ININ has returned with the second volume of the IREM Collection, featuring games from the arcade and SNES.
ININ has come back with another installment of their IREM Collection with Volume 2 and once again it is multiple games I had never heard of. There are three primary titles within the collection with a couple variations of two of them. Those titles are Air Duel, GunForce 1 and GunForce 2.
Air Duel is one of those classic looking top down shooters like 1942. These games were truly the first bullet hell games. If you weren’t quick enough to kill the planes, tanks and ships before they fire then the game becomes more difficult, almost exponentially. Playing these game, while never being very good at them, has always taken me back to playing in the arcade in my youth. The look, feel and total gameplay is exactly how I remember and despite dying, a ton, I loved it.
GunForce 1 and 2 and classic side scroller games that become to be known as a precursor to the king of all run and gun side scroller, Metal Slug. For the majority of both games its not quite so obvious but in GunForce 2 its more obvious. There are literally vehicles that are nearly the exact same in Metal Slug and I knew I had to check this out. Both titles are as unforgiving as the king is, full of nonstop mayhem and hard hitting weapons.
Thanks to these titles being ported in their arcade versions you can load up each game with enough “credits” to play to the end of them all. Of course you can add more as you go to ensure your victory. More often than not, porting vintage/classic titles feel like a lazy attempt at grabbing some nostalgia fueled funds and fall flat on the actual gameplay. For the first time though I am the EXACT demographic for this round of releases. Metal Slug is one of my ride or die titles and I grew up on games like 1942. Makes me rethink my snarky thoughts on the other releases like this. There is a perfect person or people for each release and just because its not perfect for me doesn’t its not for someone else. Honestly the only change I’d make to this game is making the controls/buttons on how to start the games easier to understand on console. It seriously took me way to long to figure out how to start. Pushing on the left stick adds credits to the game. It’s not very intuitive but once you finally get into the game and start then the controls make sense. Other than that though I had a great time with all three titles.