Capcom Fighting Collection 2

Written by Joseph Moorer on 5/23/2025 for PS5  

They did it. Capcom has been back for a while, and the hits keep coming. It's amazing to know that all they had to do was free all these old games from their prisons, and people will flock to them. Whether they were stuck on Dreamcast, and then played using a well known online means, Capcom became part of the solution.

After the success of Capcom Fighting Collection 1, and Marvel VS Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, it's a no brainer to pull out the rest of the hits. Always play the hits, and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 rounds out the most demanded.

Before I get into the games, I just want to take a second to commend the people who kept these games alive. It's no secret that most of these were kept captive on their respective systems and the arcades. Project Justice and Plasma Sword, and Power Stone 1 and 2 were just sitting there on the Dreamcast. And while Capcom VS SNK 1 and 2 both saw home versions, they did what they had to do.

The Xbox, and the GameCube versions received EO versions of the sequel, but for some reason it didn't feel the same. It's all we had, so of course we played it, and cracked it wide open. We, meaning fighting game fans, even though it was the pros. 

I still can't believe it though. I remember my mind being absolutely blown seeing characters from the King of Fighters on the same screen with characters from Street Fighter. Before the internet, I got my news from grocery store-bought gaming magazines, so I had no idea this was a possibility. No leaks, or rumors. We were at the Arcades, or playing these games on our Dreamcast.

If you talked about Ken VS Terry Bogard, it was only with the words "what if" preceding it. I just cannot fathom that all these games are now available, natively, on my home console or PC. Digital or physical. No additional downloads. No paywall. No having to hunt down a copy of the games from a collector or a resale shop. They're just here. Forever. Again. There was no real rivalry between the two companies, but there was obviously competition. 

I understand that these may be closing statements, but it's just surreal. Of course there are people who are absolute beasts at these games, but I have to say that this collection is the most fun I've had with these compilations. All of these games are complete, with a a few very much wanted upgrades. All the sounds from the original games are here. The upscaling of the 3D models and the backgrounds on the games look great, while still keeping their nostalgic feel. No shortcuts were taken.

The matchmaking is incredible. The rollback netcode works pretty well, even though it sometimes saves people from being defeated. You'll occasionally register a hit and a KO, but if rollback kicks in, the hit doesn't register for them. The effect is quick, so you can react to it. More of a minor annoyance than anything. You can change the connection requirements to not have this be a constant issue. The breakdown of the games on this marvelous collection are as follows. Try to keep up:

Capcom VS SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 PRO was originally released in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast and in the arcades. CVS has 35 characters spanning both Capcom and SNK's universes.

This introduced us to the ratio system. Each character has specific ratio points. You have 4 points to use, so you can choose four characters that have 1 ratio point, or two characters that have 2 ratio points. There are ratio 3 and even ratio 4 characters. You fight until all your characters are defeated. Know that a character with a higher ratio will deal out more damage, so choose wisely. If you see people dominating an entire team with one ratio character, that's par for the course.

You can also choose different "grooves." Grooves are the style of fighting you want to have during your match. The Capcom groove gives you three level gauges of special attacks. You charge this up by using attacks or taking damage. The SNK groove allows you to do one super special at a full gauge, and allows a MAX Super Special Move, if your vitality is flashing. Utilize it as a comeback move. You can charge up your special gauge in SNK groove by just holding the two heavy attack buttons.

The button layout in this game is the four-button King of Fighter/SNK style, where you have two light attacks, and two heavy attacks. If you want a level three super move, you'll push the two heavy attack buttons corresponding to the super move. This one is my favorite of the two, because you never forget your first Street Fighter crossover, unless you consider Street Fighter takes place in the Final Fight universe, but that's a whole different article. Let's move on. 

Capcom VS SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 is the direct sequel to the first, and has 48 characters. While characters were stuck with their ratio points in the first one, the characters in this iteration can be any ratio they want, but again up to four points. Which means if you want to choose a level 4 Haohmaru from Samurai Showdown, mow through Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, and Guile from Street Fighter, the world is your oyster. Just remember that once your characters are eliminated, that's the end of the match.

The grooves have increased to six, using three different gauge styles from the Street Fighter series, and three different gauge styles from SNK fighting games. These grooves also come with different mechanisms, such as air blocking or parrying. This game makes your basic move set a little more customizable. The artwork here in both games is absolutely stunning. Capcom VS SNK 2 would be described today as Capcom VS SNK: Champion Edition. 

Capcom Fighting Evolution (Capcom Fighting Jam) came out in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. This one is less of a jam and more so a mess. This has only 23 characters, from five different Capcom games. You play with the gaming mechanics depending on the character you select. The games represented are Street Fighter, Street Fighter III, Darkstalkers, Street Fighter Alpha, and Red Earth.

If you choose Ryu from Street Fighter, you'll get one Super gauge, to where if you choose Dimitri from Darkstalkers, you'll get up to five levels of super gauge to pull off EX moves, and supers. There are two boss characters, and a brand new character named Ingrid. In this game, you select two characters per match. If you lose a round, you can either stick with your character, or choose the second. They've balanced out the characters here, but not by much. I'm not saying skip it, but if we're ranking the titles on this compilation, this one is last. It's fun to play online though. 

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper being added was a surprise to me. This version is the final version of Street Fighter Alpha 3. This version comes with 35 characters, and adds Juli and Juni, Guile, and a few other characters not seen in previous Alpha 3 builds. All the things you love from Alpha 3 are here, including the 3 isms (grooves), and rollback netcode. So if you want to get your hands dirty again with the definitive edition, and you don't have a PSP, this is the one for you. 

Project Justice was released in 2000, and is the sequel to Rival Schools. This 3D fighter lets you choose three characters to switch in between rounds, but choose wisely. In addition to your move sets, and super special attacks, picking the right teammate could result in very powerful team-up attacks only available to that particular character. You can only switch between characters in between rounds, and though it moves a little slower than the faster paced fighting games listed above, you should give this one a try, at least until you find someone that has been playing Project Justice up to this point. 

The same goes for Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein. This is the sequel to Star Gladiator, and is another 3D fighter. This is the answer to the question "What if Soul Caliber was made by Capcom?" Full 3D lets you take your weapon wielding fighters out for a flashy, insane amount of button-mashing fun. Crazy super moves, and even something called "Plasma Fields," give you comeback mechanics like no other game on this collection. It looks a little hard on the eyes, because the game came out in 1998, but it was damn good for 1998. I didn't want to say that, but I said it. Because it's true. 

Power Stone. What can I say about Power Stone? The 1V1 arena fighter lets you pick up almost anything and use it against your opponent. Any fighter you choose here gives you the same mechanics. Jumps, punches and kicks are all universal. The more damage you do, the more of a chance you get to collect the power stones. Once you collect three, your fighter powers up and has devastating EX and super moves at their choosing, but only for a limited time. Swords, guns, even rocket launchers are at your disposal. This game is fantastic—but only to be outdone by its sequel. 

Power Stone 2 is what the Dreamcast was all about. Another 2000 release, Power Stone: Champion Edition (Unofficial name, and yes, I made it up) is a full four-player experience. Same concept as the first, except the stages consist of platforming, falling out the sky, and even turrets you can control. Power Stone 2 is the game that everyone has been asking for, and we finally get to play it, online, with everyone. Team up if you want to, or go all-in battle royal. Truly a gaming experience you wouldn't believe existed in the early 2000s. 

The updates here are well done. All the secret characters are on for online mode, and you can turn them off in offline, as well as certain "cheats" for certain characters. The rollback netcode can be tweaked to your liking, only letting people with good connections into the fray. the gallery is just full of the same mind-blowing nostalgia that you used to only be able to get in a magazine.

Tucked away in the game is brand new remixed music for Power Stone 2, Capcom VS SNK 2, and Project Justice. Labeled 2K25 versions, you can have these played during your battles on and offline. The rest of the music is amazing too.

Getting in and out of fights for this collection has been the fastest of the three, only rivaling the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. I went in and turned all the filters off, and kept it at 4:3, and did the 2X visual upgrades. 

Fair warning. Some people have been playing these games by any means for the last 20-25 years. They have not stopped, and this compilation just gave them easier access to them. The cool thing about this is that ranked online play doesn't make me feel like I'm at a disadvantage. I picked up where I left off, and I have had some amazing matches.

There are your rage quitters, because yes. Power Stone 2 online ranked is pretty weird. Power Stone 2's ranked match still puts you in the game with another human player, and two CPU players. I would think it would match you up with three other players, but this is not the case. You can resurrect the CPU players if they fall, but once you or your opponent lose, it's over. This means that the CPU could cost you some rank points. Luckily, you can get in the lobby and play Power Stone 2 casually with people looking for a game. There aren't many players of Power Stone casually at the time of writing, so I hope Capcom finds a way around this. There's still no crossplay, so I guess I'll be picking up the Steam version too. 

This took a long time to sit and write. I couldn't convey the right words to match my enthusiasm. The collection is complete. I now have all the definitive fighting games of my childhood and my young adulthood. These are the games I will play for a long long time. Games I don't have to delete, because I'll go back to them. Local tournaments are back. These games will be featured everywhere now. Capcom just figured that if you can't beat 'em, beat 'em up. These are the times. Does it get any better? Maybe. But this game caused a two-week writer's block for me. That's how much it hit me in the heart. If you would've told me that I would be writing a review for the games I played and read about in GamePro or EGM, I'd laugh at you like Iori Yagami