I love fighting games. Be it Street Fighter 3rd Strike, Tekken, or even Guilty Gear. Naturally, my excitement for Capcom Fighting Collection was high solely because of the ability to play some of my favourite games officially with necessary features. But, how is the overall package?
The collection, developed by Capcom, features ten fighting game titles from the arcade era boom. Consisting of features which are standards for a fighting game in the current year, the collection is excellent. However, it sometimes feels like Capcom was a bit late in introducing this to the fighting game fans.
A Word of Note
Generally, my review style covers story to gameplay and graphical settings. However, we’d be covering this title a little bit different. For this, I’ll divide it into two parts: The offline experience and the online experience.
The Offline Experience of Capcom Fighting Collection
The offline experience of the game is pleasant, consisting of a few well-asked features which are standard in any fighting game of this generation. Right off the bat, players can try out not one but ten whole fighting games from the arcade era. The list is as follows:
- Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
- Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge
- Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire
- Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (Japanese version only)
- Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire (Japanese version only)
- Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition
- Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
- Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
- Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
- Red Earth
In each title (except two), players can select to play the English or the Japanese version. Fans of these games know that both versions had minor changes exclusive to them, such as Street Fighter 2’s infamous character name swaps and more. Players need to select the version they want to play beforehand and can go and duke it out.
Furthermore, there’s full key-mapping customization for the controller, keyboard and arcade sticks, and each works flawlessly. I played some of the matches on both a keyboard and a controller. As someone who prefers playing arcade fighting games on my keyboard for more painless inputs, the simple rebinding made me smile. On top of that, on-the-fly saving and loading and difficulty selection is also available.
The features don’t end there. The title also houses a functional training mode for practice. It doesn’t end there, as the game also has options to toggle between easier inputs for supers, making it accessible to the casual crowd who want to have fun with the games.
Overall, the offline experience is excellent with the inclusion of such great features.
The Online Experience
Capcom Fighting Collection features the ability to play the games online, either casually or ranked. Let’s tackle the elephant in the room first: Netcode.
The game features rollback netcode, which, for the most part, worked well. There were a few instances where matchmaking cross-region made the game feel laggy. For cases like these, the option to adjust the rollback would’ve been admirable, which games like SNK’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves provides. Overall, the netcode does what it needs to do.
For online matches, players can play casually or competitive across all the ten titles in this collection. Yes, even in Super Gem Fighters. Furthermore, players can host lobbies and invite people into them. The lobby mode allows various settings which are there in the offline mode. Unfortunately, changing settings is not allowed on the fly in online lobbies. On top of this, there is a seamless spectate mode in the lobby, another nifty feature for people who love to host online tournaments and broadcast them.
It is worth pointing out that on PC, where I played the collection, the online community is not as much you’d expect from the more mainstream titles. Granted that I’m pretty used to playing fighting games with a double-digits player base on PC, this didn’t surprise me. So, for people planning on getting the game solely to rank up online or specifically play online on PC, it is advisable to temper their expectations.
Capcom has certainly put time and effort into ensuring that the online experience of the game is great, and it shows. It is worth pointing out that rollback can receive a little bit more tweaking to work better.
Visuals and The Museum
Visually, each game in Capcom Arcade Collection is as arcade accurate as possible. We tested the collection on my RTX 3060 system at 1080p. We didn’t notice any frame drops or lags with any titles during the playthrough. What is appreciable is that Capcom added various Scanlines for the games. Back in the 90s, for a clean-looking sprite, developers used to accommodate their sprite designs based on the CRT scanlines, so when both merged, it would give a clean look.
Around seven scanline filters are available for users to choose from based on their preferences. Some scanlines blur the game out, making the sprites look clean but a little bit blurry. Others turn the brightness down a bit to make the sprites look clean. Each scanline ensures that the game looks how it looked at the arcade, for the most part.
Another great addition is the Museum, which contains various concept arts, character key arts, and adverts for each game. It is a clean addition for people who enjoy looking through pre-Y2K advertisements by Capcom for their games.
On top of that, there is a music gallery containing soundtracks for all the titles featured in the collection.
Closing Thoughts
Remember at the beginning when I said Capcom took their time releasing this collection? There was a reason behind it. Nearly all the titles featured here have been playable on PC online, with rollback, unofficially. Naturally, the player base is still there. So, who does this collection cater to?
Well, this is a solid collection for the console owners. After all, this is the only alternative obtainable for consoles to play these games in the current year. However, one cannot deny the hard work Capcom has put into the collection. Consisting of good offline and online experiences, this is a remarkable collection for people who want to have the titles for keepsakes or play them with their friends online. However, if one is looking to rank grind on a PC, there are alternatives with a higher player count on the platform.
Capcom Fighting Collection is a solid package of good fighting games and deserves a playthrough.
A copy of this game was provided to us by the publisher for this review.
Capcom Fighting Collection is a great re-introduction to some of the greatest Capcomarcade games from the golden era of fighting games. Featuring robust modern features such as save state, online netplay, and in-game goodies, this is a solid package for fans of the games featured in the game
