Diamonds still sparkle in the rough in Capcom Classic Collection Vol.1 - Xbox
Being a coin-op fan in my past youth, I have always admired Capcom's excellent design flair and creativity/originality.
Capcom have consistently managed to produce some absolutely fantastic arcade titles. Granted, not all have been mega hits like the Street Fighter 2 franchise, but just as importantly, many of these early titles have influenced the video game industry, helping it to progress onto bigger and (arguably) much better things.
This collection brings together some of the milestone 80's & 90's games that helped push Capcom to the forefront of game development and become the games giant it is today.
So, is the history lesson over or is it just beginning?
The titles included in this compilation are as follows:
1942, 1943: The Battle of Midway, 1943 Kai, Bionic Commando, Commando, Exed Exes, Final Fight, Forgotten Worlds, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Gun.Smoke, Legendary Wings, Mercs, Pirate Ship Higemaru, Section Z, SonSon, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Trojan, Vulgus.
I need to let you into a little secret...many of the games featured here are in actual fact ports of 'existing' conversions.
Confused? well, they are actually ports of games featured in the old 'Capcom Generations' available in 4 parts 'Vol.1 - 4', these were a series of conversion compilations originally made available on both Saturn/Playstation.
Having owned several 'Generation' titles for the Saturn in the past I can 100% confirm this. The Streetfighter2 games are also ports of Streetfighter Collection available on Saturn.
But don't worry yourself too much about this as most of the conversion ports here are of a very high quality, except the Streetfighter2 games that is.
StreetFighter2, SF2CE & SF2T all show a strange port artifact - a 'LOADING' message. This is displayed on screen for about a second between bouts. Along with other small omissions this spoils the illusion of coin-op perfection - really, there are no excuses for this, it's plain shoddy.
Thankfully 1942,1943, Commando, Gunsmoke, Ghosts 'n Goblins etc. are all ports of good conversions.
Forgotten Worlds, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Final Fight are far and away the better reproduced titles on here though.
Note: All games run at either 50/60Hz - dependent on your Xbox dashboard settings.
Also note that there is no screen '90deg' rotation option for available on ANY title - this would have allowed a correct aspect ratio on certain titles.
Screen resize, zoom and positioning is available for all titles though.
*Incidentally, multi-format gamers beware - the PS2 PAL version of this collection will only run at 50Hz - and while it has a slightly sharper display, the frame rates of all games suffer in comparison to the 60Hz Xbox versions.
Anyhow, here is a quick breakdown of some the major titles on the disc, description, and quality.
You should already know by now, but be warned, all of these games are seriously retro!
Final Fight - Classic scrolling (optional 2UP) beat-em up.
Still very playable. No quality issues I could see, 2UP emulation is superb.
Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Multi-directional platformer.
Hard game but very playable. Only fault is default video contrast seems dark - need to turn up TV setting. Good port/converted well.
Forgotten Worlds - Horizontal scrolling shooter (optional 2UP).
Still very playable. Complicated controls are customisable to suit personal preferences. Emulation is spot-on.
Commando - Vertical shoot-em up
Simple gameplay - one more go appeal. Bad points - Screen aspect is not arcade perfect as no screen rotation option (as mentioned previously).
All games feature unlockable extras: artworks, music tests, hints and tips (a novel feature). Again some extras are lifted from Generations Vol.1-4 others are completely new to this collection, which is nice.
Hope this review helps you decide on your purchase.
All-in-all I can recommend this title to all 'retro' gamers.
Fans of Final Fight, Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Forgotten Worlds are well catered for - but unfortunately please avoid this compilation if you're just looking for perfect emulations of the Streetfighter 2 titles.