I always feel like a kid at a candy shop whenever one of these Irem Collections pops by to review. I know that every time I play them, I’m bound to discover new personal favorites that I never even knew existed before popping these into my Switch. And that’s exactly the case with Irem Collection Volume 3 as it absolutely blows the roof off the joint with some really cool shoot ‘em ups I had a blast discovering for the first time.
As with Volume 1, Irem Collection Volume 3 doesn’t feature a whole lot of games, but the ones included are some of the most fun and obscure shoot ‘em ups you’ll play, trust me. The number of options at your disposal when it comes to playing them is divided between casual and classic modes, which you pick from as you boot up one of the four – technically five, if you count a console port of one of the games – titles.
In casual, you’re able to play with all the features usually available in compilations like this, like rewind, difficulty settings, cheats, save states, the works, while in classic, it’s pretty much what you’d get playing at an actual cabinet. As for the usual presentation embellishments, Irem Collection Volume 3 doesn’t skimp out, much like Vol. 1 and 2: you can pick from a surprisingly large number of color options, which include variations like BRG, RBG, GRB, GBR, alongside usual RGB.
No, I’m not having a stroke here and just typing out three-letter sequences for good measure, they are individual color palettes, which alongside an equally large amount of shaders – my favorite being the arcade glow, which makes the graphics pop on my Switch OLED’s screen, just goddamn beautiful – and display ratios are as much as you can expect and more in regards to visual options in a retro compilation, perhaps even a little too much, even. Just bananas.
But let’s talk about the games, it’s what brought you here in the first place, right? Well, starting things off it’s a couple of games starring a helicopter with stubby little legs, Battle Chopper and Mr. Heli’s Great Adventure, its PC Engine’s (a.k.a, the Turbografix if you’re in the US) port. Say what you will, but I get a kick out of cute ‘em ups like this, where you control a relatively oversized sprite against waves and waves of equally adorable but oh-so dangerous enemies.
Mr. Heli can fire horizontally, which includes autofire if you hold its button down, or up, and those are put to great use in the level design, as dangers come from just about every spot, forcing you to stay on your tiny, fat, helicopter-thing toes at all times. Both versions are an absolute joy to play, but are also tough, very tough, so bear that in mind.
Continuing on with a cavalcade of adorable action is Mystic Riders, a game you play as one of two cute witches – I guess a witch and a mage, since they’re both a boy and a girl – shooting down all manner of magical opponents, including Death itself! It’s even more of a cute ‘em up than Battle Chopper and Mr. Heli, with some of the most impressive sprites I’ve seen, especially considering how old these are, with Mystic Riders having come out in 1992, making it even more impressive as a visual spectacle. In it, you can shoot forward and backward, but get this, you need to be on your feet if you want to turn around, as trying to do that while flying on your broom won’t get you anywhere.
Mystic Riders has a mechanic where you continuously level up and get stronger spells the longer you stay alive, and whenever you die, you go down a level, having to pick up items all over again in order to make up for your loss. The difficulty here is a bit on the easier side, making it a much friendlier game to newcomers than the other two in Irem Collection Volume 3. It kind of reminds me of the Cotton games in both visuals and overall challenge, which is a good thing since those are some of the best cute ‘em ups around.
Speaking of other games, the last of the bunch will make quite a splash if you’re into power fantasies. That’s because Dragon Reed has you riding a freaking fire-breating dragon. It’s huge, looks awesome and is as powerful as you expect it to be, so strong that you can knock enemies out of their flight path with its girth, and you can power up a huge fireball by holding down the fire button too. The downside to all this incredibleness is the fact that your character is pretty squishy and will die in 1-shot if you let it. Then again, the hitbox on the guy is very small, but enemies have a knack at getting those pellets in, so be careful!
Irem Collection Volume 3 like previous releases from Irem and Tozai Games is a must-have for retro arcade enthusiasts and shoot ‘em up aficionados. There isn’t a single one of these that isn’t worth a buy, honestly, but this one in particular is an amazing set of games that would only get better if there were more of them. The only downside to it is exactly that – only four games to play, but what a great set. You can play it once it’s out on July 1st. Can’t wait to see what else there is to play on future entries.
