REVIEW : Capcom Fighting Collection (PC)
Capcom announced that it would be reissuing the whole Darkstalkers series, the fantastic Puzzle Fighter games, as well as the egregiously underappreciated Red Earth, all with internet play. I enjoy being proven wrong about games and enjoying how I’m impressed by a finished work. The Capcom Fighting Collection gives a wonderful first impression thanks to its responsive and quick menus, beautiful custom artwork, and charmingly silly opening theme tune. There are several parameters that can be changed for each title as well as in general. Here, the button mapping feature is crucial because the original button layouts of some titles can differ significantly. Each game has the ability to save its unique settings, therefore it’s impressive.
The fact that Capcom included a number of entertaining elements on top of the these titles for Capcom Fighting Collection makes this even more unique. While you only have one slot held in common across all games, quick-saving or faster a state is back. However, what really makes me happy is the addendum of training mode. To refine your skills, you may actually enter Red Earth, Darkstalkers, or Cyberbots and train with your preferred characters and a plethora of adjustable features including opponents, their states, and different life bars, super metres, and other setups. There is only one drawback in this situation: not that every game has a training session. For some reason, Super Gem Fighter Minimix is not included in this feature.
It’s also well-organized; rather than locking away distinct menus inside each game, you can access them directly from the match selection screen, whether you want to access training, frantic mode, or anything else. Each game is available in both English and Japanese, and it’s interesting to watch how series and games attempt to preserve consistency across national boundaries. I’m looking at a ranking of the Darkstalkers games at the moment now, and I’m still having trouble keeping them all straight. All I know is that they all probably have the word “vampire” in the title.
Although this function is not game-specific and, regrettably, applies to all titles, there is also a quick save and load option. The ability to make many saves would be wonderful, but because most fighters don’t have a long playing time, I don’t think it would be a big deal.
When you try to save settings or use quick save, a save error occasionally appears. The alert is usually a little unsettling, even though it appears to be unjustified, even though this message never actually failed to save, despite the fact that it did occur. It will also ask you if you want to return to the title screen when this error appears, which, depending on where you are, may be a bigger problem than the error itself. As it stands, this problem is a little bothersome, but maybe it can be fixed fast with an update.
At least on PC, switching between games is really quick and simple with little loading. In less than 20 seconds, you can switch between training modes of various games, which refers to switching from one game to another while you are currently playing it. Even the option to skip a game’s boot screen is available, allowing you to play games more quickly. These may seem like little details, but compilations like these are occasionally held together by duct tape and a subpar user interface, so it’s encouraging to see that Capcom made some deliberate decisions.
It’s great to see all many games here, but how they play is just as essential. The fact that Capcom made an effort to ensure that the titles in this compilation are the variants that are often utilised in tournament play will also please fans of classic tournaments and those who attend them. For instance, there are a variety of Darkstalker ROMs available, and not all of them are regarded as official tournament variations with appropriate balancing and everything. Each of these games is the correct representation of the competitions that still take place today.
Although the training modes themselves don’t include tutorials, only ways to set up various opponent characteristics, I really had a lot of fun digging through the decades’ worth of forum posts and guidelines created by devoted groups. There is also a quick save space, allowing you to quickly exit a game and return to it later.
In the end, all of these games function flawlessly. That can be advantageous or disadvantageous, since several of these games perfectly exemplify the term “quarter eater.” For instance, the CPU will openly read your inputs and counter your moves in Stage 1 of the original Darkstalkers. If your strategy fails in Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, the machine will ruthlessly crush you. The truth is that while some of these games were made to drain your allowance, they are simply absurdly difficult by default. Thankfully, there are settings for difficulty as well. Each game also has accessibility features like one-button special moves and supers. Although I really liked having this, you may opt to disable the one-button specials and supers in both offline and online play.
A 3-button fighter called Cyberbots, a parody of the classic beat-em-up Armored Warriors, features two attacks, a missile weapon button, and a dash button that lets you travel in all eight directions while in the air. It contains a number of unique concepts, such a separate metre connected to your missile cooldown and the capacity to completely remove an opponent’s arm. Although it’s simple to manoeuvre and I generally enjoyed my time with it, the hefty shape of the mechs and their rapid movement made it occasionally difficult to keep up with the action, particularly when it was in a corner.
I never imagined that Darkstalkers would have much support outside of a game like another Vs. Capcom. In addition to being relieved that I was mistaken, I’m thrilled it was of the normally good calibre Capcom has provided in the Capcom Fighting Collection. In addition, it is simply fantastic to have games like Red Earth, Cyberbots, and Super Puzzle Fighter available alongside features like practice modes, one-button specials, and other quality-of-life elements. I regret the absence of crossplay, and certain players may not appreciate the arcade-hard approach taken by several of these titles. Capcom Fighting Collection, however, is a tasty spread of timeless fighting deliciousness that generally plays fairly well.
Red Earth was more enjoyable for me than Cyberbots since it is so distinctive from the majority of current fighting games. The novelty of competing mostly against custom bosses rather than other unlockable characters while levelling up and learning new moves in the quest mode gave it a novelty not found in the other 2D fighting games, and it’s fantastic that this formerly obscure part of fighting game history is now much more accessible to play.
The Capcom Fighting Collection offers all it requires to be successful, including a stunning museum packed with intriguing artwork and music, a selection of excellent games, some of which are rare, and a slick user interface (UI) that connects everything together.
