worth importing? - Defunct Games

Import Review by Wanderer
Hey, this has arcade-perfect Darius Gaiden on it.
Now that the shmup fans have run off to import this sucker, the rest of
us can talk. For them, this is a must-buy; the rest of you will take some
convincing.
Taito Memories Vol. 1 represents twenty-seven years of Taito’s history,
with twenty-five games ranging from 1978’s Space Invaders to 1997’s
Puchi Carat. Each of the games has a date attached, so you can go
through each title and see how both Taito and arcade games in general
evolved over the years, from beeping sprites in the ‘70s and ‘80s to
screaming anime girls and falling-block puzzles in the ‘90s.
It’s bizarre to see Lunar Rescue and Elevator Action II on the same disc,
and realize that they’re two points on a line. It isn’t a straight line, of
course, but it’s still a line.
I hadn’t heard of a lot of these games before I started, but there’s
something for everyone here, from Japanese baseball (Aa Eikou No
Koushien) to sidescrolling platformers (Bonze Adventure) to inscrutably
Japanese action games like Pu-Li-Ru-La. The latter is deeply weird;
imagine Harry Potter meets “FLCL” meets Konami’s The Simpsons arcade
game. You’re a little kid in a gloriously hand-drawn 2D world, who
goes around fighting robots and transforming them into cute animals
with your magic wand. Then the guy with the giant nose shows up and
I start wondering if I’m hallucinating this.
If you like old-school beat-’em-ups, there’s Growl (where Not Indiana
Jones Really and his biker friends beat up Nazi poachers) and Lightbringer
(a.k.a. Dungeon Magic), which is what happens when Mike Haggar
gets to be the Dungeon Master. If you’re more of a servant of the
classics, you could go for one of the three versions of Space Invaders on
the disc, which is admittedly overkill, or Lunar Rescue.
Puzzle Fighter fans will want to check out Cleopatra Fortune, which may
be the most perversely addictive
game in the collection. You’ve
got to surround falling gems with
blocks to make them disappear,
which gets more complicated
as you go and as more types of
blocks appear. I have had to stop
writing this paragraph three times
in order to go play more of this,
because I am a Columns addict
from way back and this has some
of that flavor.
The big names on the disc are Darius Gaiden, one of the most beloved
shooters in existence; the equally great Elevator Action II; and, of
course, the arcade version of Bubble Bobble.
THE GAMES
Aa Eikou No Koushien
Alpine Ski
Bubble Bobble (locked)
Cameltry (locked)
Cleopatra Fortune
Darius Gaiden
Don Doko Don
Elevator Action Returns (US: Elevator Action II)
The Fairyland Story
Flipull
Grid Seeker: Project Storm Hammer
Jigoku Meguri (US: Bonze Adventure)
Kiki Kaikai (locked; bootlegged as Knight Boy in the US)
Kuri Kinton
Lightbringer (US: Dungeon Magic)
Lunar Rescue
Majestic Twelve (US: Super Space Invaders ‘91)
Metal Black (locked)
Pu-Li-Ru-La
Puchi Carat
Rastan Saga
Runark (US: Growl)
Space Invaders
Space Invaders DX
Syvalion (locked)
TAITO
LEGENDS?
We hit some confusion while we were writing this up. As it
turns out, not only is there a second volume of Taito Memories
coming out shortly in Japan, but Empire Interactive is
working on a compilation for the PS2 called Taito Legends.
The latter disc, thankfully, is coming to the U.S. and Europe,
although no release date has been announced. Here’s an
unofficial list of the games that’ll be included:
Aqua Jack
Battle Shark
Bubble Bobble
Bubble Symphony
Colony 7
Continental Circus
Darius Gaiden
Double Axle
Dungeon Magic
Electric YoYo
Elevator Action
Exzisus
Gladiator
Great Swordsman
Jungle Hunt
New Zealand Story
Ninja Kids
Operation Thunderbolt
This is also where the problems
start.
One of the weirder things
about this collection is that
five of the games — Bubble
Bobble, Cameltry, Metal Black,
Syvalion, and Kiki Kaikai (this
one was the basis for the
Pocky & Rocky series in the
US) — are initially locked. As
near as we can tell, they’re set
to release gradually as you play the other games in the collection,
with the first of them appearing after two and a half hours.
This is bizarre, and since Bubble Bobble’s one of the locked games,
it’s also a pain in the ass. You can almost make do with The Fairyland
Story and Don Doko Don, but it’s hard, man. It’s decaf when you
want espresso.
Because one of the greatest
reasons to have the disc has
to be unlocked, Taito Memories
vol. 1 goes from a musthave
disc to one that’s simply
highly recommended. It’s not
exactly a chore to unlock the
games — however will I put
up with playing several hours
of Darius Gaiden and Elevator
Action II? — but it’s a pretty
glaring flaw in what’s otherwise
a really solid collection.
Operation Wolf
Phoenix
Plotting (AKA Flipull)
Plump Pop
Pop ‘N’ Pop
Rainbow Islands
Rastan
Rayforce
Scramble Formation
Sea Fighter Poseidon
Space Gun
Space Invaders
Space Invaders Part II
Super Qix
ThunderFox
Tube It
Volfied
Zoo Keeper
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