Capcom Arcade Review

The idea behind Capcom Arcade is pretty brilliant. They made iPhone ports of four classic arcade games, bundled them together, and released them in a freemium compilation. When you open the app, you enter into a virtual arcade that contains a row of game cabinets, including Street Fighter II, 1942, Ghouls ‘N Ghosts, and Commando. That's already a good selection of games, and Capcom says more will be released each month.

This is a freemium game, so you don't have to pay anything if you don't want to. Your allowance is three free game tokens per day. If you want to play more than that, you can purchase 10 tokens for a buck, or buy unlimited access to the games for $2.99 apiece. This is one of the best instances of freemium gaming we've seen yet: It offers players the option to sample, dabble, or purchase the games, with a pricing structure that makes sense. Of course, a compilation is only as strong as its content, so how are the games themselves?

Mostly excellent. They’re direct ports from their arcade counterparts, so they have the exact same graphics and difficulty. Street Fighter II is the original classic fighting game, so don’t expect to play as Vega or M Bison, as bosses weren’t playable until the Championship Edition. Ghouls ‘N Ghosts is the same tough-as-nails action platformer it's always been, while 1942 and Commando are pretty basic top-down shooters. All of them run smoothly, although we noticed a negligible amount of slowdown in Street Fighter II.

In addition to looking exactly like their arcade counterparts, the games also act the same. So you’ll have to spend a token if you want to continue playing after you lose two rounds in Street Fighter II or run out of lives in the other games. If you earn a high score, you’ll be asked to enter your initials for the leaderboard. Unfortunately, the leaderboards aren’t online, but you can post your scores to Facebook or Twitter if you want to bug your friends.

The main things Capcom changed in these games are the control schemes, and all of them work very well on the touchscreen. Street Fighter II and Commando use the big analog stick from Street Fighter IV to good effect. 1942 uses touch-and-drag controls, which work perfectly for the genre, while Ghouls ‘N Ghosts has a four-way D-pad that suits its 2D platforming just fine. At any time, you can look at instructions for how to play the games, but since they were designed for the arcade they’re not tough to figure out.

This compilation does offer a few optional tweaks that were unavailable in the olden days. Each game gives you the option to select the “original difficulty” or a supposedly easier “iPhone difficulty," but we didn’t see much of a difference between the two, as both are plenty difficult. Also, you can buy cheats for the games for a buck a pop. That seems a little expensive to us, but if you’re struggling with a game and you want the option to have more lives or health, you can buy your way into it. And unlike in the arcade, you can now pause the games.

Anything you disliked about the original games is still a problem here. Ghouls 'N Ghosts is still difficult enough to make you scream bloody murder, and Commando would be a lot more fun if it were a dual-stick shooter. But these are direct ports, so we don't expect big changes or extra polish.

Anyone who spent much time in the loud, flashy gaming pits of yore should absolutely download Capcom Arcade. It offers a good variety of game types, with titles that will give older gamers a trip down memory lane. The pricing structure is fair, the ports are solid, and the controls work great. We're looking forward to see what new games Capcom will add, and we're hopeful that other companies will rip off this freemium compilation idea. If it works, it works. And Capcom Arcade works.