SF4 and SSF4 are really expensive.
You’re talking a few grand for the arcade games! Something like $3k-4k a piece!
Why wouldn’t you be satisfied with the PS3 and 360 ports? Doesn’t make sense to me to get into current-gen arcade games. So few of these are being produced and the costs are prohibitive for most people.
As for other games on your list, it depends on what you want to spend…
I don’t know that Marvel VS Capcom 2 is going to be cheap if you get the official arcade version. It’s still an expensive game to buy from a dealer in the US. Maybe over $1,000 for a copy in very good/near-mint condition. You can probably get it far cheaper online… a gently worn version of the game shouldn’t cost $1,000. HOWEVER… It’s also a game that’s emulated fairly well on PS3 or XBox 360 and it will only set you back $15 for a download. Even the Dreamcast M v C 2version shouldn’t be that expensive… Generally something like $30 for the CD-ROM. A new Dreamcast which is basically a down-sized Naomi can be had for $100 or less now.
This gets to be an expensive hobby and the choice is are you that anal that you absolutely have to have arcade-perfect ports (meaning actual arcade hardware and PCBs in many cases), or are you willing to forgo for a decent/near-perfect home port?
The last two Sega systems had excellent ports of many CPS-2 games. They were great for fighting games in general, period, and the Saturn in particular had great runs with both Capcom and SNK/NEO GEO conversions in addition to several original (to the system) fighters.
(Oddly enough, Samurai Shodown 1 and 2 never got ported to either Sega CD-based system. A good compilation of the games on CD-ROM didn’t happen until the PS2 came along years later. I happen to think the PS2 ports are fine but many people still swear by the cart versions for the SNK arcade and console systems.)
The Street Fighter Alpha series was excellent on the Saturn. Many people consider SF Alpha 3 (with 4MB RAM expansion) better on the Saturn than the Dreamcast!
Also very good if not perfect on the Saturn were NightWarriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (my favorite of that series) and practically perfect ports (with 4MB RAM expansion) of X-Men Vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, and Vampire Savior.
Also decent but not great was X-Men: Children of the Atom. The PS1 X-Men:COTA was basically unplayable. Avoid Marvel Super Heroes at all costs — horrible port! Cyberbots was okay but it’s a weird Capcom game hardly anybody knows anything about anymore and I admit I never played it much even though I still own it for Saturn.
Very good CPS-1 ports of the first four Street Fighter II games were done for Saturn as well. SSF2Turbo was a bit weak because of less-than-optimal programming and the Saturn’s generally memory-weak soundchip.
The Dreamcast was substantially more powerful than the Saturn but didn’t receive as many fighter ports due to its shorter lifespan and also the fact that the fighting game scene was drying out by the time this system came out.
Still, there were some very good CPS-2 ports and the arcade perfect translation of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for the system.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 was also darn good but some prefer the Saturn version since it matches the arcade closer in resolution (DC runs 640X480 native) and has animations cut out of the DC port of SFA3.
My favorite CPS- ports for Dreamcast were definitely Super Street Fighter II Turbo (technically Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge; a Japanese DC exclusive) that is hands-down the best home port of SSF2T and Vampire Chronicles for Matching Service. Vampire Chronicles was adapted into a PSP portable fighter. It’s basically like Street Fighter Anniversary Edition but for the Darkstalkers series… I must say that I prefer the Darkstalkers collection for PS2, though. The DC game generally has washed-out colored sprites and I prefer being able to pick which game to play instead of mish-mashed rules.
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