Anyone who is a gamer knows exactly who Capcom are and the consistent quality of their titles. Whether it’s Resident Evil, Street Fighter or even Monster Hunter, their games are big business. In fact, they are that prominent in the gaming industry, they have been around for longer than I’ve been living. I was lucky enough to review Capcom Arcade Stadium last year and was completely invested in experiences from the past that I was either too young to enjoy or just couldn’t afford to beg my parents for. Here in 2022, they are back with Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium bringing more nostalgic goodness to grace our screens in one generous package. There is a long list of games in this collection and whilst I haven’t played each and every one to completion as that would take several hundred hours, I have dipped in to check out the functionality and features alongside the performance of this collection of 32 games. Yes, you read that correctly, thirty-two blasts from the past.

Introduction

This time around we see a roster full of classics yet again with some Japanese retro titles that haven’t been available to UK gamers before. If you want to pop on and check the main hub and tinker around with options and menus, then you can go ahead and download SONSON absolutely free of charge. The full collection comes in at £32.99/$39.99 or each individual game can be purchased for an average of £3.29/$3.99 each. This is fantastic if there are only one or two particular titles you fancy and you don’t want to invest in the entire lot on offer. So you’re probably wondering what’s available in this second drop of historic gems, I’ll detail them below. Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Playstation 4|5, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC.

What’s In The Collection?

Whilst there is an essence of old school fighters in this collection, you may want to check out the recent Capcom Fighting Collection if that’s your jam. I’m not going to go into a description of every single game in the lineup, but below is a list of what is on offer this time around. There is a lot of bang for your buck in a range of different genres.

• Savage Bees
• Gan Sumoku
• Hyper Dyne Side Arms
• Hissatsu Buraiken
• Black Tiger
• Street Fighter
• Tiger Road
• 1943 Kai – Midway Kaisen
• Last Duel
• Rally 2011 LED Storm
• A.K.A Magic Sword
• Three Wonders
• A.K.A The King of Dragons
• A.K.A Block Block
• A.K.A Knights of the Round
• Saturday Night Slam Masters
• Eco Fighters
• Pnickies
• Darkstalkers – The Night Warriors
• Night Warriors – Darkstalkers’ Revenge
• Street Fighter Alpha – Warriors’ Dreams
• Megaman – The Power Battle
• Street Fighter Alpha 2
• Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
• Megaman 2 – The Power Fighters
• A.K.A Vampire Savior – The Lord of Vampire
• Capcom Sports Club
• Super Gem Fighter – Mini Mix
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Hyper Street Fighter II The Anniversary Edition

Display Options, Modes & More

There are some titles in this pile that can be played locally with a friend or family member. Each game has a specific set of scores, timed and special challenges which really extends replayability beyond just playing and beating the game. It gives the user a chance to place as high as they can achieve on the leaderboards. With several display options before you start each experience, it really puts you in the hands of how you want to play. You can even have the games displayed as if you were on an older CRT screen for that authentic feel.

I loved that there is deep stat tracking here, right down to the amount of playtime you have with each game, how many coins you’ve inserted, how many times you’ve seen the game over screen and more. As someone who loves to number crunch and analyse data across several screens, they have your back here. The design team have really thought beyond just bringing you a list of games and away you go.

In Conclusion

Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium is essentially a follow-on from the first collection in 2021 and has an almost identical layout to the first hub we saw. To me though it felt like the overall experience had a more polished feel to it. Switching between games is flawless and depends on your tastes there is potentially unlimited replayability here if you want to invest in completing each game and trying your hand at the leaderboards. The pricing seems a lot fairer this time around if you just want to dip into the odd game in the lineup rather than all of it. I love knowing that I always have some of the golden oldies stashed away in my games library and there is no better way to do it than investing in the entire lot in my opinion.

Capcom have given all these nostalgic memories a new lease of life and presented them wonderfully within the virtual arcade aesthetic. It was nice to sit down with my young sons and show him the visuals that we used to have. Whilst their faces cringe and they look at you funny, they respected where gaming started and even got slightly hooked on a few of the classics. I do hope they keep ploughing through these collections over time and whilst there doesn’t seem to be a way of linking in the collections if you own both, it would be cool if they allowed you to bring the 60+ titles under one roof instead of having to swap between the two. If you want to swarm yourself with retro classics and be competitive at the same time, I’d say it is more than worth your hard-earned cash.