Could they make a Capcom Fighting Collection 3?

I know, the second one isn't even out yet and we're already thinking about Capcom Fighting Collection 3. But it's a really interesting topic! When Capcom announced the Capcom Fighting Collection back in 2022, fighting fans were pleased. It contained a number of fighters that hadn’t been readily available for a while. All the Darkstalkers? Red Earth on consoles for the first time? Cyberbots, the game Marvel vs. Capcom’s Jin came from? The madness of Hyper Street Fighter II? Outstanding value, right there. And honestly, Capcom could have stopped there. But no, that was just the beginning. 

Pleasing fighting fans even more was the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection. All of Capcom’s Marvel games in one package, lovingly crafted with a physical edition on the way, all characters included (even that weird Japanese comic guy), the works. Some of the finest fighting games ever made bundled together in a slick package. What more could we want? 

Well, Capcom fighting Collection 2! Now, this is where things get super interesting. This collection houses some of Capcom’s best non-Marvel fighters, and it’s frankly insane the amount of killer content stuffed into this one. Both Capcom vs. SNK games, the much-maligned Capcom Fighting Evolution, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, both Power Stones, Project Justice, and Plasma Sword. That’s bonkers. But it’s also weirdly incomplete. 

I’m by no means suggesting this package doesn’t have enough games. Not by a longshot. It’s just that Project Justice and Plasma Sword are sequels. Sequels to games that have yet to appear in a Capcom Fighting collection. 

So naturally, me being me, I got to thinking, could they possibly make a third one of these? I’ve been waiting on a third Mega Man Legacy Collection for ages, with the Game Boy games, the Game Gear game, Wily Wars, Mega Man & Bass, etc. But as of yet, it’s nowhere to be found. So Capcom certainly isn’t above leaving games completely out of these collections when they want to. However, with the popularity of these collections, maybe they could follow through and bring us a third? 

After doing some research, populating a Capcom Fighting Collection 3 wouldn’t be super easy. There are plenty of Capcom fighting games left that they could include, but very few aren’t being held back by some sort of issues. First, let’s cover what absolutely won’t make it. 

Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man: The Power Fighters I imagine would be better suited for some sort of Mega Man collection. Like, oh, I don’t know, Mega Man Legacy Collection 3? I know, I’m a madman. Either way, those are more like boss rush games than fighters, so I’m thinking they don’t make the cut. They’re also already on the Capcom Arcade Stadium, which isn’t necessarily a disqualifier, but it is worth noting. 

Sengoku Basara X is super cool, but it was developed by Arc System Works. I’m sure Capcom owns it, but I don’t know, it seems like a weird fit. 

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Anime licensed fighters Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure would make for outstanding fits for Capcom Fighting Collection 3, but I imagine those licenses would prevent them from being involved in any sort of actual collection. Unlike Marvel, they don’t have a deep well of sequels to help fill out a roster either, so they’re out. 

That just leaves Onimusha Blade Warriors and Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble. These are both platform-style fighters, akin to Smash Bros. They don’t really smell like the kind of thing that would fit in with the rest of the Fighting Collection stuff. They would likely be better suited to Onimusha and Viewtiful Joe collections. Man, those should absolutely exist too! 

So, what’s left? Well, quite a selection! 

First, if this theoretical Capcom Fighting Collection 3 were to exist, I’d think the headliners would be Saturday Night Slam Masters and its follow up Ring of Destruction. They're wrestling-themed, but these are totally still fighting games, and they’re totally well loved ones at that! Everybody loves Mayor Mike Haggar, and the rest of the players are super weird and fun. The only thing I can see holding these games up is, I believe some of the character designs are by Tetsuo Hara of Fist of the North Star fame. It’s possible we’ve never seen these games ported to modern consoles because of some sort of ownership over the character designs. Assuming Capcom owns everything outright though, these would make for some great headliners. 

Next, the prequels. Rival Schools and Star Gladiator. With Project Justice and Plasma Sword already on Fighting Collection 2, it would be super weird to not have their series origins preserved anywhere, especially Rival Schools. Star Gladiator is neat, but it’s more than a little rough around the edges. Rival Schools (and its Japan-only expansion), though, is just plain great. Its omission from these collections is a killer, so let’s hope it gets rectified. 

Another longtime Capcom classic that was weirdly missing from Fighting Collection 2 is Tech Romancer. It’s a mech-based fighter, and it’s got quite a cult following. Its Dreamcast release fetches a pretty penny on the aftermarket, too. It would make a fantastic addition to Capcom Fighting Collection 3. 

That’s five games, but looking at the number of titles in previous collections, that’s not nearly enough. So this is where my suggestions land just a little outside the box. 

Final Fight Revenge is a Final Fight fighting game. It’s possible some sort of Final Fight collection could exist in the future, but here’s the problem with that. Capcom Beat em Up Bundle already exists, and that has the first Final Fight in it. Final Fight 2 and 3 were Super NES games, and Mighty Final Fight was on NES. Now, maybe, MAYBE they put together a collection with the SNES port of the first game and its weirdo counterpart Final Fight Guy, and bundle all those games together, but even if they did, Final Fight Revenge would still be an outlier. This was a Japan-only arcade and Saturn joint, so making it available for regular play here in the US for the first time would make for one heck of a get. I say it makes more sense here than anywhere else, and it would fill out the Capcom Fighting Collection 3 roster nicely. 

But that still isn’t really enough games compared to the previous collections. I know it’s a stretch, but my thought is the Street Fighter EX games. The big problem here is the Arika connection. These games not only feature characters owned by Arika, but they were developed by them as well. Of course, Fighting Collection 2 has two SNK games in it, but those games were developed by Capcom. Still, they feature a number of SNK characters, so having some sort of crossover content isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility. Having the three EX games would round out this collection beautifully, and make it a heck of a killer value. Of course, it’s possible they would want to hold the EX games off for some sort of other Street Fighter Collection. There are plenty of Street Fighter games that aren’t on the excellent Anniversary Collection, after all, like all the home console ports, Street Fighter IV and all its brethren, and umm… Street Fighter 2010? Eh, I think the EX games would be better suited here. 

Is this a perfect solution? Probably not. But is it doable? I honestly don’t know. But what I do know is, if they managed to pull this off, they’d have just about every fighting game they ever made collected on modern platforms, and that would indeed be a beautiful thing.