MONSTER HIT!

What's nifty about the Arcade Stadium games is
that you're getting CPS2 titles, which weren't
offered in previous collections on the Xbox and
PSP. Maybe some day they'll step up to the
big leagues of the Naomi... one could only hope!
(image from Steam)

You know, I thought I would regret being impatient and buying NightWarriors in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium before I had the disposable income to purchase the whole collection at once. After all, each game is four dollars, and there are thirty two of them in total, which means buying a'la carte would cost you a kingly $124... not including SonSon, which Capcom "generously" gives you for free. 

Maybe I'll feel foolish about that decision later, when I plunk down forty dollars and effectively re-buy NightWarriors along with all the other games in the collection, but right now, at this very moment? I'm quite comfortable with my decision. Sure, I could have slummed with Darkstalkers: The Chaos Tower on the PSP, or dug up my Xbox 360 and played Darkstalkers Resurrection on that, but it was worth double-dipping for a portable version of what could be my favorite fighting game of all time.

As far as I'm concerned, NightWarriors represents the pinnacle of the series; more complex than the first Darkstalkers with its limited super move system, but without some of the unwelcome changes made to Vampire Savior, like the more threatening atmosphere and the Killer Instinct-like health bar system. You can turn off the tweaks to the gameplay in the PSP version, but you're stuck with the new soundtrack and backgrounds from Vampire Savior, tilting the game away from the whimsical horror of a Tim Burton movie and closer to the oeuvre of David Cronenberg. You've seen the Fetus of God, right? If you haven't, I'm sorry, but you're about to see the Fetus of God.

image from Street Fighter Galleries

Look, just be glad I showed you a concept sketch and not the actual stage, with its pulsating pustules and its glowing, semi-translucent skull and a host of unearthly creatures flowing into and out of the fetus. It's clear that the designers wanted to leave the player a little disturbed, and while they certainly achieved that goal, I don't have to like it.

What was my point? Oh yes, NightWarriors is worth whatever price they're charging, even if they charge less later... and this being Capcom, you know that will be an inevitability. The individual games in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium are four dollars right now, but will likely be two dollars in a few months, and maybe even a buck a year from now. Why wait, though? I'm not a YOLO kind of guy, but for a game this good, I'm willing and eager to make an exception.

Not shown: the soundtrack, which is like an
injection of serotonin directly into your eardrums.
(image from Pixel, the guys who made this)
(no, not the Cave Story Pixel, some other Pixel)

While I'm being uncharacteristically optimistic, I just wanted to offer another recommendation... Donut Dodo, which is currently available on Steam but will be released for the Switch by the end of the year. If you like fixed screen platformers like Donkey Kong, this will be your new crack. It's better than Donkey Kong in some respects, moving along at a faster clip and with a more athletic hero. If Billy Burns falls off a platform, it's not curtains for the baker unless he tumbles into a bed of spikes or a ravenous toilet. You can even guide him to safety as he falls, making him feel a bit more like Mario in Donkey Kong '94 for the Game Boy, and a bit less like his old, death-prone self from the original.

Donut Dodo is five dollars, and for that price, you definitely want to snap up a copy. I'm having a hard time convincing others of its quality, but if the Switch port by Flynn's Arcade is up to the standards of its Steam counterpart, everybody is going to know just how much booty this game kicks by the end of the year. Just remember that you heard it here first. Unless you watch one of the Gen-X game reviewers on YouTube, like the Bob Vila-esque John Hancock. In that case, you heard it from them first.