I've been a 2D fighting fan for as long as I can remember. Some of my fondest arcade and home console moments have come in the form of one 2D fighter or another in the last 17 years that I've been gaming. When I heard that Capcom was making a game that featured a collection of characters across five games, I was truly floored. I had played the Marvel vs. Capcom and Capcom vs. SNK series into the ground, and I was really looking for a different kind of collection-one that would revive the 2D fighting experience that I remembered so fondly. Sadly, Capcom Fighting Evolution just wasn't what I was hoping it would be.

CFE features a collection of 20 characters from Street Fighter II, DarkStalkers, Street Fighter III, Street Fighter Alpha, and Red Earth (not previously released in the States). We've also got new backgrounds, some new special effects, a new soundtrack, and some new ending cinematics drawn by the talented folks at Udon. Players will see a plethora of their favorite characters including (but not limited too) Ryu, Chun-Li, Sakura, Demitri, Guile, and Bison, but the selection feels kind of limited. I can't help but feel like Capcom could have easily doubled the number of characters in the game and still had some leftover space on the disc. That brings me to a point about the sprites themselves. All the sprites in CFE are ported directly from other games. Some of these sprits could badly use an updating, and it would have made the game seem so much more polished and pretty if Capcom had completely remade all the sprites for this game.

The different styles that span across the five games are melded together fairly well. Capcom seems to have adjusted and tweaked damage rates and reaction times to even the playing field for all 20 characters. I still sense a bit of imbalance especially in some of the Street Fighter II characters who just seem to do more damage than some of the others. Hit detection is pretty much right on target, and all the special moves you know and love are here with their time honored executions. The other new thing here is the ability to select two characters to take advantage of both of their skills during the fights. The only disappointing thing about this system is that the only time a player can swap characters is between rounds. It would have been a lot more fun to allow real-time switching during matches.

My other major complaint comes with the discussion of game modes. For starters, the single-player arcade mode only lasts for six matches, which means you can run through and see all the character endings in extremely short order. Also, because you can select two characters, you get to see two endings after only six matches, giving yourself a very short single-player experience. There is a training mode and an unlockable gallery, but the game still feels painfully short on game modes. It would have been nice to see some sort of endurance challenge (how many fights can you win before you die) or something to better develop the single-player experience. There really isn't much here if you aren't going to play versus mode with your friends. If you do want to play with friends, you may want to wait for the Xbox version which will feature Xbox Live support.

It's really quite disappointing that something with so much potential turned out so poorly. I was so excited about this title when it was first announced, but the whole thing turned out to be quite a letdown. New sprites, more characters, or even just better game modes would have helped this title so much. Here's hoping that Capcom's next 2D fighting collection turns out to be less hype and more substance. Rent this one if you're a huge fan of 2D fighters, otherwise don't even waste your time.

Mar 21, 2005 | 0 comments
Elaine Garbarine