It’s Capcom week here at GamerDad.com!  Capcom is one of my top favorite video game companies.  In fact, I think they’re my number three pick, right under Namco and Nintendo.  Part of the reason why I enjoy Capcom so much is all their memorable arcade games, since I grew up during the 80s and 90s when arcades were at their prime.  So I was really happy to be able to review Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium, another collection of Capcom’s various arcade hits over the years (I wish I could’ve reviewed the first one, but oh well).  There are so many games on this collection that I had to split this review into TWO parts!  Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium is available for most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.  Let’s first take a look at the games!

Darkstalkers Series

Darkstalkers is like Street Fighter except all the characters are based on movie monsters and there’s a creepy motif to the whole thing.  You’ve got a vampire, succubus, yeti, zombie, Frankenstein, etc.  This collection has Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge, and Vampire Savior.  You can play these games and other versions of Darkstalkers on the Capcom Fighting Collection I reviewed recently as well.  I’m not really a big fan of the series, but I have to say Capcom’s sprite artwork and character designs were on point with this one.  It’s hard to believe these games were originally made in the mid 90s!

Street Fighter

Everyone always talks about Street Fighter 2, but nobody ever talks about the first game!  Well there’s a reason for that.  It’s awful.  You can only pick Ryu or Ken, the controls and movements are stiff, and it’s super hard!  I guess it should be on here for historic purposes, though.  A long time ago as a kid, I remember seeing a fighting game where you hammered on these giant pressure sensitive buttons to punch and kick.  Well it turns out that was a special version of Street Fighter that used those big punching buttons to determine how hard you hit.  I thought that was kind of interesting.

Hyper Street Fighter 2

According to the title screen, this was made for Street Fighter’s 15th anniversary.  I don’t remember seeing it in arcades, though, but I could have and just don’t remember it.  By then, Street Fighter games were everywhere.  It just combines everything that had been done before it, and you can play as my favorite character, too (Cammy).  As an older fighting game, I felt this one was a bit slower, clunkier, and harder than the others, but it’s still a good game.  This one’s also on the Capcom Fighting Collection.

Street Fighter Alpha 1, 2, 3

While Street Fighter 2 seemed to dominate the early 90s, the Street Fighter Alpha series felt like it took over the mid to late 90s.  It was kind of a prequel story-wise to Street Fighter 2, so some of the characters looked younger.  It played faster and smoother, but still hard to me, though.  The Alpha series did bring us such iconic characters as Sakura, Rainbow Mika, and Dan.

Pnickies

This is a typical ‘match colored falling blocks in a well’ kind of game, and it has an angels vs. devils theme.  It’s really not that great, but I’m glad it’s on here anyway because it plays almost EXACTLY like Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, like a proto version of that game, so it’s interesting to see the progress.  There’s a single player mode, and a two player mode, but the two player mode is for another person only.  There is no CPU second player that made Puzzle Fighter so much more fun.  Also I don’t think this game ever came out in the US, as this arcade game is only the Japanese version so navigating the menus was a tiny bit tricky at first.

Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo

Aw, yeah, now this is what I’m talking about!  Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo is one of my top three favorite puzzle games, right on up there with Puzzle Bobble and plain ol’ Tetris.  I’m really good at it, too!  This game is worth the price of the whole collection right there.  It’s a typical ‘match colored blocks falling in a well’ kind of game, but man is it good!  This one’s also on the Capcom Fighting Collection.

Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix

This game takes the chibi cute characters from the previous puzzle game and turns it into a fighter.  You can knock gems from Puzzle Fighter out of the other players and collect them like you do in Red Earth to power up your player’s moves.  Characters range from Street Fighter, Red Earth, Darkstalkers, and more.  There are tons of Capcom references in the background, and even your moves make callbacks to other Capcom games.  Felicia dresses as Mega Man to fire a shot, and Chun-li dresses as Jill Valentine to use a flamethrower!  Even the ways you die are from other Capcom games.  You can explode like Mega Man, turn into bones like Ghosts N Goblins, or fall into the water like SonSon.  This one’s also on the Capcom Fighting Collection.

Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters

Oh man I’m so glad these are on here.  I’m a huge Mega Man fan.  Did you know Mega Man had arcade games?  I never saw them in arcades, but I know the first one must’ve come to the US because I have a cabinet of it in my garage!  True story!  They’re basically just a string of Robot Master boss battles, but the arcade allows for advanced graphics and animations and more moves.  You can even use the weapons on other bosses like in the console games.  In the first game you can play as either Mega Man, Proto Man, or Bass.  The sequel is more of the same, except now you can play as Duo as well.  I don’t think the sequel was in the US, but why does it say Mega Man on the title screen and have an English translation then?

Son Son

When you download Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium, you must purchase and download the arcade games separately, but you do get Son Son for free to try it out.  This was one of Capcom’s first arcade games.  It’s a horizontally scrolling shooter where you move your character up and down platforms and shoot various enemies and pick up fruits for points.  Player one is Son Son the monkey and player two is Ton Ton the pig.  The game is kind of based on the Journey to the West story.  Son Son appears in other games like the aforementioned Gem Fighters and a female version of Son Son is in Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

1943 Kai

This is just a harder version of 1943 with new planes and music.  I like the original 1943 game better, though.  It’s one of my favorite shooters to this day, actually.  Just like how Son Son is the free game you get with Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium, 1943 was the free game you got in the first collection. I wish I got to review that one!

Three Wonders

This is actually three games in one!  I guess Capcom didn’t feel like each one would make a good single arcade cabinet on their own.  The first game you can pick from is Midnight Wanderers, a 2-D platformer game with elements from Ghosts N Goblins.  The game has a fantasy theme and you play as one of two goblins who can fire arrows.  The 2-D artwork is nice to look at.  The second game is Chariot, a typical horizontally scrolling shooter.  It uses a lot of the same graphics from the first game, so it makes me wonder if they are related somehow.  But the last game isn’t related.  It’s Don’t Pull, an action puzzle game where you play as a bunny or squirrel as you push blocks into enemies.  I like this one the best because it plays a lot like Pengo, one of my favorite arcade games.  If you buy Capcom Fighting Collection before a certain date, you can get Three Wonders for free on this collection.

Saturday Night Slam Masters

This is a wrestling game.  So while you can whittle down your opponents HP, you won’t defeat them until you can pin them down for three seconds.  Lots of grapple and throw moves, too.  Did you know that Haggar, the Mayor of Metro City from Final Fight is playable in this game?  Slam Masters never really caught on the way Street Fighter did, though.  There was a sequel, but I think it played more like a one on one fighter instead.

Stay Tuned for Part 2!

And that’s all for now!  There are so many games on this collection that I had to break up my review into two parts!  So check back here in a couple of days for the rest of the games, my general impressions, and the Kid Factor!  –Cary

Tags: Game Reviews