There seems to be an odd trend as of late with old school games making a reemergence to the forefront of gaming. Whether it is old school gamers wanting to get nostalgic with the titles they grew up with in an arcade when they were younger or whether it is younger gamers wanting to see what all the fuss was about, old school games are making a come back with a lot of hype backing them up. Xbox Live Arcade is definite proof of this, as well is the older Nintendo and Sega games that are appearing on the Wii’s Virtual Console service and the Playstation One games that are able to be ported through the PS3 to be played on their baby PSP brother. It seems that gamers like being able to play the classic games on their home consoles and gaming companies are picking up on it which brings another outing from Capcom releasing more of their classics.

Capcom Classics: Volume 2 is the second compilation of old school Capcom games that made their appearance from ten to fifteen years ago in the arcades, in stand up cabinets and table top machines. There are 20 games that are included in the collection, some of which may be remembered right away, some not at all and some that will flip the memory switch as soon as you sit down with them. Games like it 1941, Street Fighter II and Strider are some of the more popular and well known games that are included among a good number of games that even the most die hard gamer may not remember right off the bat. Games like Eco-Fighters, Knights of the Round and Block Block may have you scratching your head wondering what they are, but if you have been around the gaming scene for quite some time, it will come rushing back to you, which is one of the great things about these compilation packs.

Each of the games allows you to unlock extra content such as artwork by reaching certain goals like earning a set number of points or by hitting a certain level. Each time a piece of content is unlocked, the game will pause and inform you that you have achieved the goal and content has been unlocked. It may seem a little inconvenient at the time when it happens, but it is a nice little feature that saves you time and the hassle of having to go through the menus for each game to see if you have successfully unlocked anything. As you can expect, the games are in their original state for the most part and the graphics are going to vary from game to game. The majority of games are from a time when games were graphically pleasing so there aren’t too many that will turn you off visually. Some of the games such as 1941 won’t fill up your entire screen but do leave the originality intact where as others take advantage of the 480p support. Some of the games included in the compilation are pretty similar to each other which is kind of a downer given the number of games Capcom has under its belt to choose from. Knights of the Round is an RPG style side scrolling hack’em up as is Magic Sword and King of Dragons which all feel as well as look similar to the earlier released Golden Axe from Sega.

The obvious headliner and most well known of all the games included is of course Street Fighter II which is in the faster paced Turbo edition. Not only is Street Fighter II included but so is the much lesser known predecessor and almost laughable original Street Fighter. Being this is the only time I can recall the original Street Fighter being available for play outside of the arcade anywhere; it is a very nice addition to the collection for those that have always wanted to see where the entire series got its roots from. Another big plus to the collection is a training and tutorial series of videos that show you techniques and tricks to playing Street Fighter II. The videos show things such as Areas of Attack and how each character plays differently with each of their skills. The videos themselves were as impressive as some of the games were to be honest.

The control scheme for each game can be set up individually to however you like within the options and menu settings, although most of the similar games found in the assortment can use the same layout for each. Being that the games are quite dated, you don’t need to worry about mapping out commands to trigger buttons or black and white buttons and such. Two or three buttons usually covers all the actions you need just fine. The choice of using the directional pad and the analog stick is yours to decide as well. For some games it just felt odd using the analog stick and for others it felt awkward using the d-pad. Many of the games' controls do take some time getting used to but thankfully you are also given the option of saving your game whenever you like which is perfect for the casual gamer who only wants to pick and play for short periods of time.

With many of the games included in this collection more or less geared towards older gamers, many younger players may not have the same excitement or desire to sit and play through them without the nostalgia factor. If you are thinking of picking the compilation for just one or two games, it might be worth your time to pass on it, but if you want to check out some real old school games that us older folks loved to feed quarters to, this is a good gathering of games to check out.