When I first heard that CAPCOM was making another Arcade Stadium, I was honestly shocked. The first Arcade Stadium, which came out just last year, was not a great success. It was panned for the fact that most of the games had to be purchased individually and the base game only had a few arcade games on it. CAPCOM has brought a quick sequel to the series, but is it a game that seems to be more on par with what both fans and new players would expect from such a title, or is it just as much of a money grab as the previous one?

CAPCOM Arcade 2nd Stadium has 32 titles at launch that are available in the $39.99 pack, which is the cheapest way to go about getting the titles without buying them individually. The titles of the games range from very recognizable properties such as Street Fighter to some that haven’t really been seen in a long time like Eco Fighters and SonSon.

While comparing this list of games to the list of CAPCOM Arcade Stadium, there doesn’t appear to be any overlap. However, it was strange to see that Street Fighter accounts for a large portion of the games in CAPCOM Arcade 2nd Stadium, whereas its predecessor didn’t really have a dominant franchise and was more a mixed bag of arcade games.

In terms of game modes, there are four different ones to choose from. There is the regular game, Scored Challenge, Timed Challenge, and Special Challenge. The regular game mode allows you to play through the game the way it was intended. The Scored Challenge mode allows for players to try to rack up the highest score possible in order to land on the online leaderboard.

Timed Challenge mode does a similar thing to the Scored Challenge mode, except it focuses on how quickly you complete the game. Special Challenge puts the two challenges together, but also gives the player certain conditions to play under. For those who have played the previous game, these modes are the exact same.

The display options were something that I found to be rather neat and unique compared to most games. Pictured below are the three normal display settings. You have a classic look, a classic look that is warped slightly and shows the arcade cabinet in order to give you the vibe of being in an arcade, and third option that gives you the same view as the first but with a customizable wallpaper.

The second option definitely felt the weirdest to me because it distorts the video of the game so much. On top of that, the look of the 3D cabinet can sometimes feel jarring. In the end, I played most of the games using the first display option.

The game guides are one of the most useful things within the game. They allow you to see the controls of the arcade game that you have selected without having to back out of it. While the game guides are really useful in this sense while also explaining the objective of the games, I can’t help but feel that it could’ve been done better.

The way that I could see this being improved is by having a button dedicated to showing the game guide at a moments notice. This way there wouldn’t be as much of a pause between playing the game and looking at the guide. They could also have gone the route where in the 3D cabinet Display, the controls could be seen right below the screen. That would definitely fill in the 3D Cabinet vibe.

One of the things that I have seen talked about on some reviews of the game is the fact that there is no multiplayer when there actually is. A lot of it is just co-op with friends through just playing next to each other. However, there is also a leaderboard that you can use to go up against various players throughout the world.

Sadly, that is the extent of the multiplayer from what I was able to find in the game and the information that CAPCOM gave me. The fact that you cannot do online co-op with your friends is kind of a bummer and shows a continuing trend of game developers not understanding how important that can be. You can find a work around with this on Steam through the Remote Play Together option, but that doesn’t always work well for all involved.

Overall, CAPCOM Arcade 2nd Stadium is a game that definitely shows a way to preserve older games that at one point were at risk of being lost. However, there are still too many problems with this game that were brought over from the previous title. Looking at the Steam page of this game, it looks like the community has seen and is already giving this game a bit of a bad wrap. Hopefully, CAPCOM will see these complaints and implement these changes that will make this collection more acceptable to the fans and new players, but only time will tell.

A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium was provided by Capcom for this review.

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CAPCOM Arcade 2nd Stadium

39.99

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• 32 Nostalgic and Rarely Seen Titles
• Many Online Features
• Doesn't Require You to be Online
• Digital Game Manuals for each Game

Cons

• Individual Game Manuals Not Easily Accessible
• Some Screen Options are Weird
• Strange Payment Options
• Doesn't Address Problems of Predecessor