Many of us gamers of a certain age will remember the fun of the gaming arcades and dumping our coins into the machines. There were some great games which became classics and probably one of the names everyone will remember from arcades is Taito. Many will remember titles like Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, and Arkanoid to name just a few, Now thanks to InIn games we get to play some of Taito other arcade games on the Nintendo Switch.
Publisher: InIn Games
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 14 April 2022
Thanks to the publisher for the review code.
Arcade Fun
Taito Milestones is a collection of ten classic arcade games from the 80’s. Some of them you might not have heard off or played but now you get the chance thanks to this collection. The titles have been released previously as Arcade Archives so they have already been emulated so you can guarantee that the quality will be great to play. You get a game select screen, so that you can choose what you want to play easily and this was a nice touch.
Going Vertical
Wild Western
The selection of games is varied and some are horizontal and some are vertical. The vertical scrolling games are Alpine Ski, which involves you skiing down the piste avoiding obstacles and picking up points while trying to get to the bottom. Then we have Wild Western, in which you get to be a cowboy on a horse shooting the bad guys. You have multi-directional fire which is fun and gives a Chaos Engine feel to it. Last up is Front Line, where you walk around the screen shooting and blowing things up by throwing grenades and while it has a Commando feel to it, not as good and is the weakest of the three vertical scrollers in the set.
Fun and Cute Gaming
The Fairyland Story
Next is the style that everyone loves, cute arcade games. First up is Chack’n’Pop, a platform game where your weapons are bombs that you roll around the screen and blow up the enemies along with their eggs. While the controls are weird at first, the game is still fun to play. The next we have is The Fairyland Story, which is the standout title of the collection. It is a single-screen game with various stages and when you play it you get a fun and familiar feeling. This title paves the way for the classic Bubble Bobble and Rodlands. Awesome fun and one with replay value.
The Violent Games
The Ninja Warriors
Included are also two 2D violent games, which seem out of place in this set, but are arcade classics. Elevator Action is a platform game where you navigate the levels by riding elevators and when you see a bad guy coming out of a door, you shoot them. A fun game and it was the inspiration of a lot of other style games. The Ninja Warriors is a game where you must defeat your enemies that comes non-stop from the sides of the screen. While the game is repetitive this is offset by the fact that you can throw shuriken’s which is just so cool and fun.
Shumps Are Cool!
Of course, you don’t get a arcade collection without Shoot’em Ups included and this set features two. Halley’s Comet is your vertical shooter where you must kill enemy ships and take out incoming asteroids. Your aim is to defend the the planet as each one that passes you, the planet gets a bit more destroyed and the gameplay is fun and addictive. Space Seeker is an odd game and is basically a cursor you control and then engage in some combat. You get a first-person shooter part which is fun and frustrating at the same time. Good for it’s time, but now showing its age.
Finally Qix!
The most iconic game on this compilation and easily recognisable from the 80’s arcade scene. You need to use strategy to carve up the level to find the required segment in the level while avoiding a laser shooting at you. I remember this back in the arcades and spent a lot of time playing it, so to play it again was fun and brought back memories
Final Thoughts
Taito Milestones is a collection of 80’s Arcade games that were in the main arcades. Some of them have aged well, while others have not. It was a different era back then and the standout titles on this set are Qix, The Fairyland Story and Wild Western. Would have been nice if there was bonus games or something, but still the collection is impressive and will bring back memories of a era now long gone.
Nostalgia Feels ” negatives=”Some of the games have not aged well”][rating title=”Graphics” value=”8.5″]
[rating title=”Gameplay” value=”8.5″] [/review_summary]
