Imagine being able to play 32 titles that somehow made it possible to compose that fabulous mosaic of well-spent memories and coins called the “arcade era”, moments when the stench of cigarettes and the fear of the local bully mingled with the exaltation of a new video game and the excitement of playing it with friends. The rhetoric of retrogaming is full of stories like this, but after the rhetoric about the past that doesn’t come back like our best years, as the arcades are gone, here is to the rescue of seasoned gamers and curious youngsters. Capcom Arcade Stadium, yet another but particularly deserving collection of games from the past available only on Nintendo Switch.
Starting from mob, from 1984 and ending with Progear of 2001 on Capcom Arcade Stadium offers a precious compendium of what arcades were, a space in which the Japanese developer moved if not as an absolute king at least as a solid pretender to the throne. In the collection you can find a bit of everything, but given Capcom’s experience many of the titles fall into two categories: fighting or scrolling fighting and classic shooters. The collection can be purchased in packages of 15 euros each containing 10 games or in a single solution by spending 40 euros. The three packages are divided by time bands, so in the first you will find the games from 1984 to 1988, in the second from 89 to ’92 and in the third from 1992 to 2001.
Would it have been very nice to be able to buy them individually? Without a doubt, but unfortunately it is not possible. Out of this list there are 1943: The Battle for Midway, which is free and Ghost n’ Goblins, sold separately, perhaps to celebrate the publication of the interesting Ghost n’ Goblins Resurrection, another Capcom game that comes out these days and that celebrates, updating it to modern times in terms of graphics and mechanics, this great classic with a draconian difficulty.
There is very little to say about the catalog, some of these titles have already been included in other collections, but the convenience of having them all together is a great bonus. Names like Street Fighter II, present in three versions, Final Fight, Bionic Commando, Ghouls n’ Ghosts, Strider, but also some gems less easy to recover like Carrier Air Wings, Powered Gear The Battle Circuit. To want to be fussy, there are other great classics of the period such as Alien vs Predator, The Punisher The Cadillac & Dinosaurs, which would have projected this collection into essential purchases, but already in this way you should think about it seriously.
As for the options available, on each game it is possible to apply retro filters that simulate the scan lines of old CRT TVs and even simulate the profile of cabinets. You can also rotate the image to play shooters that require it with the screen in portrait. To keep the challenge level high, more or less feasible missions will be proposed every week with which to increase your score and unlock small additional content, but nothing to tear your hair about. A particularly welcome option for those who think they still have the skill of yesteryear, but will quickly find themselves confronted with the loss of reflexes due to aging, is the ability to rewind the game for a few seconds and remedy that jump too. short or late dodge that led to Game Over. Small final touch of class: you can choose whether to play the titles in Western or Japanese version, to appreciate any differences.
All right then? Yes and no, first of all, there is no possibility to play multiplayer online, only locally, and since this option was available in other Capcom collections we do not explain why this decision. Furthermore, again with regard to the contents already present elsewhere, there is completely missing a historical section that collects sketches, covers, soundtracks and material that can delight the great fans. It is not an essential lack, but it would have been an absolutely sensible addition.
Despite these shortcomings, Capcom Arcade Stadium is absolutely worthy of your consideration for many reasons: it is an excellent study and recovery material to understand where the pixel art that still influences part of the sector comes from, but also a sweet poison to be inoculated with care for relive certain sensations, aware that they can take us with our minds to where we felt best and that today with the cabbage you finish it Final Fight with a token. Even if you remember very little or have never inserted 200 lire in the appropriate slot, there remains a collection of excellent video games that have stood the test of time in a brilliant way. And maybe a few good things from the past are what we need today.