Honestly, we should be content to let good memories be just that: good memories. Too often, in longing for the good ol’ days, we go back to what we loved and find out it has aged – not like fine wine, but more like spoiled milk.

That’s the problem with most classics compilations. The game we have in our heads is nothing like the what ends up on the screen.

It took some time, but Capcom has finally jumped on the bandwagon and released a classics compilation of its own. Featuring 22 games, “Capcom Classics Compilation” has an impressive roster. Some of the big names include the “1942” series, “Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts” series and the big boss of them all, the “Street Fighter II” series.

One of the biggest issues was whether the games would be arcade-perfect ports (ports are game conversions from one system to another – in this case, arcade to PS2/Xbox). Well, anxious fans might want to grab their axes and pitchforks, because Capcom dropped the ball once again. Out of the 22 games, only six of them are 100 percent arcade-perfect. The rest are all actually ports from the near-arcade ports of Capcom’s Playstation I classics compilations, “Capcom Generations (1-5).”

It’s not an issue of life-or-death, but considering most games are nearly 20 years old, Capcom really has no excuse here to port imperfect versions of their games. The “Street Fighter II” games are the biggest victims, rife with short, but constant loading, and minor sound glitches.

Fortunately, the rest of the near-arcade ports are acceptable. Perhaps the bigger question at hand is the quality of the games. Some good news and bad news here: The bad news is more than half of the games – namely all of the late-’80s games, are 10-minute plays at max. The good news is the truly playable games are rocking even to this day. The cream of the crop are: “Mercs” – three blond rambos attempt to outdo one another in terrorist body count; “Forgotten Worlds” – two macho dudes who can’t speak coherent English fly around blasting everyone and everything for no reason; “Final Fight” – a mayor and his two buddies go around beating hookers, thugs and bosses in wheelchairs, and eating pot roast found under drum cans; “Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts” – a knight who wears heart-patterned boxers kills Lucifer and a never-ending supply of monsters; and “Street Fighter II Turbo” – people beat each other, again, except it’s faster this time.

The arcade-perfect “Final Fight” alone is enough to warrant the price of admission. Finally, we get kung-fu hookers instead of leaping metrosexuals, more than four enemies onscreen at once and all of the proper enemy names like “Damnd” and “Sodom.” Screw “Grand Theft Auto,” because this game had the hooker-beating, racial-stereotyping and car-destroying mania way before “GTA.”

Although Capcom was too lazy to make arcade-perfect ports, it has at least added an onslaught of unlockables to each game. Remixed soundtracks, biographies, art, tips and hidden game modes are littered everywhere in the games. It was a way of Capcom forcing players to play some of the more boring titles, but the extras are still nice.

As far as classics compilations go, “Capcom Classics Compilation” is the best one on the market. If one has that pesky nostalgia itch, “CCC” is the perfectly suitable scratch.