We go back to 1987 for the next game which happens to be Street Fighter. The original game in the series that launched a genre into prominence. The original machine had one punch button and one kick button. The buttons themselves were nematic and could register how hard they were hit to three levels. This allowed for three levels of punches and three levels of kicks. The game allowed you to control Ryu as you worked your way through two challengers at each of the game's five different countries four a total of ten bouts. The game introduced the characters of Ryu, Ken, Birdie, Sagat, Gen, and Adon who would all rise to fame in later installments of the series. To put it bluntly, the original Street Fighter is one of the worst games ever. It has flightly controls and difficult timing. It is interesting to own as a footnote in gaming history. The game was made by Yoshiki Okamoto who happened to make Time Pilot and Gyruss over at Konami before heading over to Capcom where he would start a series that would forever change the arcades and gaming as we know it.
We jump to 1994 and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. This game represents the final revision of the overly revised Street Fighter 2 series. This is the ultimate version of the game. This one has the extended roster from Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers as well as having three speeds selectable at the start. The slowest of which is faster than anything seen in the original. This is the one with seventeen hidden characters even though they're mostly old versions of the characters. Akuma is playable. This one also introduces the air combo as well as the super combos which have become staples of the series to this day. For Street Fighter 2 fans this is the Holy Grail. For me, eh.
Finally we wrap up in 1994 with Eco Fighters. The game is a horizontally scrolling shooter featuring an ecological theme of stopping pollution. You're out to stop an evil mega-corporation from clear-cutting an entire planet. You control your ship with the joystick of course and you have one button to fire and one button to rotate left and another to rotate right. The ship you control has an arm that can rotate around three-hundred and sixty degrees allowing you to fire in any of the eight directions independently ofyour ship's movement. The enemy ships drop crystals for you to collect. There is a counter at the bottom of the screen counting the crystals to twenty. When you reach twenty it triggers a ship that comes out and delivers a power-up. So you always know the when of your impending power-ups. There are four weapon types and they can each be leveled up to level four. The game has great graphics with a cartoonish art style. The challenge is pretty fair for a shooter.
And now for the final opinion. What do you get for your $20 admission fee? Well, you get twenty Capcom arcade games from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. These are fully realized games unlike some titles you might find on collections from the late 1970s and early 1980s. You get very good emulation of all twenty games. You get a history for every title with unlockable art and music for each title. The games themselves are a mixed bag. Your appreciation will heavily depend on how you feel about the abundance of the brawler and shooter and action genres. I also think that your appreciation will depend on your interest in the history of gaming. Capcom Classics Collection 2 is more for those interested in the history of things rather than someone walking in off the street and picking it up. I appreciate the value and the history of it all. I'm giving Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 a 7.5.
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