Capcom Arcade stadium is a throw back to the by gone era of playing kick ass coin operated games, in an arcade with friends. This is truly a joy for me as I personally miss arcade cabinets being a regular feature in arcades , on piers and even in bars where you get to stand up and play a video game for a few minutes doing your absolute best, to keep alive for as long as possible so you don’t sink more pound coins in to it. Whether that’s beat-em ups, side scrollers like Captain Commando, one on one fighters like street fighter two or shoot’em ups like 1941 (all of which are in this collection) they always had me hooked and this collection of classic arcade games from Capcom is just brilliant.
So I was given a code by Capcom for the PlayStation and as much as I love it I just want to throw a side note of this is also on the switch and if you have a vertical grip like I do this game is perfect for it and I will be purchasing this game for the switch to really get the full experience on the go.
But what do we have here? Well you have a collection of games split in to 3 packs
Dawn of the Arcade (1984–1988) featuring
- Vulgus (1984)
- Pirate Ship Higemaru (1984)
- 1942 (1984)
- Commando (1985)
- Section Z (1985)
- Trojan (1986)
- Legendary Wings (1986)
- Bionic Commando (1987)
- Forgotten Worlds (1988)
- Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (1988)
Arcade Revolution (1989–1992) featuring
- Strider (1989)
- Dynasty Wars (1989)
- Final Fight (1989)
- 1941: Counter Attack (1990)
- Mercs (1990)
- Mega Twins (1990)
- Carrier Air Wing (1990)
- Street Fighter II (1991)
- Captain Commando (1991)
- Varth: Operation Thunderstorm (1992)
And finally Arcade Evolution (1992–2001)
- Warriors of Fate (1992)
- Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting (1992)
- Super Street Fighter II Turbo (1994)
- Armored Warriors (1994)
- Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness (1995)
- 19XX: The War Against Destiny (1995)
- Battle Circuit (1997)
- Giga Wing (1999)
- 1944: The Loop Master (2000)
- Progear (2001)
All of which you purchase separately or all at once its up to you. But as you can see we have some fantastic games…I mean just the amount of street fighter here alone I feel is worth it, but we also get games that were never released in the west (at least in the cabinet format) almost every game in the collection has both the Japanese and western releases for those Hardcore gamers that want to feel the burn as originally intended. And every game comes with some standard features we have come to expect from these types of collections. Rewind features so you can nail that jump that’s been killing you for 30 years, speed up and slow down for practice and challenge, unique borders for each game customisable cabinets screen size all that jazz its all here…the coolest option though is game personalisation. You can tailor the game to how you like it, making enemies stronger or weaker whilst making your character do the same, speed enemies up but main character has more strength…I mean you can really change things up…say M. Bison is whooping your ass all the time just go into the setting make him super slow and weak and you super fast and strong and boom you’ve finally got two perfect rounds on bison…for him it was the worst day of his life, but you it was Tuesday.
The whole aesthetic of this game is so cool from the opening title screen song to the different cabinets on display and even seeing your “quarters” drop in to the machines its so damn satisfying and what’s more, Capcom have said they are not done with and more games will come…damn I can only hope we Alien Vs Predator and X-men Vs Street Fighter or even Cadillacs Vs Dinosaurs…that would be sweet but we will have to wait and see if Capcom can get the licenses’ for them…seriously Alien Vs Predator hasn’t ever had a console release and it needs it badly truly one of the greatest arcade games ever.
Anyway I think I’ve gushed enough about this retro goldmine enough I’m gonna take a guess and think you already know that i’d recommend you buy this game, it’s so so so good.
Guys have a great day and don’t forget to be nice to each other yeah!?
CODENAMEBIGBEAR (Stuart)