Fast-forward to the present day, and Capcom have added another retro package to the range which premiered on the PS2 and Xbox, and this time it’s portable. Through the wonders of emulation, gamers can now reacquaint themselves with the games that cost them so much pocket money and resulted in many skipped school lessons – an all on a machine that (almost) fits snugly in your pocket. The joys of miniaturization, indeed.

Capcom Classics Collection Remixed has a rather misleading title. It would suggest that the package is some kind of updated enhancement of the home console version, but less than half the twenty games on show here were featured in the previous home console installment. The overall presentation is similar to the home editions – the faux-schoolbook menu system returns and is just as visually pleasing as it was on the big screen. A neat touch is the ability to unlock artwork, music and tips by meeting certain goals within each game and this adds longevity to the package, giving the player incentive to soldier on with games they might ordinarily play for a few minutes. Load times are sometimes intrusive – just under 10 seconds per game – but they hardly ruin the experience, and once a game has been loaded, no further waiting is required.

The options presented by the game are extensive. The player can access a menu at any point and alter the button layout to one that suits them. A quick press of the ‘Select’ button changes the display mode – this can be done ‘on the fly’ and neatly avoids forcing the player to break from their game. Different modes are offered depending on which title is being played – 1941, for example, can be played in TATE mode by holding the PSP vertically (previously seen in Hudson’s PSP version of Star Soldier). Most titles support the original aspect ratio (which places a black border around the image but keeps things super-crisp), Best fit (which fills the screen where possible whilst maintaining the original aspect ratio, resulting in a little drop in detail) and Stretch (which, as one might imagine, expands the image to fill the entire screen – resulting a further dip in detail and clarity). Some titles have ‘Enhanced’ modes where additional menu bars that were not found in the arcade original are now present.

Multiplayer options are also impressive. Although a different copy of the game is required for each player, it is blissfully easy to host and join games. At the main menu, the PSP checks if any other machines playing Capcom Classics are in the vicinity and if so, simply clicking the ‘R’ shoulder button will allow you to join the game in question. There’s no lag or delay when playing any of the games which support multiplayer, and it marks yet another impressive use of the PSP’s wireless functions.

All of the games are set to offer unlimited continues by default – unfortunately this kills the challenge of many of the games and it’s advisable to switch this setting off, or at least try to limit the number of continues used. The problem is that the only other option available is ‘1 credit’ and many of the games are truly impossible to finish with this setting.

Shooter fans are well catered for here. First and foremost, there’s the excellent 1941. Varth comes a close second, with visuals that make it look very much like Raizing’s legendary Battle Garegga. The three games that comprise the ‘Jet-Pack Hero’ saga are also present – Section Z, Side Arms: Hyper Dyne and Forgotten Worlds. The largely forgettable Legendary Wings and Last Duel bring up the rear, and are unlikely to keep any gamer interested for more than a few minutes.

Those in need of some platforming action can seek solace in the excellent Black Tiger (amazingly experiencing its first home console outing), the (rather lack lustre) semi-sequel Magic Sword, the classic Bionic Commando (shame the NES version is notably better) and the brilliant ‘Wonderboy’ clone Mega Twins. However, the cream of the crop is undoubtedly Strider which is replicated amazingly and plays just as well as it did back in 1988.

Fighting games feature extensively in Capcom’s back catalogue, so it’s no surprise that this collection contains a few brawlers. Leading the vanguard is what is arguably the finest side-scrolling fighter of all time – Final Fight – and the version here steals the ‘best portable representation’ crown from the GBA’s excellent (but not arcade perfect) Final Fight One. The fantastic Captain Commando makes his handheld debut. Sadly, the other two games in the genre are disappointing at best – Avengers is notable for employing a top-down viewpoint and little else. The less said about Street Fighter the better – although this game sired one of the best selling videogames of all time, it’s a sad, shambling mockery of a fighting game and is only worth firing up just to see how far Capcom had progressed when they released Street Fighter II.

Finally, we have the ‘oddball’ selection. The inclusion of the wonderful Three Wonders (which, as the title suggests, is actually three games in one – a Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts style platformer, a horizontally scrolling shooter and a puzzle game) means Capcom fans no longer have to fork out silly money for the uber-rare Saturn version. Quiz and Dragons is unusual but ultimately succeeds to entertain, regardless of the fact that it requires the player to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of American sports history circa 1992! The Speed Rumbler pre-dates the ‘walk and drive’ concept of Grand Theft Auto by a fair few years and is painfully addictive in spite of a rather unforgiving level of difficultly. And no collection would be complete without some kind of puzzle game – here Capcom have blessed us with their take on the ‘Breakout’ concept – Block Block.

Although we are unable to vouch for every single game on this collection (having only played a handful of them in their natural arcade habitat), the emulation appears to be accurate, with no skipping, slowdown or sprite corruptions. The developers, Digital Eclipse, have done themselves proud once again, transporting these titles from the arcade to handheld without compromising the quality. The PSP’s tiny speakers don’t quite do the sound justice and it’s recommended that each title be played using a pair of decent headphones.

Although it would have been nice to see Capcom fill the UMD with real ‘classics’, it would make poor business sense on their part – the next installment in the series has already been announced, so it’s inevitable that Capcom will be looking to spread out their best games, meaning that some poor titles are going to be drafted in to make up the numbers. Although there are several games in this package that fail to pass muster, the true gems are more than worth the asking price. Being able to play portable, arcade perfect versions of Strider, Captain Commando and Final Fight is a real joy and if the collection only featured those three titles alone it would still be a worthwhile purchase.

In an age where Nintendo feel it is fair to repackage individual SNES games and sell them as full price releases on the GBA, this anthology is undoubtedly fantastic value for money and is one of the most convincing arguments for owning a PSP yet seen. Utterly essential.