Once again we’re dealt a good lineup of games from Irem with Irem Collection Volume 2. Please note that this review has been written after Vol. 3 has come out, so I’ve had the opportunity to play that and have a basis to compare this against that and the first one. With that in mind, how do these rank up til now? Well, it’s easy: just turn the order around. The third is by far the best, with this and 1 right behind it.
That’s right: while this isn’t as good as the latest compilation out of Irem, it certainly gets the upper hand at the inaugural one for the simple fact that it offers some more variety, which is kind of an ironic thing to say considering that there’s only three games to speak of here, since the fourth is basically a repeat only on another console. This is the thing with these Irem Collections: there isn’t a whole lot of content in them, so judging them rests solely on the quality of the little that is available.
Like Vol. 1 and 3, the options side of the package is very good. And I’ll shamelessly copy/paste my colorful description of them here, based on my previous review of the third entry, where I talked about the game modes that there are and shortly after, the aforementioned options:
“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.”
Back to our regular programming. Let’s talk about the games. There are three of them, as I touched upon before. Starting with Gun Force, the game that’s split into two selection menu options, you can pick from both the Super NES and Super Famicom versions. In it, you control a mechanized human in what could otherwise be described as more realistic Metal Slug, that is, shit blows up all over the screen, the gameplay is very tight, and you’ll finish it quickly if you’re good. The console version looks and sounds noticeably weaker, but is still fun to play and was made as faithful a recreation as it was possible.
Gun Force 2 feels even more like SNK’s franchise thanks to the addition of medals and prisoners who you rescue as you move and accrue points thanks to. It’s a shinier and more detailed game than its predecessor, playing about as well if not even better, making it the superior one altogether. For some reason, its Japanese version is called Geo Storm instead, and it’s also included in Irem Collection Volume 2. Why some of these name changes ever happened in those days, I’ll never be able to explain.
The last out of the bunch is Air Duel, a Japan-only shoot ‘em up that lives to its name as the battles take place in the air and it can be played two-player if you wish, making it, yes, you guessed it, a duel. The gameplay feels as good as other shooters at the time, and graphically, it’s also very reminiscent of SNK’s output in the 1990s. Oh, you can pick from either an airplane or a helicopter, the latter of which has noticeably more maneuverability than its winged companion, plus with it you fire what look to be “Fatman” missiles from Fallout 3, so it’s obviously the superior of the two, right?
Along with the other two entries in the collection, Irem Collection Volume 2 proves to be a good lineup of some of the least known arcade games this side of Entertainium. Previously, I had never heard of these games and am glad that this compilation has provided me a chance to have access to and play them whenever I want, which is especially good since they run and play so well on the Switch OLED. It’s a good reason to keep that sucker around, at least until the Switch 2 OLED comes strutting about, anyway, and I decide not to buy one because it’ll be 600 dollars. That won’t be a happy day.
