Frank-ProvoCapcom Classics Collection Remixed collects 20 "classic" arcade games together on a single disc.
Titles included on the disc are: 1941, Avengers, Bionic Commando, Black Tiger, Block Block, Captain Commando, Final Fight, Forgotten Worlds, Last Duel, Legendary Wings, Magic Sword, Mega Twins, Quiz & Dragons, Section Z, Side Arms, Speed Rumbler, Street Fighter 1, Strider, Three Wonders, and Varth.
Judging by that line-up, this disc is geared toward fans of the action, beat-'em-up, and shoot-'em-up genres.
Far and away, the AAA titles in the collection are 1941, Captain Commando, Final Fight, Magic Sword, Strider, Varth, and Three Wonders. The rest, for better or worse, are primarily here to serve as historical filler.
Speaking of Three Wonders … everyone that loves side-scrolling action games needs
to play this game. It's actually a threesome of related games from very divergent genres. The two latter games are nothing to write home about, just a generic shoot-'em-up and a puzzler, but the first game on the menu; oh sweet joy; it's a fantasy-themed action game that plays like a cross between Capcom's Ghouls N Ghosts and Konami's Contra. Capcom pulled out all of the stops with this one. We're talking solid run-and-gun gameplay, eye-popping visual effects, gorgeous fantasy style artwork, and a haunting classically focused sountrack.
Only a handful of people ever got a chance to play Three Wonders in the arcade, because of its limited production run. That's the beauty of collections like this. In addition to giving us the chance to bring home the popular classics we already know and love, they let us discover the hidden gems we missed the first time around.
Every game on the disc is emulated perfectly. They look, sound, and play just like the original arcade games do. Strider even has the looping music glitch that Capcom fixed in the Sega Genesis version of the game!
Because all of these games originally came out more than 15 years ago, their side-scrolling graphics and simplistic digital sound effects seem archaic by modern standards. Even so, certain games, particularly Strider and Magic Sword, were ahead of their time in terms of audio-visual flair.
Various options can be set for each game, such as difficulty, number of lives, and number of continues. Multiple control and display settings allow you to adjust the buttons and graphics to your liking.
Purists will be happy to know that all of the vertical-aspect games in the collection can be played in "tate" format, which rotates the graphics and controls 90-degrees in order to display the games in their original aspect ratio.
Local WiFi play allows multiple players to join together for co-op sessions. The nice thing about WiFi play is that other players can jump in and out of your game at any time. There's no need to quit and re-start just to get a co-op game going.
Extra goodies, in the form of art galleries and music players, can be unlocked by accomplishing specific feats in each game.
High scores, options settings, and unlocked bonuses are automatically saved to the memory stick.
There honestly isn't much else that needs to be said about Capcom Classics Collection Remixed. The disc may only have six or seven legitimate classics on it, but those six games truly are milestones that stand the test of time.