Capcom Classics Collection Remixed - PSP Review

I am a bit of a sucker for collection games, and they feel right at home for me on a portable unit like the PSP.  I think because they do not need to push any technical limits and tend to play just fine on the system, but they can house quite a few titles as well.  There are a lot of words packed into this game's title, but there are quite a few games as well.

    1941: Counter Attack
    Avengers
    Bionic Commando (the arcade version)
    Black Tiger
    Block Block
    Captain Commando
    Final Fight
    Forgotten Worlds
    Last Duel
    Legendary Wings
    Magic Sword
    Mega Twins
    Quiz & Dragons
    Section Z
    Side Arms: Hyper Dyne
    The Speed Rumbler
    Street Fighter
    Strider
    Three Wonders
    Varth

Some of these titles are better known than others.  I had never heard of Mega Twins or Quiz & Dragons, but others like Black Tiger and Bionic Commando I was quite familiar with from my days at the arcade, and others like Legendary Wings from the NES days.

Graphics - 5:

Keep in mind that there are games here more than two decades old.  There is no remastering or updating going on here, which is fine as long as you are aware of and comfortable with what you are getting.  I think the smaller screen of the PSP actually helps though, as playing these on something like a TV would really make the pixels stand out badly.

Sound & Music - 6:

This falls right in line with my thoughts on the graphics.  There is nothing pushing the limits of your PSP here.  Some of the tracks have been remixed though, so I will give an additional point for effort, but they really don't do much to breathe new life into the games.  Now, that said - if you don't mind this sort of music (and there are quite a few gamers who absolutely love these throwback video game tunes) then you will be quite happy with how they are presented here.

Gameplay - 7:

You could try breaking this down on a game by game basis, but that would be quite the chore.  Let's just say that they handle just like you would expect them to.  Controls are not updated, and that is fine because in many instances it would fundamentally be changing the game.  Sure, having a diagonal swing in Black Tiger would be a huge help, but that is simply now how the game was designed or meant to be played.  The games are actually presented quite nicely as the menu lets you move around easily.

Now for the thing I have to kill this game for the most - no save states.  You can't bounce around from title to title, and with a game like Black Tiger or Strider that can take a considerable time investment, not having the ability to save state seems to fly in the face of both a collection of games as well as presenting them on the portable 'on the go' format.

Intangibles - 8:

There are a lot of games here, though some are better than others obviously.  With a compilation like this, you are getting some big name classics to draw you in, some that you have maybe heard of or played a few times that may spark a bit of nostalgia, and the rest is generally filler to flesh out the number of games they can tout comes with the UMD.  There is multiplayer on these games, but I know nobody else with a PSP anymore, so I did not get to make much use of that feature, which likely would have added a good deal of replay value.  Still, there are enough good titles here to keep a person very busy for awhile.

Overall - 6.5:

The score is a bit low, but it really depends on your expectations.  It is not going to weigh in at the same level as heavier hitting titles for the PSP like Final Fantasy Crisis Core and God of War, but I really enjoyed playing Bionic Command, Strider, Final Fight, Magic Sword and Black Tiger.  Still, it might have been nice to see a few more classic Capcom titles work their way into the mix like Street Fighter II instead of say, Section Z.  There are definitely better collections of games out there, despite a few very good titles to be found here, and the lack of a save state did annoy me to no end as well.