There are so many games on Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium that I had to split my review into two parts!  So here we’ll look at the rest of the games on this collection, as well as my general overall impressions and Kid Factor!  Let’s keep going!

Black Tiger

I hate to start things off with ‘one time at band camp,’ but that’s how this goes.  During the summer between 8^th and 9^th grade I went to band camp and it was held in college dorms but the college kids were out for the summer so we got the empty dorms.  In the boys’ dorms lobby, they had a couple of arcade machines.  One was Track and Field, and that’s where I learned all the secrets in that game.  The other one was Black Tiger.  I played that one a lot there, too.  It’s a 2D platformer with a fantasy theme and is similar to Ghosts N Goblins.  Not quite as frustrating though, but still super hard.  There was going to be a NES version at one point, but it got canned.

Block Block

All the big arcade game makers, Namco, SEGA, Capcom, Konami, etc., have copied one another.  When someone creates a huge hit, they all have to copy it.  Such is the case with Block Block.  When Taito made the huge hit Arkanoid, Namco had to copy it with Quester and Capcom did the same with Block Block.  And heck, even Arkanoid is a rip off of an older game!  It’s just a block breaking paddle game, but I like Arkanoid more.  All the copycats get forgotten and everyone just remembers Arkanoid anyway.

Capcom Sports Club

Choose between three different arcade style sports games and play with cartoony characters.  You can do soccer, basketball, or tennis.  Basketball is the best one of the bunch, but none of them are that great.  And it’s super hard, too!  Capcom isn’t really known for its sports games.  If the best they can do is Mega Man Soccer, you know that’s not their strong point.

Eco Fighters

This is a horizontally scrolling shooter but oh no!  It’s got that tired old early 90s ‘save the environment’ theme!  Aside from that, I actually liked this one, though.  The graphics kind of reminded me of Mega Man.  Gameplay also reminds me of two other Capcom games: U.N. Squadron and Forgotten Worlds.  You can rotate your shots with the L and R buttons like in the latter title.  The weapon power ups you get kinda suck, though.  Don’t remember seeing this one in arcades back then.

Gun.Smoke

This one’s a vertically scrolling shooter, but instead of the tired old spaceship themes, you are a cowboy in the Old West!  The thing that holds this game back is that when you continue, you must start back at a checkpoint instead of right where you left off.  I hate that.  I rented the NES version of this game a TON back as a kid, though.  Really loved that version.  Did you know that Red Dead Redemption has ties to this game?  I won’t go into it here, though.

Avengers

There’s a reason why most beat ‘em ups use a side scrolling perspective.  This one is viewed top down and it just doesn’t work!

Hyper Dyne Side Arms

This one feels like a transition game between Section Z and Forgotten Worlds.  It’s a horizontally scrolling shooter but you can shoot to the front and back of you.  But the graphics remind me of Forgotten Worlds more.  It’s an all right game.  Not great, but not bad.

Last Duel

They couldn’t decide what kind of vertically scrolling shooter this should be!  First you’re on a road and must jump over obstacles and not go over the edge.  And then you are flying in a giant living organism!  It’s very hard, too.

Rally 2011 LED Storm

It’s a futuristic vertically scrolling car racing kind of game with an annoying talking car.

Savage Bees

I think this is one of Capcom’s first games.  Like, Vulgus was the first and this was the second.  It was also called Exed Exes.  It’s a typical vertically scrolling shooter with lots of bugs to shoot and honeycombs to fly over.  And the music is annoying.  You don’t get power ups nearly often enough for my liking, either.  But it does have some of Capcom’s most familiar icons, like the Yashichi and Pow items!

The Speed Rumbler

Another top down shooter.  This one gives you a car to drive around in, but if it runs out of energy and starts to flash, you’d better press the button to get out or you’ll get caught in the explosion and die! But when you step out of the car, your little tiny man can only take one hit!  So it’s a tough game!

Tiger Road

It’s a scrolling beat ‘em up, but you can’t move in and out of the foreground so it reminds me more of Kung Fu Master.  The bosses are way too hard, though.  There’s a sequel to Son Son on the Turbo Grafix-16 but it plays more like Tiger Road.

The King of Dragons

The next couple of games on this list are medieval fantasy themed.  I don’t remember seeing these games specifically in arcades, but I’m sure I did, they probably just didn’t stick out in my mind.  It also doesn’t help that Capcom also made a couple of beat ‘em ups with the Dungeons and Dragons license, and if you showed me any of them, I couldn’t tell you if that’s what they were or not.  But in this first one, you could pick from five characters, like a Fighter, Cleric, Elf, or Dwarf.  I picked the dwarf because I liked how he bellowed out “HOOOOOAAAA” before battle.  Only other notable thing is that this one was pretty long, like 20 stages!  Granted the stages were short and a lot of the enemies and bosses were pallet swapped, but it still took longer to beat!  You can level up your characters and get new weapons and shields, but I don’t know if they really do anything.  You still take the same amount of damage and dish out the same amount to enemies no matter what level and weapons you have, at least from what I could tell.  This one was also on the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle.

Knights of the Round

This is the other medieval themed game on here.  It’s not as interesting as King of Dragons, though, because in that other game you fought all sorts of fantasy creatures like dragons, skeletons, and more.  But in this one you just fight other knights in armor all the time.  You can choose to be Arthur, Lancelot, or Percaval.  I’m not sure how to spell that last name, but the arcade game wasn’t sure either because they spelled it several different ways in it!  I picked that last guy, though, because he used an axe and was really strong.  Like in the last game, you can level up, which gives you more armor, but I couldn’t tell that it did anything.  The saving grace of this game is that you can ride a horse!  It’s funny to see the horse walk backwards, though!  There was a SNES version of this, but I never played it.  This one’s also on the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle.

Magic Sword

Oh man, I played this a ton when I was a kid.  It’s a side scrolling platformer hack and slash with a fantasy theme.  You can pick up keys to open doors that house prisoners who can help you after you free them.  Some of the helpers you can get include a ninja, amazon, and more.  Just a really fun and simple late 80s/early 90s Capcom arcade title.

And those are all the games.  I love the wide variety and quantity of games on here.  You sift though them via a row of arcade machines, which is cool.  There are also a ton of quality of life features.  You can change the screen size and resolution, pick a frame background, choose the difficulty and more.  You can also change the speed and rewind and fast forward, but that’s a little hard to use.  My only big problem is how they sell these games.  You can buy the whole package for a lump sum, or buy each one separately. You can also buy an invincibility option.  I just don’t like how they nickel and dime you like that.  Also I think if you have some of these games on other collections, like the Capcom Beat ‘Em Up Bundle or Capcom Fighting Collection, then you should get them free on this one, too.  Also, just like these arcade games, I’m old fashioned and would’ve rather have had a physical version of this collection.  I would’ve paid full price for that!  But otherwise this is still a great compilation.

Kid Factor:

Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Blood and Gore, Violence, Use of Tobacco, Suggestive Themes, Partial Nudity, and Mild Language.  There are a lot of fighting games here, so of course there is violence.  Some even have splashes of red blood pixels when you hit someone.  Some characters are seen smoking in the background, and mild language is used sparingly in the text.  Some of the female characters wear revealing outfits and look like they’re about to fall out of their clothes (Morrigan I’m looking at you).  But I grew up playing these kinds of games and I turned out OK.  There really is something for everyone and any age on this collection.

Tags: Game Reviews