Capcom Arcade Stadium (1944: The Loop Master, Progear) playthrough
2And here we have the last two games of the first Capcom Arcade Stadium. And they presented a bit of a surprise. At least this set did ultimately go out with a bang. And I absolutely do recommend these collections. Mostly because you don't actually need to have the collection. You can spend a few bucks and just get the games you want. Of course, all the other games do show up to entice you to buy... but if you can avoid that temptation (and clearly, I can't), this set holds a lot of value. Emulation seems solid, you have save states, rewind, speed adjustment, leaderboards... no reason to not enjoy the game!
1944: The Loop Master: This game brings the series back closer to its origins. It doesn't have the timed power-ups like the previous games, but you can get most of your powerup back when you die anyway. It is interesting that you lose a stage when you get hit, even though the game has life bars. It's a more difficult game, I will give it that. At arcades this would have pretty well emptied my pocket of quarters. But I never got frustrated at the game, or felt like it was too much. The levels were smaller to help break them up, and there were only 15 of them. This game just struck a nice balance with me. Not something I'd play often, but one I wouldn't mind going back to.
Progear: Another actual Bullet Hell game, this one with even more features of the genre. And, mind you, I am terrible at the genre. This game is a true score attack machine, where you have a couple firing modes that help you collect extra items to boost your score, bombs that destroy enemy shots - into more of those score boost items, and a hit box that is much, MUCH smaller than the visible plane. I cannot compare this to other Bullet Hell games, as it is a genre I know of, know elements and mechanics of, but don't actually play. Because I am awful at them. But I did enjoy my time in this - even if it was a little shorter than I expected. The ending was a big "WTF?" but that's to be expected for my poor performance.
Final result: There's more here that I do like, especially in the later games, than I don't. But the fact that you can buy the games on their own is the shining point of this. It's a solid collection with a lot of differences, even if it's battling that some games don't have the English ROMs. Emulation seems solid, though I don't have the originals to compare to. Good features all around. This is a phenomenal set, and I'd love to see more of it. Which is good, because they made a second one that I will be looking at starting tomorrow. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/the_nametag
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