Capcom Classics Collection for the Playstation 2

Another day, another assortment of vintage games crammed onto a single disc… this time the games are provided by the venerable Capcom, the disc fits neatly into a Playstation 2 and the classics included cover a range of genres; fist-pummelling beat ‘em up action comes courtesy of Final Fight, Street Fighter 2 (in it’s standard, Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting guises) and Trojan, there’s a spot of rather cutesy maze-based action from Pirate Ship Higemaru, platformers are represented by Bionic Commando, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts or Son Son and a huge adrenalin rush for shooting fans is supplied by 1942, 1943, 1943 Kai, Commando, Exed Exes, Forgotten Worlds, Gun.Smoke, Legendary Wings, Mercs, Section Z and Vulgus.

Those with longer memories (I’m trying to avoid using terms like “older gamers” since it always leaves me feeling like I need a Zimmer frame) who recall the Capcom Generations series on the original Playstation will find their spider senses going into overdrive after reading through that roster, because although the range has been improved with the inclusion of Street Fighter 2 and a couple of it’s siblings or some extra shooty goodness from Section Z and Forgotten Worlds, the core of this collection has already been released in a Playstation-friendly format.

Capcom Classics Collection - playing Vulgus

All of the games come with DVD-style extras such as “cast lists” and jukeboxes for their soundtracks (although the enhanced music supplied to some of the older games on Generations such as Vulgus have, rather strangely, been omitted) but in what I assume is an attempt to appeal to current generation gamers, a lot of these features have been locked away, requiring achievements to be met in order to view them. That’s slightly annoying since the goals set aren’t always the easiest to achieve and the most of the same extras were left on open view with the predecessor, but it certainly isn’t a deal breaker.

Cosmetic quirks aside though, there’s one major gripe to be had as regards controls. For some reason, the titles that were taken from Capcom Generations (which I assume are therefore relatively quick “hacks” of the work already done for that previous release) all have serious issues with how they’re handling the DualShock 2 analogue stick; although it’s not impossible to get a diagonal, the precision required is above and beyond what most players would usually expect and it can be incredibly frustrating in the heat of battle to be flattened because you couldn’t move right and up simultaneously.

Capcom Classics Collection - playing Bionic Commando

I did assume the problem was my aged and battle scarred DualShock 2 and duly swapped it out for a spare, but the problem really does seem to be with specific games since others that were converted later appear to be far easier to control. And yes, those games can indeed be played with the D pad even if it’s not the greatest known to gaming kind, but it’s irksome to have this ham fisted implementation for Vulgus or 1942 whilst others work better; Forgotten Worlds in particular uses the left stick for control, the right to aim and one of the shoulder buttons for firing and this system works extremely well indeed in fact, making this is the first time I’ve played the game and actually enjoyed the experience!

The question that is raised is are these games truly classics and in the case of what is presented here, the line-up is something of a mixed bag but I suspect we’re all used to that being the case with collections such as these (after all, what constitutes a “classic” is subjective at best) but quite a few are indeed worthy contenders for that title and just about everything included is at least fun to play even if you’re an out and out button masher like myself when it comes to the Street Fighter 2 series. The price tag asked for twenty two games and the bonus materials is justifiable, even more so if a pre-owned copy can be found.

Chun Li amuses herself by trying to look up her own skirt!

The rather alliterative Capcom Classics Collection considered here is for the Playstation 2, but Xbox owners need not feel left out.