Previews

Back to the Past

Love obscure Capcom arcade games? Then it's your lucky day

Back to the Past

For such a forward-thinking industry, it's always been surprising how many game companies are happy to wallow in the glories of days past. With the exception of timeless games such as Tetris and Space Invaders, however, this retrospection often isn't shared by punters. Capcom obviously thinks the PSP's thirtysomething demographic will be more open to the remembrance of things past as it's unveiled Capcom Classics Collection Remixed .

Other publishers have attempted similar tricks, of course. Namco's Battle Collection is due in a month or so but at least that has the name-recognition of Pac-Man to rely on. Capcom's classics are more obscure - in fact, the only massmarket game on offer is the original Street Fighter, and even that only offers a pale shadow of the complex beat-'em-up that dominated arcades in the early 1990s. The other once-popular game is 1941, the topdown shoot 'em up where you take the controls of a WWII Lockheed Lighting (plane spotter alert!) and take on the Japanese.

Some of the other 18 games in the collection include;

Avengers: a topdown, vertically scrolling beat 'em through the gang-riddled streets of Paradise City, Block Block: a block-breaking game with constantly shrinking paddle, Captain Commando: a space-based side-scrolling brawler, Magic Sword: a fantasy side-scroller, Quiz and Dragons:a quirky RPG quiz game, Strider: an action platformer where you save the earth from the clutches of the evil Grandmaster Meio, Three Wonders: which is a compilation of horizontal scrolling platformer Midnight Wanders, horizontal scrolling shooter Chariot and puzzle game Don't Pull, and finally Varth: a scrolling aerial vertical shooter.

Other features include in the collection include various multiplayer modes (these depend on the specific game in question), the ability to customise controls so you can use the PSP's analog stick and the option to change the aspect ratio of the screen.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.