Taito Legends 2 and Taito Powered Up

Other Games
1

The original Taito Legends collection was one of the best produced “classics collections” in terms of ROM accuracy, controls, and presentation.

I was VERY jealous of the UK Playstation and PSP owners when I heard that Taito had decided to release the sequel and PSP version of the collections over there first … with NO word on if and when we’d ever get them!

Now I can rejoice … as they’re slated for shipment today (they should be in game stores Tuesday / Wednesday).

IMO The high point(s) of Taito Legends 2 are easily :

Qix and Elevator Action Returns (which wasn’t seen widely in the US)

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other greats in the mix …

Here’s some info I found on the game lists and platforms. Currently the XBOX and PC versions are MIA in terms of pre-orders … but like the PS2 / PSP versions, they may pop up at a later date with little to no warning

Taito Legends 2 consists of the following 43 arcade games, split across Xbox/PC and PS2 (the Xbox/PC and PS2 versions each have four exclusive games, for a total of 39 games on each):

(All platforms)

Alpine Ski
Arabian Magic
Bonze Adventure (Jigoku Meguri in Japan)
Cameltry
Chack’n Pop
Cleopatra Fortune
Crazy Balloon
Darius Gaiden
Don Doko Don
Dungeon Magic (Light Bringer in Japan)
Elevator Action Returns (Elevator Action 2 in US)
The Fairyland Story
Football Champ (Hat Trick Hero in Japan)
Front Line
Gekirindan
Grid Seeker: Project Storm Hammer
Growl (Runark in Japan)
Gun Frontier (arcade game)
Insector X
KiKi KaiKai
Kuri Kinton
Legend of Kage
Liquid Kids (Mizubaku Adventure in Japan)
Lunar Rescue
Metal Black (video game) (Gun Frontier 2)
Nastar Warrior (Rastan [Saga] 2 in Japan, Nastar in other countries)
Puchi Carat
Puzzle Bobble 2
Qix
Raimais
Space Invaders 95 (Akkan-vaders in Japan)
Space Invaders DX
Super Space Invaders 91 (Majestic Twelve: The Space Invaders Part IV in Japan)
Violence Fight
Wild Western

(PS2 exclusives)

Balloon Bomber
G-Darius
RayStorm
Syvalion

(Xbox/PC exclusives)

Bubble Symphony (Bubble Bobble 2 in other countries; exclusive to this collection)
Cadash
Pop 'n Pop (exclusive to this collection)
RayForce (Gunlock in other countries; exclusive to this collection)

The PSP version is a mix of the first two games, with a more limited selection, similar to the way that Capcom handled it’s classics collections…

PSP game list

Alpine Ski
Balloon Bomber
Balloon Bomber (enhanced version)
Cameltry
Cameltry (enhanced version)
Chack 'n Pop
Crazy Balloon
Crazy Balloon (enhanced version)
Elevator Action
The Fairyland Story
KiKi KaiKai
Kuri Kinton
Legend of Kage
Legend of Kage (enhanced version)
Lunar Rescue
New Zealand Story
Phoenix
Qix
Raimais
Rastan Saga
Return of the Invaders
Space Chaser
Space Dungeon
Space Invaders
Space Invaders Part 2

So, yeah, great stuff if you’re a classics buff, though, I’m sad that Zoo Keeper didn’t make it onto the PSP list.

2

Elevator Action Returns was sexcellent on the Saturn, I can’t say I enjoy the original nowadays though. Many of the other titles have had way too many rehashes to still be considered fun or feel the need to get them again too…

3

True enough, but when it comes to a collection of obscurities like this … I’m all about quantity.

4

So.

I’m not exactly sure what the hell happened with these two titles, but, at some point they went all “Gamestop Exclusive” … and then had their release dates pushed forwards for three weeks in a row … and the Gamestop website didn’t have dates that ever jived with the Gamestop in-store computers …

it was just a massive cluster-fuck of an exclusive release.

If you go to Gamestop.com and search for the title in the store locator, I doubt you’ll find a single store in a 10 mile radius that has them. I checked for two weeks straight after it finally was sku’ed as “released”, and the list always came back with all zeros.

Anyway, I’m rambling, and I’m sure nobody gives a crap anyway.

So, the short short is this.

You CAN order them directly from Gamestop.com. They have them in their warehouses, and they shipped mine in 24 hours. I got both the next day.

What’s that you say? What about the quality? Are they any good?

They’re excellent arcade emulations of every single title compiled. The color, sound and controls are all excellent, and the menu screens / options are all top notch. Much better than the shoddy emulation on the Midway Classics Collections for PS2.

My only minor gripe is that the PS2 title is CHOCK full of OB-FRIGGIN-SCURITIES … and honestly that’s not a bad thing. I do enjoy owning and experiencing a digital history lesson like this … and the titles that ARE excellent like Elevator Action 2, Darius Gaiden, Bust a Move Again, etc. are absolutely worth the $20 price tag.

So. Yeah.

If you’re interested in these. Just order them directly from Gamestop, because WHO KNOWS if they’ll even ever ship any to their stores.

5

[quote=“FrankieViturello”]So.

I’m not exactly sure what the hell happened with these two titles, but, at some point they went all “Gamestop Exclusive” …[/quote]

Probably because the last one sold horribly =\