Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is a great compilation of Capcom games that seeks to hit the nostalgia square and achieves it without much effort. We play it on PC and tell you our experience.
There is no denying that there is a whole market around retro video games. YouTube channels, Twitch channels, and even press specialized in games of yesteryear. And although they have existed for many years, emulators began to have a great relevance some time ago when all this movement gained strength. Initially, The supply of developers who made new games responding to this particular aesthetic grew, even responding to certain types of genres. Later, the big developers understood that offering those games was also part of the business, and among others, this is how it was born Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadiumwhich we tested on its PC version.
And it should be mentioned that precisely Capcom he is very adept at rehashing his own products. He has been doing it with the saga resident Evil a long time ago, with impeccable results, and even with everything that has to do with their fighting games. A short time ago, we reviewed the Capcom Fighting Collection, a compilation with very good games but that, at first glance, literally looked like an emulation stationhow could it be RetroArch, Retropie, Recalbox either batoceraamong many others.
Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, luckily, it shows differently. Just like the first part of it, the bet he makes Capcom Due to the visual aspect of this compilation, it is different from the rest, and although it is not something as “interactive” as the Pac-Man Museum +, it goes that way. The selection menu for each game simulates an arcade, being able to see each machine separately with the games running, just as it happened in real life. By moving the controls, we navigate through each game and the view moves through each of the arcade machines, which we can change to, showing different types of models, and even vary between some predetermined colors.
What does this compilation point to?
There comes a point where we have to think about what we are looking for in a compilation title. Do we come for the games it brings? Are we here because we know Capcom’s history? Or are we looking for something else? The title and the proposal are clear: we come to revive (in the case of those of us who are around four decades old) classic games, or we come to discover those arcade games that we only saw on emulators. Pretending more than that, in our opinion, is a bit of not understanding the proposal of Capcom. Could they have done something more like the Pac-Man museum? Yes they could, but apparently it was not their search, so we believe that We must value this for what it is. And that being fans of many games of those times is not a small thing at all.
When accessing a game, we don’t have those emulator-like borders that display an image of the game itself to fill out our wide monitors: here the view is as if we were seeing it in the arcade room. There is even the detail that while we move the d-pad, the arcade lever moves. Small details? Yes, but as we said before, they give it a different context and that is something that is appreciated.
There is not much complexity when it comes to playing, we just put chips in each machine and start. Capcom It gives us “infinite coins”, so to speak, and it doesn’t go into achievements or scores to get them, but the freedom is absolute. There is also no concept of micropayments, Fortunately. Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium itself is available for free at Steambut that would only be the “local de fichines”. Each game is in the form of DLC and it is what we will have to buy to fill our place with arcade machines. In this review, we are talking about the complete bundle, which not only brings all the DLC, but also several iconic themes from each title.
Throwing ourselves into the games, Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium It has everything, and for all tastes. The list, if you are prepared to read, is immense: 1943 Kai – Midway Kaisen -, Block Block, Knights of the Round, Magic Sword, The King of Dragons, Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire, Black Tiger, Capcom Sports Club, Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Eco Fighters, Gan Sumoku, Hissatsu Buraiken, Hyper Dyne Side Arms, Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition, Last Duel, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, Mega Man: The Power Battle, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Pnickies, Rally 2011 LED Storm, Saturday Night Slam Masters, Savage Bees, Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, The Speed Rumbler, Three Wonders Y Tiger Road.
When it comes to playing, as you may have already seen, there are shoot ’em ups, fighting games, beat ’em ups, and several more different genres to enjoy. Many titles are well known, and others not so much, thus generating a fairly wide range. There are games that are excellent and others that are far from being, although that is left to the particular taste of each one. As far as we are concerned, we remember many other games of Capcom that perhaps they had more renown and that they could have added, like the Captain Commandothe Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Alien vs. Predator, Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000, and so many others. But again, this is a very personal matter. The list that comes Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium It is huge and guarantees you many hours of play.
Something that seems secondary but that we feel is very well done is the issue of unified controls. Although each game has its own controls and we can modify them, Capcom It offers you, by default, a combination of buttons that works for all games, if we don’t want to start configuring them one by one. In our experience, we were able to play them all without wondering which button is for what. If we know which button is used to jump in a game, in all the ones that can be jumped, it is that same button. The same thing happens when it comes to shooting, or having different buttons, such as weak or strong blows, in the case of fighting games.
What we did feel unnecessary was that whole system to pause, rewind and play the game. While we understand that some titles used very few buttons at the time, sometimes less is more. All this functionality that we didn’t use even once on purpose, and when we did it was by mistake, trying to adapt to the buttons, it does not make any difference or give anything new and relevant to the gameplay. To be honest, if it wasn’t there, the proposal would be completely the same and the experience wouldn’t change at all. At least it did not seem to us something significant or that adds to what has already been raised.
As is often the case with this type of proposal, being able to play with friends raises the bar to unmemorable places, since it recreates, in some way, those old games that we used to play in arcades, when we had all our concentration together, with friends, to achieve the highest levels. And the truth is that most of the titles that we are going to see in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium they are one of those that we can start, play for a while, leave for a while, and pick up again. And whenever there are friends around, this habit is greatly enjoyed, especially in fighting games and beat ’em up.
RELEASE DATE | July 21, 2022 |
DEVELOPER | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
DISTRIBUTOR | CAPCOM Co., Ltd. |
PLATAFORMS | PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4 |