Retro collections are an attractive prospect to more than one type of consumer, both with those who grew up playing the games looking to relive their youth, and for younger gamers who are perhaps seeking out the roots of their favourite pastime. Whichever best describes you, you’ll probably know that Capcom were of great importance to the history of the gaming industry and therefore are the perfect company to have a retro collection, just brimming with their classic games.
Capcom Classics Collection whilst previously released on the PS2 is almost an entirely different collection on the PSP, hence the addition of Remixed in its title. Notable omissions that were available on its big brother are Street Fighter II and Ghosts n' Goblins, but the game does have fifteen new titles, which means it’s still well worth the price of admission, even if you already have the PS2 version in your possession.
A major flaw of the collection is that you can either have unlimited credits, which makes things all too easy, or no credits at all, which, given the general difficulty of games from this age, means you won’t be seeing stage three on the majority of these rock hard games. The problem is lessened when you realize that losing a credit on many of the games, sees your score reset, which as they vie to achieve the highest score possible, makes old school gamers in particular have the incentive to not carelessly throw their lives away, even if they do happen to have the ultimate empowerment of unlimited credits at hand.
The games of the collection are largely worthy of residing on the disc, but expectedly there are some that should have been left in the past, such is their poor quality. Avengers is a top-down scrolling fighting game, which simply isn’t very fun and is even less so when you compare it to the legendary Final Fight, Strider and the lesser known, but highly playable Captain Commando, which are all highlights of this collection. The Speed Rumbler on the other hand is an unexciting driving/shooting hybrid of a game, Quiz and Dragons is a silly game, that has you defeating dragons by answering questions and the inclusion of the unresponsive Street Fighter is also questionable, especially when Street Fighter II (the far superior and seminal sequel) is absent from the collection.
Thankfully, the rest of the collection is moderately playable at the very least. Particular highlights are Magic Sword, which is a nice Golden Axe style game. Three Wonders is a 3-in-1 title consisting of action, shooting and puzzle, all of them are rather good. Black Tiger has similarities with Capcom's own Ghosts n' Goblins in not just that it's a fun hack and slasher but also the fact that the protagonist can be amusingly stripped down to his underwear after taking one too many hits.
By meeting certain criteria in each game, bonuses are awarded, but with just tips, music and the obligatory artwork on offer these aren't half as exciting as they so easily could have been. Where's the developer interviews for example? Even so, these 360 style achievements remain strangely compulsive to obtain.
This collection largely consists of playable games, but the bizarre credit problem does hurt it a bit. However those seeking a slice of gaming history will be well served with Capcom Classics Collection Remixed.
6/10
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