For a period during the late Eighties and early Nineties, Capcom was the dominant force in many a youth's arcade-driven lifestyle. Piers, shopping centres and Butlins holiday parks everywhere were flooded with youngsters with their pocket money burning a hole in their shellsuit bottoms. The more popular and addictive machines were often Capcom creations. In fact, if my schoolboy memories serve me correctly, I seem to recall Capcom's world domination reaching as far and wide as Australia, where some child actor (who no doubt will soon be unleashing their music career upon us) was battling with an addiction to Ghouls N' Ghosts. With this life-damaging obsession in mind, Japanese interactive software pioneers Capcom, have released their aptly titled Capcom Classics Collection.

If you've ever downloaded a classic console emulator in order to relive your youth through a variety of classic titles, then you'll love this latest collection. Full of many of the titles that we know and love from the last 15 years, Capcom Classics will tickle your nostalgic funny bone and cast your mind back to the days when Amigas ruled the gaming world.

Highlights include Streetfighter II, a best-selling title that you'll all be familiar with, along with the champion edition. Prepare yourself for memories of sitting about in tiny Y-fronts playing for hours on end while you ate ginger nuts and sipped on Um Bongo. All the characters are there, from Eddie Honda (E.Honda but I always assumed the E stood for Eddie) to Blanca, Ryu, Guile and the imaginatively named Ken. They're all there, with the same traditional sounds spouting from each character as they try to beat their opponent to death. Before too long you'll be able to recall all the moves that cause outbursts such as "How are you Ken!!?!" and "I'm fine Ken!!" (again, not entirely accurate, but rather the overactive imagination of a ten year old) as well as spinning bird kicks and that one that made Blanca bite people's faces off.

Personally, I have very fond memories of Final Fight, the beat 'em up, scrolling background title. Of course, where I once fell down, I can now play as much as I like, until as late as I like, without having to ask my mother if I can borrow another pound, a request that would have been met with a firm "NO!" and on further pestering, a visit to casualty. It's a weird feeling playing these titles again, I found myself thinking, "this is awful, all you can do is punch!" However, that didn't stop me playing the title for a good few hours, the appeal hasn't been lost and if anything I felt like a rich kid who has his own arcade machines!

If you prefer to travel a little further back in time then there are plenty of birds-eye view scrolling shooters to choose from, not the least of which are the three versions of 1942 available. Based around some war that took place nearly 70 years ago (my apologies to any WWII veterans reading this), 1942 enjoyed a limited success in the early years of Capcom's career as games developers. In my opinion, there are some games that, like shellsuits and mullets, are best left in the firm lock up of history. Along with Capcom's first ever game, Vulgus, and their first US title, Son Son, you can see why game development has demanded evolution rather than spawned it.

That said, jump forward a few years and we enter that golden era where commandos and mercenaries were the dream vocation for many a young school goer. Unfortunately, with very few courses available in these areas, and careers advisors tending to steer youths away from these particular livelihoods, we were forced to live out our frustrated dreams through Capcom titles such as Commandos, Mercs, and for those Clint Eastwood fans, Gun Smoke. These titles never lose their appeal; play them now and you'll feel as if you never left your tiny little room with the bunk-beds in the corner and posters of New Kids On The Block (What? We all thought they were cool!)

Last for me to address is the classic that is Ghouls N' Ghosts. Who could ever forget running about in our pants throwing knives at all manner of….well…ghosts n' ghouls, I guess! With thunder and lightning and creepy enemies, this game used to really make me do something that is unadvisable at any moment, but especially when you're sporting nothing but a pair of white pants. You'd think that at the ripe old age of 23 that the effects wouldn't be the same, but within minutes of returning to play this classic, I was cowering behind the sofa with my thumb in my mouth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of titles from Japanese arcade legends Capcom. But to be brutally honest, of the 22 titles that this collection boasts, only a handful of them are worth shelling out your hard earned cash for. It feels as if they were padding out this collection by making every minor version change in the list of titles. Do we need three versions of Street Fighter II and 1942? Probably not, and once again we are left with a great concept that wasn't followed through with intuitive design. If anything, we have the opportunity left to gain the rights from various classic games developers to produce a Classics Collection to rival them all. Bring on a collection featuring Speedball Deluxe and Treasure Island Dizzy and I will beat anyone down who tries to buy this before me!

Reviewed by Rob Byron for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).