Taito Legends

Taito Legends is a compilation of 29 arcade games released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. The games were originally developed by Taito Corporation. The European release was published by Empire Interactive, who had licensed the games from Taito and developed the compilation. Although they did not get official credit for it in the American versions, Sega published the North American and South American releases.

Taito Legends
Box art
Developer(s)Empire Interactive
Publisher(s)Empire Interactive (Europe)
Sega (North America)
Platform(s)PlayStation 2, Xbox, Microsoft Windows
ReleasePlayStation 2 & Xbox
  • EU: 14 October 2005
  • NA: 25 October 2005
Microsoft Windows
  • EU: 14 October 2005
  • NA: 10 November 2005
Genre(s)Compilation
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Extra features include interviews with some of the game designers, original sales flyers, and arcade cabinet art.

Two follow-up compilations were issued; Taito Legends 2 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC and the PlayStation Portable exclusive Taito Legends Power-Up.

Games

While the Western Taito Legends consists of 29 arcade games, the Japanese Taito Memories includes only 25 arcade games per volume, omitting Jungle Hunt, Colony 7, The Electric Yo-Yo, Zoo Keeper and Tube It.[1]

Titles included in the Western and Japanese releases of the collection
Title Arcade release Taito Memories Alternative title
Space Invaders1978I Vol.2
Space Invaders Part II1979I Vol.2Deluxe Space Invaders (USA)
Phoenix1980II Vol.2
Colony 71981No
The Electric Yo-Yo1982No
Jungle Hunt1982NoJungle King (original) and Pirate Pete (official clone)
Zoo Keeper1982No
Elevator Action1983I Vol.2
Great Swordsman1984II Vol.2
Return of the Invaders1985II Vol.1
Bubble Bobble1986I Vol.1
Gladiator1986II Vol.1Ougon no Shiro (Japan)
Tokio1986II Vol.1Scramble Formation (Japan)
Exzisus1987II Vol.1
Operation Wolf1987II Vol.2
Plump Pop1987II Vol.2
Rastan1987I Vol.1Rastan Saga (Japan, Europe)
Rainbow Islands1987II Vol.1
Super Qix1987II Vol.1
Operation Thunderbolt1988II Vol.1
The New Zealand Story1988I Vol.2
Battle Shark1989II Vol.2
Continental Circus1989II Vol.1
Plotting1989I Vol.1Flipull (Japan)
Volfied1989II Vol.2
The Ninja Kids1990II Vol.1
Space Gun1990II Vol.1
ThunderFox1990II Vol.2
Tube It1993NoCachat (Japan)

Between 2005 and 2007, in total four similar compilations had been released by Taito for the PlayStation 2 in its home market of Japan:[2]

The games on this compilation are emulations of their respective arcade originals; however, the software lacks light gun support for Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, and Space Gun. These games place a gun cursor on the screen, which the player can move around with the analog stick (console versions), or mouse (PC version).

The games that had to be altered due to licensing issues are Jungle Hunt and Rainbow Islands. Elements of Jungle Hunt had to be altered such as the design of the Tarzan like character and the signature Tarzan yell due to licensing issues with Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Rainbow Islands had to alter its music for the re-release due to licensing.

Reception

Taito Legends received slightly positive reviews with a score of 74.06% for the Xbox version, 71.68% for the PlayStation 2 version, and 75.17% for the Windows version on GameRankings.[3] IGN praised the collection for a superb presentation, as well as the large amount of bonus material, but criticized some titles in the collection as "worthless filler".[4] Other criticisms are the lack of online leaderboards, the omission of Arkanoid and Chase H.Q., the lack of light gun support for Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, and Space Gun,[5] the lack of control configuration, and for the controls being "flipped", making it potentially uncomfortable and unnatural to many, less-adaptable players. Only the Windows version fixes the error regarding the collection's control scheme.

References
  1. Taito Memories on taito.co.jp
  2. Taito Memories on jap-sai.com
  3. http://www.gamerankings.com/ps2/929578-taito-legends/articles.html
  4. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/664/664916p2.html
  5. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/taitolegends/review.html
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