Looking to get some Capcom fighting games...

[TyrannicalFascist]

Among other games recently, I've been wanting to pick up some console versions of Capcom fighting games like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, the Marvel games and Capcom vs. games. I used to play them at the arcade at the mall, but it closed in recent years. I've also played a lot of elements of these games in MUGEN, but I want to play the originals. Since I've lately been getting a lot of games that I never was able to get as a kid, I wanted to pick up some of these fighting games. The thing is that, particularly for Street Fighter, it's very confusing which versions there are and what console port is preferred.

I have an SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, and I'm very seriously considering getting a Sega Saturn and Dreamcast soon, since the list of games I'd potentially get for them is growing. I'm not interested in anything after PS1/N64/Dreamcast right now. You guys seem like you're in the know about these things, so here's what my research has come up with for the preferred/best versions of these games. Let me know if I'm on the right track or way off.

- All Street Fighter II variations - either SNES or Saturn/PS1's Street Fighter Collection 1 & 2

- Street Fighter Alpha - Saturn
- Street Fighter Alpha 2 - Saturn, or Alpha 2 Gold version in Saturn's Street Fighter Collection 1?
- Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Dreamcast
- Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha - PS1
- Street Fighter EX2 Plus - PS1
- Street Fighter III: Double Impact - Dreamcast
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Dreamcast

- Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors - PS1
- Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge - Saturn
- Darkstalkers 3 - PS1 or Saturn (Japanese only)?
- Vampire Savior 2/Vampire Hunter 2 - Dreamcast
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - Dreamcast

- X-Men: Children of the Atom - Saturn
- Marvel Super Heroes - Saturn
- X-Men vs. Street Fighter - Saturn (Japanese only)
- Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter - Saturn (Japanese only)
- Marvel vs. Capcom - Dreamcast
- Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - Dreamcast

-Capcom vs. SNK - Dreamcast
-Capcom vs. SNK 2 - Dreamcast (Japanese only) or later system?

[KaiserWAVE]

If you want to buy a Saturn then I would suggest buying these games for Saturn. The Staurn versions are generally the better ones. Due to the Saturn's architecture it handled 2D fighters better than the PS1. Shorter loadtimes and more frames of animation were the result which made the games look better. If you buy a Saturn then get the 4MB RAm cartridge. It is needed for some of these games and will cost a bit but in return you get near arcade perfect ports of the games, way superior to their PS1 counterparts. Some of these games on your list even require the 4MB Ram Card or they won't work (i.e. X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Vampire Savior )

The Saturn version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 is definitely the preferred one. The Saturn port features the characters Evil Ryu, EX Zangief and EX Dhalsim, the PS1 port doesn't.
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold is almost the same version as Street Fighter Alpha 2 but the gold version has a version of Cammy based on her rendition from X-Men vs. Street Fighter, who appears as a hidden character selectable only in the game's Versus and Training Modes.

Darkstalkers 3 is called Vampire Savior.  The Saturn version was released in Japan only and requires Capcom's 4MB RAM Cartridge. This version contains all 15 characters from the original Vampire Savior as well as the three Night Warriors characters who were left out of the original arcade release and brought back in Vampire Savior 2/Vampire Hunter 2. Thanks to the 4MB RAM cartridge this version is near arcade perfect, better than the previous Darkstalkers games.

Vampire Hunter 2/Vampire Savior 2 were released together on Dreamcast. It's called "Vampire Chronicle for Matching Service". You could only get the game as a mail-order game via Dreamcast Direct. So the game is usually on the more expensive side when you look it up on eBay.

Maybe as an addition to your list, since you wanted to get all the Street Fighter 2 variations. The is "Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service". It was released for the Dreamcast in Japan as an exclusive mail-order release via the online Dreamcast Direct store. The port is considerably more accurate than the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions contained in the Sreet fighter collection. Plus under certain circumstances you could play as Shin Gouki and Ten Gouki (two different versions of Akuma).

Hope that helps a bit.

[Beastman1975]

i agree with kaiser a saturn is the way to go  also if you can find it this is the cart  you want to play import games

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-k8-49-en-70-1b2.html

 acts as the ram expansion import converter and a memory card to backup your game saves

[TyrannicalFascist]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions! I'll definitely go for Saturn and Dreamcast as the main fighting game consoles I think. I was actually just made aware of the Action Replay cart from watching Classic Game Room HD. I've got my eye on a few Saturns and a black Sega Sports Dreamcast on eBay, so once I get one I can pick up those games! (All my Sega systems are black, so I'm inclined to get the Sega Sports Dreamcast to match, even though I don't care much about Sega Sports)

Does Alpha 2 Gold include the characters you mentioned from Alpha 2 on Saturn, as well as the special version of Cammy, or just Cammy? I mean, if I was going to get one of those 2, would Alpha 2 Gold on Saturn be the preferred of the two or regular Alpha 2 on Saturn?

And I take it that the Japanese imports are still mostly playable for an English speaker like me? I mean, they aren't RPGs so they wouldn't be very text-heavy I imagine.

[marioxb]

I have most of these Saturn and Dreamcast games. Very little Japanese text in these Japanese games.

[KaiserWAVE]

Does Alpha 2 Gold include the characters you mentioned from Alpha 2 on Saturn, as well as the special version of Cammy, or just Cammy? I mean, if I was going to get one of those 2, would Alpha 2 Gold on Saturn be the preferred of the two or regular Alpha 2 on Saturn?

If you want to get just one then get Alpha 2 Gold. It has all the characters mentioned + Cammy.