Review | Capcom Arcade Stadium

LifeisXbox’s Capcom Arcade Stadium Review | Missing older arcade games? The atmosphere and excitement of going to the arcades, aiming to beat others, and get the highest score? Look no further because Capcom Arcade Stadium has it all and even more features ready to play at your disposal, whenever and wherever the mood takes you. Made up of multiple games and genres, take your pick from over thirty games with unlimited runs so you won’t have any reason to stop playing your favourites in a few simple steps. These classic and customisable arcade machines will take you back to good old times with nostalgia to be experienced around each game. Capcom Arcade Stadium has been developed and published by CAPCOM CO., LTD. to bring the arcade experience straight to your home console, with all controls and options at your fingertips. If you’re wanting truly retro gameplay to occupy your time, I could not think of a better suggestion than this for a memorable and surprisingly addictive game to get involved with that will ultimately have you gaming for hours.

VicciVulpix played Capcom Arcade Stadium for five hours (ongoing) on Xbox One S. This game is also available on Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4/5, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, and Steam.

What we liked!

• Exceptional retro appearance | It’s impossible not to mention the wonderfully created graphics and visual appearance of Capcom Arcade Stadium and applaud it for the beautiful style. The customisation is greatly appreciated – from the arcade itself to the arcade machines and games, you will be able to change almost every element to suit your preference. I’ll start with the actual machines. You can change how each machine looks and although it doesn’t change anything about the gameplay element, it is nice to customise your own arcade, whether you want all machines to look the same or want a more randomised look. Secondly, you can change the layout of your game with multiple features being utilised. These include frames, display size, display filter, and orientation. Whether you feel happier playing full screen or want the authentic feel of playing in the arcade itself, the choice is yours. Thoroughly impressed with all the alterable features included.

• Featured modes with online leaderboards | Not only do you have the original arcade games to enjoy at a casual pace but additional options have been included should you want a more challenging playthrough. There are two extra modes that exist – score mode and timed mode if you enjoy a more competitive approach. Score mode is based on your score which you will accumulate before you lose all lives and timed mode is based on how quickly you complete the game. It should be noted though that there is a minimum score and time for these modes if you wish to meet the requirements for you to qualify for a leaderboard position. For these, you will be required to have your game set to online mode so rankings can be established. I found these quite testing at times and that made me even more determined to try again. Luckily, you can try again as many times as your heart desires. 

• Variety of games | From shooters to side scrollers, fighting to platformers – you will have a wide variety of retro games to choose from, ranging from 1984 to 2001 that I think is simply amazing. I certainly preferred some game genres to others but obviously what games you play and like more will vary amongst everyone. I believe being given these options has allowed the game to appeal to a broader audience. As the full game’s price amounts to £32, this does mean you’re paying £1 for each game, and I think this is a reasonable price for the amount of content you have to play. It’s certainly better value for money than going to the arcade itself. Just know there is plenty of content for what you’re purchasing. Alternatively, if you only want games from ‘84 and ‘88 for example, you can buy one of three separate add-on packs individually for £12 if you so wish but if you want them all, you are better off going for the all-inclusive bundle.

• Informative | Each different aspect of Capcom Arcade Stadium provides you with step-by-step guides and explanations to make sure you know what everything does and means. The tutorials illustrate everything in a friendly manner, meaning they are easy to understand and thorough for both the game and individual game mechanics. Sometimes, I was unsure of a couple of things so it was useful to have the option to reread them at any time if, like me, you aren’t sure how some elements work.  I’ve always found illustrated instructions easier to understand so I was relieved to see images combined with text instead of large portions of text alone.

• Local co-op | I’ve got fantastic news for those of you that want the ability to play these with friends and family at home – you can! With all games having some type of co-op included, ranging from two-player to four-player, you cannot only experience these classic games but also get others to join in with the fun. Unfortunately, there is no way of playing games in online co-op, only locally, but I think I can understand why. In my opinion, it’s been created in this way to keep the idea of arcade gaming seem more realistic as you can’t visit an arcade and play online, you would be playing side by side. Also, due to the online leaderboards being present, you can still compete against other players however I don’t believe co-op would work with this as I’ve been unable to play with someone else.

• Save & continue | This was probably my favourite aspect in Capcom Arcade Stadium. Whichever game you are in, you can save your progress at any moment. It’s not like when you’re at the arcade and only have three lives until you get a game over screen as you can constantly be re-inserting tokens to get past the timed continue screen. Should you find yourself at a checkpoint, a noticeably difficult section, maybe a boss fight or you just need a rest break, you can save all the hard work you’ve done and reload if and when needed. It took away the frustrating feeling of only getting one chance and then having to not only pay for another playthrough but also having to start from the very beginning. Of course, if you want to play your games without saving this is an option too but having this addition was warmly welcomed by me.

Somewhere between

• Sound & atmosphere | When playing the arcade games, I could not fault the music and sound effects as they were all reflective and matched the retro ambiance. Whether it’s the sound of vehicles exploding or grunts from fighting games, I found them to be representational of retro gaming by keeping the true audio. The only part of the audio I found could have been improved upon was the atmosphere of the game selection screen. Yes, the music is chirpy and gleeful to listen to but I didn’t feel the legitimate sound of an arcade. Perhaps some muttering voices, the sound of people walking past, other games being played in the background for example would have improved this as when using headphones, these could have made you feel truly in the moment.

• Unconventional controls | So, Capcom Arcade Stadium does allow the use of both controller and joystick should anyone want to play the game as it was originally intended which I think was a nice addition to the playability. I found the controls to a couple of games a little strange but after spending a little more time using them, I did get used to them. It was just confusing when the jump button wasn’t A or when the shoot button wasn’t RT. I just expected the controls to be modernised in some cases but it certainly was the be-all and end-all of everything. Just took more time to become accustomed to.

What we disliked

• Inconsistent performance | Unfortunately, there was one element that let down Capcom Arcade Stadium and this was that there wasn’t always smooth performance in the games. I noticed some lag spikes and frame rate issues a couple of times which is not something any game wants to have. Although it was not all the time, because that would be bad, when it did happen it was very noticeable and did get a little annoying at times. Admittedly, it’s supposed to be retro but not in the sense of it having conflicting appearance issues. Smoothing out in places could make the overall game better but as the only negative, if this was to be looked into, the game could be something quite special to many.

CONCLUSION

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