Capcom Fighting Collection 2 review: a pixel-perfect celebration of chaos and creativity

I’ll admit it – Capcom Fighting Collection 2 had me before the first punch was thrown. As someone who spent far too much time in the arcades during the '90s and early 2000s, and still owns Street Fighter Alpha 3 on Sega Saturn (one of the best retro consoles), this lovingly curated compilation isn't just a re-release, it feels like a personal invitation to relive the glory days of CRT flicker, boisterous rivalries and impossibly cool character design.

But nostalgia is only part of the package Capcom has put together here. What really elevates this collection is Capcom’s commitment to preserving and celebrating the visual artistry that defined a generation of fighting games. I wrote in my early hands on how Capcom's '90s visual design seen in Capcom Fighting Collection 2 left a mark on me, and now playing for weeks for this review, it's an art style I simply love.

As an aside, it's also nice to see Capcom finally stretching beyond Street Fighter and other retro games we've seen in many collections before. These eight games include some toe-tips into 3D, party gaming and the SNK team-up (just in time to ride the coattails of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves).

Capcom's innovative fighters repackaged

The first thing that struck me was how stunning these games still look. This is peak pixel art; they're bold, expressive and kinetic regardless of which games you play (there are four 2D and four 3D titles). Both Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper and Capcom Vs SNK are masterpieces of sprite animation, and playing them now, it’s astonishing how much personality oozes from every frame.

Even relatively obscure picks like the giant horned T-Rex Huazer from Red Earth (found in the uninspiring Capcom Fighting Evolution) feel like finely illustrated comic book heroes springing to life – this character his huge but has a comical flurry of chicken punch animations that made me laugh.

Each game offers filter options to enable you to replicate CRT scanlines or resizes the screen format, depending on your taste. Personally, I opted for CRT emulation with the original screen ratio – because it just feels right. It's the bare-bones of what's expected, these days from a retro collection.

The Museum mode is where you can dig into the concept art and illustrations behind each game, and I spent more time than I'd imagine trawling through Capcom's art library (I cover a little more of this later).

Design that punches above its weight

I'd love to say every title in the collection brings something different to the table, but in a collection like this there is always a dud. For me Capcom Fighting Evolution isn't one of the best, and while it's nice to have characters from SF3 and DarkStalkers rubbing shoulders, it's a novelty fighter that can't drag me away from headliners like SF Alpha 3.

Looking at the collection generally, it's fascinating to see Capcom’s design language evolve across eras. Power Stone remains one of the most joyfully chaotic arena fighters of the era, and its bold character design still pops with an almost toy-like appeal. The simple aesthetic, though early in 3D terms, holds up because it was always rooted in strong visual silhouettes and vibrant palettes.

Capcom vs. SNK and its sequel, meanwhile, might be the collection’s crown jewels. The mix of fight systems enable you to tailor your style, offering not just different super meter mechanics, but subtly different inputs (I always found SNK's system more rhythmic than Capcom). It’s pure design brilliance, and one of the rare examples of deep strategy and flashy fun genuinely co-existing. (As a huge SNK fan, I could be a little bias here.)

Moving into 3D, Project Justice is a chaotic over-designed slice of early 2000s brawling, where every character looks like they walked out of a forgotten PlayStation-era anime. But that’s exactly why I love it. It’s gaudy, it’s over-the-top, and it’s an exuberant experiment in style that games of the era played upon (go and look up Bloody Roar and Fighting Bronx). Not every move lands cleanly, but the attempt is never boring.

Animation that taught a generation how to fight

Replaying the games in this collection I’m constantly amazed by the fidelity of Capcom’s hand-drawn animation. These sprites – particularly in Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper – aren’t just technically impressive, they’re lessons in visual storytelling. Anticipation, squash-and-stretch, overlapping action, all the classic animation principles are on display in every Hadoken and Shoryuken, and it only gets better when SNK joins in for SNK Vs Capcom and sequel SNK Vs Capcom 2.

The framerates are lower by modern standards, but these artists knew exactly when to hold a pose or delay a few frames to emphasise impact, and how to make that work in a buzzy 2D and 3D fighter.

Capcom has updated how these games play with new features, such as online play that makes use of rollback netcode, while the training modes are a good place to experiment, and while I've never been a huge fan, one-button special moves ensure everyone can experience the chaos.

Then there’s the treasure trove of archival art found in the collection's Museum. Concept art, sprite sheets and over 400 tracks of remastered music form a sort of interactive art book. As mentioned, I spent a shameful amount of time just flipping through the galleries in this collection.

A love letter written in pixels and punches

Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is not perfect – there are a couple of filler games in Plasma Sword and Capcom Fighting Evolution, and each game is as it was, meaning theses are arcade-focused titles that lack any modern needs for storytelling or extended play modes. But the beauty of fighters like SF Alpha 3 and the SNK team-ups is you'll spend weeks simply perfecting combos and testing yourself against the CPU and friends.

From a design standpoint Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is invaluable for understanding how colour, motion and character design can communicate so much, so fast. As a gamer, I’m just thrilled to be able to play these retro game gems again – particularly the Power Stone duo that have been overlooked for too long and feel perfectly suited to Nintendo Switch.