Everyone is at it at the moment, all of them; Namco, Taito, Midway, SEGA, Nintendo, Atari. They’re all releasing classics packs with their back catalogue of 2D games from the 80s and 90s. Some of them are utter garbage and should be left as painful memories, but there are some classics out there too. So now Capcom, the legends of the arcade, have decided to join the party too, and they have given us 22 arcade games from back in the day. This is Volume 1 too, so expect another one in the not too distant future.
Included in Volume 1 is (deep breath):
1942
1943
1943 Kai
Bionic Commando
Commando
EXED Exes
Final Fight
Forgotten Worlds
Ghosts ‘n Goblins
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
Gun.Smoke
Legendary Wings
Mercs
Pirate Ship Higemaru
Section Z
SonSon
Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting
Trojan
Vulgas
OK there are some fillers on there without doubt, and weren’t exactly stars when they came out, but there are also some real gems that stand out and really make the collection worthy. Every platform from SEGA Saturn to Xbox has had a remake of Street Fighter II, or a Street Fighter II collection, but we haven’t seen Final Fight on a system since 2001 with the Gameboy Advance. It’s a real classic too, and plays beautifully still today. It’s even got the 3-player mode that the original Arcade game had. In fact it’s so good it’s worth buying this collection overly the recently released, and rather average 3D side-scrolling fighter from Capcom, Beat Down.
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is still the hardest game ever, but it’s also still a really great game to play, and insane challenge to try and finish it. Playing games like this really reminds you how easy modern games are, without checkpoints or saves after every level. GnG, and Super GnG are superb platform games, and they have aged very well. Better than the 3D remake Maximo? - without doubt. This is a proper 2D platform game with some lovely sprites, backgrounds, and unforgettable music.
Other highlights include 1942 and 1943, which are fun games, if a little dated now. The 2D shooter genre has changed radically over the years, and these are rather sedate in comparison. Still an enjoyable choice though.
The three Street Fighter II games are of course great to see in the collection, and are probably, along with Final Fight are the games you’ll spend the most time with. SFII stuff of arcade legend, and it’s still my favourite fighting game of all time. 3D fighting games just don’t play this well.
There are quite a few games that you might not of even heard of, and a few that you’ll probably play for 5 minutes and never again. However for me the collection is worth £20 to have Final Fight, SFII variants and Ghouls ‘n Ghosts in one place.
You can change the difficulty settings on all of the games, and switch the controls around on some of them too. It would have been nice to have the proper dipswitch options like Namco put into the 3 Tekken arcade extras on Tekken 5, and a 60Hz video option would have been a good addition so the games run at the correct speed and display.
Overall though this is another typical classics collection; some really great stuff, some “alright” games, and then a few you’ve never heard of and probably won’t even play. It’s up to you whether you think the handful of classics is worth the money. I certainly believe they are.
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