When I think of fighting games, my mind returns to around 2001. Tekken 3 was still in arcades, Soulcalibur II was starting to be spotted in the wild, and there wasn’t a local spot near me that was giving Capcom the time of day. 2D fighters like Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors were peaks of a genre seemingly on its way out. 3D polygons were king now. I have always recognized Capcom as being 2D sprite gods, so when I first played Power Stone in an arcade a few years ago, my mind was blown. “THIS is Capcom?!” – I thought to myself. I had to learn more. So I did some digging. The result of my findings: Capcom has a fascinating library of hidden gem 3D fighting games that they hardly acknowledge and that’s exactly what makes Capcom Fighting Collection 2 exciting.
I received a finished build of the collection thanks to Capcom and had the opportunity to sample its awesome library with a focus on three specific games out of the collection of eight. I first gravitated to Power Stone 2, a game I had never gotten to play previously but was familiar with. The Dreamcast was always home to obscurities that deserved more attention and this is no exception. Though it’s the arcade build that’s playable in CFC2, Power Stone 2 doesn’t lack for content. It pushes the number of players on a stage up from two to four and the Smash Bros-esque barely contained chaos is abundant. The stages are the real star of the show as you’ll fight on the wings of a plane before it explodes, leaving you and your opponents to skydive down to an island where you’ll finish the fight. The goal is to take every character’s stock using attacks, weapons and, by collecting the four colored Power Stones, activating a super-powered form that unleashes much stronger, crazier attacks. The game is a riot and will be a favorite for multiplayer, especially online for the first time ever.
Next, I had to try the sci-fi fighter Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein. I’m familiar with the first Star Gladiator game, a game that actually began life as a Star Wars fighting game with LucasArts on board before losing the license but keeping the lightsaber sounds and character archetypes. When Plasma Sword begins, Star Gladiator II flashes on an opening crawl screen in an appropriate imitation of the aforementioned movie saga. This is one flashy game. I maintain that there need to be more sci-fi fighting games, especially those influenced by Soulcalibur. The movement in this game is surprisingly floaty and definitely not as tight as its competitor, but the many super moves are a blast to behold. The screen background practically becomes a brief rave with lasers, spikes of light and gunfire onscreen. I think this game could definitely find a decent audience as there’s a demand for weapon-based fighters out there.
Finally, for this preview, I played SNK Vs. Capcom: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro for the first time. A revised version of the original SNK Vs. Capcom, this game carries over SNK’s ratio system and ability to create a team of characters or distribute all power to a single character. This game also introduced the Groove system which allows you to choose between playing the game Street Fighter Alpha style by selecting the Capcom Groove or King of Fighters ‘98 style by selecting the SNK Groove. This changes how your meter works. This game with its customization of gameplay styles was ahead of its time and that’s impressive considering this was still early on in Capcom’s tag fighting library. It still plays great too, with its 4v4 format feeling distinct from Marvel Vs. Capcom’s 2v2 or 3v3 matchups.
With this being the third of the Fighting Collection games and direct sequel to the first Capcom Fighting Collection, I was happy to see that arcade marquee cards, Quick Save functionality, training mode for each title and one button special moves were returning in addition to the standard move lists and online play settings we’ve come to expect. However, Capcom made an even cooler announcement this week that all Fighting Collection games will be getting updated with offline Versus modes for single and multiplayer battles, a quick reset menu option for each game, resolution options for higher fidelity and longer button presses to open menus in online matches. The quality of life is fantastic and it’s great to see that these options will be available day 1 for Capcom Fighting Collection 2.
For my money, this second volume of Capcom Fighting Collection is looking to be just as treated with the respect the fans have been hoping for as the first and Marvel Vs. Capcom Collections have. Capcom has started a fantastic and loving trend of bringing back beloved and obscure fighting games, giving them modern features and allowing you to play with a wider pool of people than ever thanks to online play.
We can all take a step back into the arcade when Capcom Fighting Collection 2 launches just a month from now on May 16th.
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Written by Matthew Powers
Nintendo has been Matthew’s preference for fun video gaming since 2004. In addition to his love for all things Mario, Metroid and beyond, Matthew also enjoys heavy metal, roller coasters, pinball machines, and being a proud cat dad.
