Customer Reviews

Taito Legends

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The fact that is doesn't run on a 360 is the big takeaway I wanted to impress on anyone reading reviews. I knew this might be a problem when I bought the game, but I didn't see this information anywhere for sure, and it was cheap enough to find out by trial.

I do have an original XBox, on the crummy TV in the basement, and the game plays fine on this. I bought it primarily for certain retro games which I've played before, and these are certainly decent renditions.

This is basically a commercial derivative of the MAME arcade emulator (In fact, if you have the PC version of this game, there are rom images on the disc that you can drop straight into MAME). This means that all the games will play about the same as they do in MAME. This works in favor of Taito Legends, except for Phoenix - the sound isn't even CLOSE to being accurate. I think the sound in Jungle Hunt and Gladiator may be a little off as well. But other than that, I didn't notice any other flaws in the games I've played before. Based on the fact that this is essentially a shrink-wrapped MAME, the emulation here is mostly spot-on.

The biggest problem with this collection is that there are a couple of really good games, and the rest are basically crap. If you buy this game, buy it for the games you recognize, because the ones you don't recognize will probably do nothing for you. There weren't any games I hadn't played before that I spent more than 5 minutes with here, except for Space Gun, which is average at best.

For me, having an arcade-perfect version of Bubble Bobble to play on my Toshiba HDTV was worth the price of the package, but I wish they had put 5-6 strong titles on here instead of the 20+ medicore titles we ended up with. Oh, and though I can't confirm this yet, if you have the option of picking up the Xbox or the PS2 version, I'd recommend the Xbox version, because the PS2 supposedly has (more) issues with inaccurate sound (if this matters to you).

Taito Legends is a hard compilation to judge. It -- like Midway Arcade Treasures 1 -- mixes early, mid, and late 80s games, and it's just odd to have Electric Yo Yo on the same disc as Operation Wolf. There is, admittedly, a lot of filler -- the old lightgun games don't do well without a lightgun, the scrolling shooters are mostly forgettable, and three Space Invaders games might be too many for one compilation. However, the games span many genres (single-screen and scrolling shooters, adventure, puzzle, action) and the really good games are, well, really good.

Buy this compilation for:
* Space Invaders
* Jungle Hunt
* Bubble Bobble
* Rainbow Islands
* Phoenix
* Colony 7
* Zoo Keeper
* Elevator Action
* Plump Pop
* Rastan
* Super Qix
* New Zealand Story
* Plotting (aka Flipull)
* Tube It

The presentation is great. A lot of attention went towards this package, and it shows.

While there are glaring omissions (Japan and Europe got two compilations, with a total of around fifty games overall), it's a solid compilation. In any case, for the price, it's a steal.

I rented this game and while it has a hefty number of games (29) it leaves a LOT to be desired.

Here is a list of games on the disc

1,Battle shark a so-so shooter

2.Bubble-bobble great game

3.Colony 7

4.Continental Circus great racing game from my youth

5.Electric yo-yo

6.Elevator action has NOT aged well and looks like it came from the Commodore 64 era

7.Ecxisus

8.Gladiator

9.Great swordsman

10.Jungle Hunt

11.New Zealand story great side scrolling platformer (check out the little chick havin a quick drag of a smoke) in the intro

12.Ninja kids average game

13.Operation Thunderbolt sequel to Operation Wolf while not as good as OW its a very good shooter

14,Operation Wolf I remember pumping plenty of quarters into this one back in the day.

15.Phoenix

16.Plotting

17.Plump pop

18.Rainbow islands

19.Rastin

20.Return of the invaders

21.Space gun

22.Space invaders Released back in the year I was born still quite addictive for me

23.Space invaders 2

24.Super Qix

25.Thunder fox

26.Tokio

27.Tube it

28.Volfied

29.Zoo Keeper

These games span the late 70's 80's and early 90's. Some of these games fall under the following for me they are either obscure and I never played them til today or I barely remembered them and some just haven't held up well at all. For me there are at least 2 very glaring obmissions they are

1.Double Dragon (1987)

2.Chase H.Q. (1988)

Why were these 2 not included they should have gotten rid of 2 of the other games and I would've bumped up my rating had these been included. I sure hope there is a volume 2. I strongly recommend renting this first as far as I can see there are only 4 or 5 titles worth playing. Bottom line this could've and should've been a lot better.

This is a collection of 1980s arcade games, 29 total. Most games are horrible and unpopular in its arcade days. This collection is much worse than Capcom Classics Collection. This collection is horrible like Sega Classics Collection. However this game is made by Taito AND Sega.

The few decent games:
Space Invaders, Spade Invaders Part 2: A true original shooter. Not nearly as good as Galaga and Galaxian. Average game.

Phoenix: Another shooter similar to Space Invaders. You shoot and prick away at a UFO's bottom orange belly. Average game.

The Ninja Kids: A horizontal brawler similar to Streets of Rage and Final Fight. 4 selectable players. The animation is pretty violent and bloody. Good game.

Rastan: A horizontal brawler with sword, similar to Castlevania and Ghost 'n' Goblins. Good game.

Bubble Bobble: You shoot trapping bubbles at enemies and pop them. Good game.

Gladiator: A horizontal brawler. Only one enemy at a time. You can move your shield up and down fast to create a wide energy barrier. Similar to Karateka. Cheesy game.

2 games in this collection are based on moving a dot around a covered picture, you draw and reveal the picture. Too bad its not the one with naked girls.... Few other games are FPS on rail with paper thin enemies popping out in front and projectiles flying toward you. One is pretty decent.

Overall don't buy this game. Only 5 to 7 decent games total out of 29. I recommend Capcom Classics Collection, Midway Arcade Treasures 1, then Namco 50th Anniversary Collection.