Capcom Fighting Collection

This arcade fighting game collection packs a brand new punch. Capcom Fighting Collection takes a handful of older arcade fighting games, mixes them with modern improvements and a museum full of concept art, and produces a slick experience that can keep up with newer releases. The collection consists of ten games: Hyper Street Fighter II, Red Earth, Super Gem Fighter Minimix, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Cyberbots, and all five titles in the Darkstalkers franchise. These are traditional 2D fighting games, with the exception of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, which is a competitive puzzler using Capcom characters as avatars. Vampire Savior 2 and Vampire Hunter 2 have never been available outside of Japan and Red Earth has never been released outside of arcades. Online play and training modes have been added to every game in the collection, as well as customizable difficulty features, the ability to customize button bindings, and multiple display filters. The collection also features a robust museum full of design documentation and concept art of the featured games.

Mechanically, these games hold up very well. The Darkstalkers franchise, particularly Vampire Savior, still play and animate beautifully. Red Earth has a unique boss rush single-player component, and has light RPG (role-playing game) elements that let you gain new special moves and combos over time. The improvements make the previously available titles the best editions of each one released to date. That said, these games don't come with extensive tutorials, and new players may struggle to adjust to the tight windows needed to perform combos that would feel easy in more modern games. Binding a special move to a button is an interesting option to make this easier to swallow, and the ability to lower the difficulty of the AI can help you tailor the experience to match your needs. The violence in these games is cartoonish and unlikely to trouble most kids, but some animations in the Darkstalkers games, particularly from the character Jedah, feature dismemberment and may be too much for very young players. Some stages and cutscenes also contain violent imagery, but that can be toned down through a menu option. Several games also feature highly sexualized female characters, which may not be appropriate for some children. This is most noticeable in the Darkstalkers franchise with Morrigan, Felicia, and Lilith, and Demitri's Midnight Bliss attack. But if the player is mature enough to handle the violence and sexualization, or is willing to avoid the five Darkstalkers games in the collection, the Capcom Fighting Collection is an excellent fighting game package for any fan of the genre.