struck
me as kind of unfocused. As cool as this game is, calling it a ‘fighting’ game
is a bit of a stretch, but at least the Street Fighter theme gives them a good
excuse to include it, even if it’s really more of a puzzle game.
Super Puzzle Fight II Turbo has long been
one of my favorite titles. I’ve always been a sucker for action / puzzle games
such as Tetris or Columns, and this one is just addicting. The premise is
simple enough – you drop colored gems onto other similarly colored gems to
create larger blocks of gems that you can eventually match away to perform
‘attacks’ on your opponent in a visualization of Street Fighter. It’s a little
hard to explain, but highly addicting and as much fun as I remember.
Red Earth is an odd duck, but a weirdly
enjoyable one that I would have likely sunk oodles of time in had I played it
when I was younger. At first I saw four characters to choose from and thought
there was not going to be much meat on these bones. However, this fantasy title
has some lightweight RPG elements (experience, leveling up, gaining new
abilities) mixed with some different endings. They mostly revolve around how
many continues are needed to win, but there’s some choices baked in there too.
I honestly had never heard of this title before, but I think I spent as much
(if not more) time with this than any of the others.
Still, the collection is about more than
just the ten games. There’s quite a few options baked in here as well, from
online modes, to a variety of settings that can make the games as hard or easy
as you like, quick saves for those who need to leave before they’ve finished
their session and a virtual museum with materials from across the ten titles
such as music and artwork. In this day and age people are expecting more out of
‘collections’, and I would say by and large the packaging here does not
disappoint.
Summary
Capcom Fighting Collection is a
fantastic value for those who enjoy fighting games and want to play some of the
best to ever come out. There’s traditional titles like Darkstalkers and Street
Fighter, some unique takes on the genre with Cyberbots and Red Earth and even a
fighting themed puzzle game squeezed in there for good measure. It’s perhaps a
bit Darkstalkers heavy for some, but I appreciated the mix of familiar titles
and games I had never played before.
Score: 8
/ 10
