Plug and play consoles are certainly nothing new but every since Nintendo released their NES Classic Edition and followed it up with the SNES Classic Edition, we've seen a greater push for more of these retro consoles. AT Games has been plugging away (no pun intended) at this for some time now but Nintendo's aforementioned releases showed that half baked efforts were no longer going to cut it. I think Sony learned this lesson the hard away when they released the PlayStation Classic back in December. Before the console released, word quickly got out that it was not a great product and avoided it like the stench of a skunk. Now Capcom is throwing their hat in the ring in quite an ambitious way with the Capcom Home Arcade, which will be available on October 25th and is up for pre-order on Capcom's European online store.
One of the most important things to note about the release of any retro console is the games the system will house. So, what does titles are in the Capcom Home Arcade? Well, take a look.
That's not too shabby a list of games. Note that the much loved Alien vs. Predator is among the titles. I don't know what kind of voo doo Capcom worked to get the rights to re-release one of the greatest beat 'em ups of all time and I probably shouldn't care. I'm happy that players will be getting a chance to play the game legally on their TVs.
If you've kept an eye on Capcom's recent compilation games, you'll notice that a few of the games that will be featured in the Capcom Home Arcade have been re-released on consoles recently. Final Fight, Captain Commando and Armored Warriors were part of the excellent Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle and Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting was on the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. It may seem a touch strange to re-release games that are so readily available current hardware, but the Capcom Home Arcade system is meant to play as faithfully as possible to the original arcade stick hardware these games were released on so many years ago.
I really can't argue too much with the game choices (I'm not losing any sleep over the omission of Ghosts 'n Goblins) but rather the number is on the small side at a mere 16. Capcom could definitely have more games on here as their catalog of arcade titles alone is enormous. This is an especially bitter pill to swallow when you consider that other retro consoles have more games. Heck, SEGA's upcoming SEGA Genesis Classic mini is going to have a whopping 40 titles. and will cost far less moola.
Then, there's the price. No American price point has been announced yet but with the UK version going for 229.99 Euros, this sucker is not going to be cheap. True, the Capcom Home Arcade is cheaper (and much more friendlier on space) than owning 16 individual arcade cabinets, but at the end of the day, that is still over 200 bucks for a fancy two player arcade stick and as much as I'd love to play Alien vs. Predator on my TV, the entry fee alone is a deal breaker for me.
I get it. This thing is appealing to the hardcore arcade enthusiast and it is awesome that Capcom is thinking of that crowd of gamers. However, there are those that are fine with playing arcade games with a standard controller so I'm hoping Capcom releases these games to consoles and PC.
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