If there's one thing I love in this world, it's beat'em ups. Well, at least I used to love them back when I was younger. Konami, SNK and Capcom's were easily the best, so you bet I'm quite happy with this little bundle o' fun. Contained within are 7 of Capcom's best. True, a few classics are missing, but you can probably chalk it down on right(Aliens VS Predators, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or the Dungeon and Dragons games) or because they were console games, like the Final Fight sequels. Capcom Belt Action Collection(Capcom Beat'em up Bundle) brings together familiar faces in the form of Final Fight, Captain Commando, King of Dragons and Knights of the Round with a few games that either never had a localized home release, namely Warriors of Fate, or never had a home release to begin with, Battle Circuit and Armored Warriors.
These games are quarter munchers, no doubt about it, so they are not really fair, which is why every game is in its 'Free Play' setting, which means infinite continues. And you'll need them, no matter the difficulty setting. All these games are pretty simple two-button affairs, one for hitting stuff and one for jumping. Sadly, there isn't much in the way of customizing, you can pick between the English and Japanese versions of the games as well as change the amount of lives per continues or even the difficulty itself, but it's not much. Noteworthy absences come in the form of graphical filters or the ability to change the size of the screen, although it seems a patch seems to have taken care of these. Also, while each game has a 'How to Play' option, it's not very thorough. Most games here have input-only special moves or mechanics that the game won't tell you about, which could limit your fun with them. Lastly, there's a bunch of good-quality art for each game waiting to be admired.
Beat'em ups as we know them are long dead, and there's a reason for that: There's no market for them anymore. These games are as unfair as they come, with enemies being able to swarm you or take huge chunks of your health with few attacks. They are hard, and at face value, they don't sound like a fun time. But there's a certain charm to their simplicity, to just bashing enemies left and right with the added benefit of infinite continues while going mission through mission on what feels like a medium-sized adventure. Every game can be played with at least two players, and they become much more fun that way. I've known all these games like the back of my hands for years now, thanks to MAME emulation and my childhood, when it came to Final Fight, so it's a treat to finally be able to own all these games. The emulation is spot-on and everything feels, sounds and looks like it should. Each game also comes with a save-slot, so if you get tired you can just continue from where you left off later.
Battle Circuit
The crowning jewel of this collection, Battle Circuit is loud, colorful and, above all, ridiculous. The plot, the playable characters, the enemies and the stages are all over the top, with wackiness being the central theme. Nothing makes sense, nothing needs to make sense. But beauty isn't just skin deep, there's a big focus on landing combos to earn more money so that you can then buy more moves or extend the health bar of your character. Movesets aren't incredibly large, but getting to upgrade your character as you play through the game feels great, and landing hits feels incredible, thanks to how good the sprites look and how well they made the audiovisual feedback feel. If there's one thing to complain about is just how short it is, even for the genre's standards. One or two more levels could've made this game just perfect.
9.5 out of 10
Warriors of Fate
Warriors of Fate is based on a manga that was based off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but you wouldn't know that since the localization changed everyone's names. As a matter of fact, this is Capcom's second game based on the same manga. Regardless, Warriors of Fate is a good one, featuring five different characters, each one sporting a secret command-special move alongside their trusty combo string. The game is noteworthy for letting you ride horse, as well as slashing enemies in two or even smashing their torso into chunky bits if you finish them with a pummeling special move or with a blunt weapon, like a mace. This one is particularly tough because enemies swarm you from every single angle, but the colorful cast of characters and the cohesive, but diverse, locales makes it a fun romp.
7.5 out of 10
Captain Commando
So... I went back to check on my review for this game on Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 and it turns out that my notes were pretty much identical to everything I had to say about it back then. Captain Commando is a giant tribute to the genre, featuring every trope and theme you could think of. Samurai? They are here. Sewers? Them two. Riding on waterboards? OF COURSE! Movesets are a bit more extensive than usual, but there are a ton of neat graphical details, like characters falling against a wall or the fact that even playable characters can get bisected by attacks that make it a pleasure to look at. The game itself is almost as ridiculous as Battle Circuit, which is some of the highest praise I can give it.
9.0 out of 10
Final Fight
Not the first, and definitely not the last, but it was the beat'em up game that made the genre popular. The game has certainly seen better days, as it feels rather stiff and slow compared to the other games, but it just had to be here for nostalgia's sake. On another note, in the last few years I got used to Final Fight Advance, which used the SNES port's sprites, so I had forgotten just how large and beautiful, for its era, the sprites were. You know, the proportions are off, the animation is limited, but you can tell that a lot of work went into making these sprites, from the pretty walk cycles to the vicious punches. Honestly, don't feel too bad about ignoring this one, it deserves a playthrough based on reputation alone, but every single game here does what this one does but better.
6.5 out of 10
King of Dragons
I don't know why, but I thought I had hated this game... but then I went into my older review and... turns out I liked it as much 5 years ago as I do now. Characters have a single attack animation, which sounds lame, but it lends itself to its fast pace. Everything is very colorful and fast, and the fact that you level up and enhance your weapons as you advance through the game makes you feel good. But, as good as it feels, lets be honest, it takes a long while before you actually feel like your weapons are dealing more damage... but having new weapon sprites to look at makes it worth it. The game is made up of 16 short stages, which makes me think they wanted everything to feel quick and snappy in this game, something they achieved quite well if so. It's definitely a fun time.
8.0 out of 10
Armored Warriors
Ah! Armored Warriors, how I remember the first time I played this game. It was on a Highschool morning, back when I had dial-up internet, and after figuring out how to run the... Winkawaks emulator, which took me what it felt like the entire night, I left this game downloading while I slept. My father wakes me up for me to get ready for school, but not before I take the game for a spin. And it was brilliant. This is the only game with a third button, which is used to shoot whichever gun your robot has equipped, for you see, in this game you play as a robot and beat'up other robots. A few of them drop their arms, legs or guns, which you can then equip on your own machine. Each arm has a few combo strings or special functions that makes it different from the others which is pretty cool, even though I tried to stick with the traditional beam-sword for most of my playthrough. Armored Warriors is pretty good, there's a nice amount of variety and the game is long enough so that it doesn't get old before it ends.
8.5 out of 10
Knights of the Round
Five years ago I gave this game a perfect 10. While this time around I didn't feel it was THAT good, it's still one of my favorite beat'em up games of all time, and one of the best games in this collection. And, also, keep in mind I played the entire collection in one sitting and left this game for last, so even if I didn't notice it I might have been a bit burned out. In this one you can level up as you score points, which in turn changes how your character looks. Each character has a secret special move as well as the ability to defend or parry attacks. It's pretty darn deep, lengthy and fun, although it's not as colorful or wacky as the rest of the games. Unless you consider King Arthur beating up giant mechs or Samurai as wacky.
9.0 out of 10
Let's be honest, this collection itself is pretty barebones. No graphical filters pre-patch, very basic information on how to play each game, very little information on each game besides the random assortment of official art.... but, and it's a GIANT but, every single game in this collection is fantastic. Except, maybe, Final Fight, but it gets away with it since it's a bonafide classic. So while there's very little fat in this package, it's premium quality meat all the way through. The beat'em up genre has become a tough sell in this day and age, but it's great that the few of us that still adore it can get a bone thrown out way every now and then.
9.0 out of 10
Now, then, Capcom, since you've clearly gotten the rights for Aliens VS Predators, how about getting a second volume on the way? You could also include SNES classics like the Final Fight sequels. And you could try to work things out with Marvel, so that you can bundle up The Punisher or even the SNES X-men game. Get on it!
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