Capcom Sports Club

Capcom Sports Club, from 1997, is an arcade sports collection in which Capcom packed several disciplines into a single machine. The company ruled the arcades of the day chiefly through fighting games, and its take on sport follows suit: instant action, bold characters and short, intense matches.

The several-sports-in-one format was a shrewd commercial move: an arcade operator bought one cabinet and reached several player crowds at once. You pick your discipline when the coin drops, and each plays as a self-contained quick game built for a few minutes of concentrated fun.

The year 1997 caught Capcom at the peak of its legendary 2D artwork. The era of lavish sprite graphics was slowly drawing to a close, and the sports titles of this period now rank among the less-remembered but superbly crafted entries in the company's catalogue.

One or more players can join in, which made the collection an ideal cabinet for a crowd. Sporting detours by the great arcade brands rarely get talked about these days, which makes having this one alive and running all the more pleasing.

Each discipline is stripped to the bone: anyone grasps the rules within one game, yet the gap between random flailing and considered play is vast. Capcom also stamped the athletes with its unmistakable visual handwriting, all bold characters and exaggerated expressions, making the collection fun simply to look at, hardly a given among sports titles.

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