Anniversary Collection Arcade Classics
released on Apr 18, 2019
8 Konami arcade classics of the 80s, from Nemesis to TwinBee. Including bonus eBook packed with new information never before revealed to the public.
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Bough in the sale to play Haunted Castle, which is super difficult. Played a couple of the shmups too, but I am also terrible at them.
This came out about the same time as the Castlevania and Contra Collections Konami released in 2018. In fact collections of their old titles seems to all they do now sadly though I'm still looking forward to Suikoden and any others they decide to release.
Anyway I digress, much like other reviews of collections I've done I'm going to focus more on the collection itself rather than the quality of games on offer here (most of which I reviewed seperately). It comes with 8 classic arcade games from 1981 to 1988. It's an odd mix with 7 shoot 'em ups and 1 side scrolling platformer. They all seem to be their seperately released Arcade Archieve versions compiled in one package.
The collection itself has some basic features like scan lines, game borders, ratios and save states. It's missing rewind though, a staple feature most modern retro collections include to make working through these old and sometimes incredibly hard games a lot easier. Save states are fine but way more taxing to use when stuck over and over.
It's got some basic artwork, some cool concept art included in the extras but the parts I found interesting were the musical score sheet music and interviews with Gradius and Typhoon designer Kengo Nakamura and Gradius 2 and Salamander programmer Toshiaki Takatori. This interview gives insight into how Konami worked as a company and how the developers worked back then I found really interesting. For those interested it also features some of the games in their Japanese original, as there are some big differences between them, especially the difficulty.
You don't really have an excuse not to give this a play unless you're seriously anti-retro gaming. It's constantly on sale for the price of a supermarket sandwich deal and has some games that really helped define the shoot 'em up genre as it is today. Just a shame that it has no rewind feature.
+ Great collection of arcade classics.
+ Some nice bonus features like an interview, music sheets and artwork.
+ Cheap as chips to buy in sales.
- A shame it lacks the rewind feature most retro collections have now.
Anyway I digress, much like other reviews of collections I've done I'm going to focus more on the collection itself rather than the quality of games on offer here (most of which I reviewed seperately). It comes with 8 classic arcade games from 1981 to 1988. It's an odd mix with 7 shoot 'em ups and 1 side scrolling platformer. They all seem to be their seperately released Arcade Archieve versions compiled in one package.
The collection itself has some basic features like scan lines, game borders, ratios and save states. It's missing rewind though, a staple feature most modern retro collections include to make working through these old and sometimes incredibly hard games a lot easier. Save states are fine but way more taxing to use when stuck over and over.
It's got some basic artwork, some cool concept art included in the extras but the parts I found interesting were the musical score sheet music and interviews with Gradius and Typhoon designer Kengo Nakamura and Gradius 2 and Salamander programmer Toshiaki Takatori. This interview gives insight into how Konami worked as a company and how the developers worked back then I found really interesting. For those interested it also features some of the games in their Japanese original, as there are some big differences between them, especially the difficulty.
You don't really have an excuse not to give this a play unless you're seriously anti-retro gaming. It's constantly on sale for the price of a supermarket sandwich deal and has some games that really helped define the shoot 'em up genre as it is today. Just a shame that it has no rewind feature.
+ Great collection of arcade classics.
+ Some nice bonus features like an interview, music sheets and artwork.
+ Cheap as chips to buy in sales.
- A shame it lacks the rewind feature most retro collections have now.
Im honestly baffled by Konami's decision to include Haunted Castle in this pack. Here we have a selection of arcade shmups ranging from great (Vulcan Venture, Thunder Cross) to overrated (Gradius, Twinbee) to 'it alright' (Scramble).
Its also nice to have both Overseas and Japan versions of most of the games here too thanks to some games (LifeForce/Salamander) almost being completely different games between regions.
And yet... My brain cant help but switch back to Haunted Castle being here. Whyyy... You couldnt have put Gradius III? Xexex? Gyruss? Blah.
Still. If you like your old school shmups, this is a decent if slightly unspectacular package thats worth the price of entry.
Its also nice to have both Overseas and Japan versions of most of the games here too thanks to some games (LifeForce/Salamander) almost being completely different games between regions.
And yet... My brain cant help but switch back to Haunted Castle being here. Whyyy... You couldnt have put Gradius III? Xexex? Gyruss? Blah.
Still. If you like your old school shmups, this is a decent if slightly unspectacular package thats worth the price of entry.