The appointment with Capcom Arcade Stadium almost risks becoming fixed and annual. It was early 2021 when we reviewed the first collection. In the meantime, we were literally inundated with retro-productions and Capcom itself just a few weeks ago released its Fighting Collection … part of which is also included in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium. But let’s go in order.
Like last time, the collection includes a lot of stuff. Over thirty titles are included but once again the download of the “core” of the experience is free and includes a game that will stay with you even if you decide not to download the rest. This is SonSon, a two-dimensional platform inspired by the Chinese novel Journey to the West which in the past has already been part of other Capcom collections. Obviously, the big boys are paid, although you probably already own many of them in one way or another. If this is not the case, you can decide to buy the entire bundle at a price of 39.99 euros, packages of ten titles at 14.99 euros or single titles at 1.99 euros.
But what are these titles? Having tasted them practically in all sauces, we can safely leave out further descriptions for the Street Fighter sagas (present here with six chapters: SF, Hyper SFII: Anniversary Edition, the three chapters Alpha and Puzzle Fighter II Turbo) and Darkstalkers, whose main three arcade chapters plus the spin-off Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix are included in both this collection and the aforementioned Fighting Collection.
Many of the other titles included have in the past been the protagonists of collections released on various platforms, we refer in particular to the classic vertical shoot ’em ups Last Duel and 1943: The Battle of Midway and to the horizontal sci-fi Side Arms, to the western shooter Gun Smoke, the two immortal scrolling fighting games The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round, and the action fantasy Magic Sword and finally the bland Savage Bees, spiritual successor of Vulgus also known as Exed Exes.
In less recent times we have also had re-editions for Tiger Road, a bastard action-brawler who in the days of arcade halls was able to swallow whole pockets full of coins in a few minutes, and the sublime Three Wonders triptych, which includes the action-shooter a Midnight Wanderers scrolling (the best of the three and also one of the few games that the writer was able to finish with a maximum of two coins), the Chariot shooter and the particular Don’t Pull block puzzle game. Icing on the proverbial cake of the immortal Black Tiger, a mix between platform and hack ‘n slash that at the time caused havoc and that still lets itself be played with EXTREME pleasure.
Much further into memory are the other games that fill the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium. The Speed Rumbler (AKA Rush & Crash) we discovered it on this occasion, it is a particular shooter in which the hero of the moment must save his beloved and relative daughter from a gang of criminals, but for once he won’t. with bare hands but aboard a machine armed to the teeth. Very hard.
Rally 2011 Led Storm (also known simply as Led Storm) is instead a futuristic racing game released at the time also on Commodore 64 and Spectrum: races, jumps and occasional weapons are the main ingredients and here too you travel on very high difficulty levels. ! Avenger (Hissatsu Buraiken) is instead a fighting game “at the Final Fight” complete with power-ups and final bosses, only that the shot is bird’s eye and the graphic style … well, let’s say that it has not aged very well.
Capcom Sports Club, a collection of three sports titles (Soccer, Basketball and Tennis) with totally arcade DNA, not only in the gameplay but also in the level of difficulty that at the time was aimed at tapping the most as high as possible of coins from players. Here you can have your rematch and beat all your opponents by putting infinite credits in your personal cabinet.
There is very little to say about Block Block and Pnikies fillers, they are none other than Capcom’s answer to the much better known Arkanoid and Puyo Puyo, while Saturday Night Slam Masters is a fun wrestling game with characters designed by none other than Tetsuo Hara (Fist of the North Star). Valuable but already seen and revised the horizontal shooter Eco Fighters, which in the mid-90s made a fine show of itself in the CPS-2 cabinets. To close we find not one but two arcade spin-offs of the Mega Man series: The Power Battle and The Power Fighters, already present as bonus titles in the Mega Man Anniversary Collection … unreleased in Europe!
Ok, we have found that the amount of playful material is abundant to say the least and that the average quality is quite high, as long as you have not already purchased some other Capcom collection in recent years. Let’s say that the two Capcom Arcade Stadiums put together form a beautiful full-bodied and almost indispensable game room for those with an identity card that is at least 35/40 years old. In terms of real “focus” of the project, we would have appreciated more a unique Arcade Stadium, which can be updated from time to time with new games, options and aesthetic trappings, rather than two separate packages.
To embellish everything we find the usual aesthetic care placed in presenting the product as a real arcade (fairly) customizable and various customization options of the games that allow you to change the aspect-ratio, the background, the orientation of the game interface and screen, speed, save options and much more. Finally, Capcom’s choice to put at the beginning a double choice option for the control system, which provides predefined sets of commands for the traditional controller and for the arcade sticks, is appreciable.
Each game can be played at the preferred difficulty level, choosing between a classic run and alternative timed or scoring challenges, complete with world rankings, to which are added special rules that guarantee even higher CASPO (Capcom Arcade Stadium Points) scores. These depend on the results you will get in each game, especially in the ranked challenges, the difficulty level chosen, the score achieved, the time taken and the “Continue” used to complete it. They are challenges in challenges and from this point of view Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is certainly not stingy with stimuli.
For the second time, Capcom tempts us by leveraging the nostalgia factor and playing it safe from the point of view of packaging. Aside from a few more glitter, the options of this 2nd Stadium are almost identical to those of the first release, which is why we recently revealed our idea that a “unique and upgradeable” project would be intellectually much more honest. The list of titles is generous and solid and all in all the elastic formula with which it is proposed is attractive.
Download the free version and consider purchasing the titles of your choice. In this regard, we would like to recommend the Switch edition which, as always, adds the non-negligible portability factor.
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