Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is a collection that includes dozens of historic arcade video games from the Osaka house, from Three Wonders to Black Tiger.
Capcom played a major role in the arcade scene of the 90s, giving life to some of the most important coin-op videogame sagas in history. Anyone who has experienced the period of arcades and cabinets will surely remember the trumpeting of elephants in Dhalsim’s stage in Street Fighter II, the Bay Area of ​​Final Fight, the howl of Jon Talbain in Darkstalkers, the dreamlike and dreamy atmospheres of Three Wonders. Many of these memories are indelible and bring back moments of great light-heartedness. Such memories can now be relived with Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium. Thanks to these indispensable works of historical preservation, even the new generations can enjoy these great classics of the past, no longer in the arcades, but comfortably from their sofa or – why not? – in portability with your Nintendo Switch.
Capcom classics in great shape
Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is, as the title suggests, the second episode of a series that brings together some great arcade classics from the historic Japanese developer. Given the imposing amount of masterpieces that the company has produced over the past decades, it was impossible to group all the most representative titles of the 90s into a single collection. Consequently, this second edition covers some of the inevitable gaps of the previous one, enriching and embellishing the offer with interesting extras.
Unlike other collections, such as the very recent Capcom Fighting Collection (here is the review of Capcom Fighting Collection) exclusively focused on the fighting game genre, 2nd Stadium prefers to range from multiple genres, opening an interesting window on some of the most experimental products of the Street Fighter house. Let’s think for example of Saturday Night Slam MastersCapcom’s first commendable attempt to make a wrestling-based and playable title in pairs, with depth and gameplay that wouldn’t look out of place in a modern product. The Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium games1943 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
Gun Smoke
Hissatsu Buraiken
Hyper Dyne Side Arms
Hyper Street Fighter 2 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
Son Son
Street Fighter
Street Fighter Alpha Warriors Dreams
Street Fighter 2
Street Fighter 3
Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
The Speed ​​Rumbler
Three Wonders
Tiger Road
A true piece of gaming history set in the shared universe of Street Fighter and Final Fight, in which we will be able to relive the deeds of Mike Haggar as a professional wrestler, before becoming mayor and starting his personal fight against the Mad Gear Gang. Or, if we prefer run ‘n gun to “slap jams”, Mega Man The Power Fighters offers a very interesting hybrid between shooter and fighting game in encounters, proposing itself as a sort of boss rush against the historical enemies of the “Blue Buster”. There are also sports works and pillars of the “vintage” scrolling beat ’em up, which are experiencing a second youth in recent years. King of Dragons, excellent absentee from the first edition, returns to delight eyes and ears with its fantasy world and with a first experimentation of role-playing progression within an arcade game (idea that will be taken up again later by Capcom with the Dungeons and Dragons series on CPS2). Most of the games, given their nature, are also designed for short sessions: everything can be purchased in a single package, consisting of 32 titles, or in groups of ten. Capcom Arcade Stadium is not limited, however, to the simple revival of the super classics, but includes in its offer of little extras that will surely delight fans.
Capcom on the wave of nostalgia
As soon as the collection starts, you will find yourself inside a virtual games room in all respects, built with Capcom’s well known RE Engine. Inside you will find the cabinets of the titles you have purchased, and you can change their appearance, size and color. The virtual cabinets are inspired by their historical counterparts, and seeing old models like the Mini Cute or the Impress will send the most nostalgic in jujube soup.
It is a creative and appreciable choice, even if in this regard the possibility of “exploring” your own games room in person and sitting at the stool of your cabinets would have been very welcome, rather than choosing the titles from a functional, but perhaps a little cold, menu. With the push of a button you will find the games conveniently divided by genre, and you can even decide to create customized lists with your favorite products. You will also have the right to freely change the version of the romset from Western to Japanese, at your convenience. Once you have chosen your cabinet, the view will approach and, through the use of the right analogue, we will have the opportunity to look at the dashboard. The real gem consists in the fact that, using the left stick and the buttons of your pad, you will see the lever and the corresponding keys of the virtual cabinet move. It is an exclusively aesthetic detail, but still highly appreciated. At this point you can decide to observe the game through your 3D cabinet, or play the selected title in the classic full screen mode, which seemed much more enjoyable to us.
Additional options
The extra graphics options are truly remarkable: you will have 7 different types of filters, between different versions of “scanlines” (they are used to create the “cathode ray tube” effect) and more “modern” variants. You can choose to play in widescreen or within a customizable frame as you please.
The “Manual” option is really valuable and will allow you, through very simple lines of text seasoned with images and artwork of the time, to immediately familiarize yourself with each title in the compilation. Particularly appreciable are the fighting game manuals, which manage to summarize the play mechanics, the key moves of the characters and some hints of lore of the contenders in a very short time. Some texts even contain easter eggs and secret codes to select otherwise inaccessible fighters.
You will also have the possibility to start the game in standard mode, with timed challenges or in special modes (such as the one that asks you to finish the game at a certain speed). There are also additional options specific to each game. These are basically the “dipswitches” contained in the classic cabinets and will allow you to modify parameters such as number of lives, enemy damage, gameplay speed and difficulty level.
The games contained in the compilation are reproduced to perfection, without smudges or particular problems of input lag, with some exclusive save / load and rewind functions that will give you the opportunity to control the action in every detail, retracing your steps to correct the mistakes made. Do you want to study a particularly difficult attack of a specific end-of-level boss? You can rewind the action and start over from the exact moment the blow was struck. The only real flaw of the production lies in the total absence of a synchronous online multiplayer (it is however possible to compete in the online rankings with your best score). Despite the presence of the local multiplayer, an option to be able to challenge your friends online in various fighting games or invite them to cooperative matches would have been welcome.
Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium:Â Nintendo Switch Analyzed VersionUltimately, Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is a truly delightful compilation, able to make anyone (re) experience one of the most hilarious eras in videogame history, all with a setting that oozes old school passion from every pore, between lights in the neon, chiptune and customizable cabinets. A must-have for lovers of the classics of the past. A compilation of Capcom arcade classics that will delight retrogaming fans and capable of touching the right strings of nostalgia. Too bad only for the absence of an online multiplayer mode.
