TAITO had a wide variety of titles released in the arcades from the golden age of arcades when it helped kick off the shmup genre with Space Invaders, even to the modern day with new versions of Elevator Action released as light gun games. One arcade game that never came west was Spica Adventure, and that was due to the game releasing in 2005 when the arcade scene was pretty much dead in the west aside from some dedicated spaces for fighting games. Now ININ Games has worked with TAITO to bring this game to the west and modern platforms, but was it worth the effort?
Well, to be honest, yes. TAITO platformers were so charming, from Bubble Bobble to Liquid Kids, and getting to play an arcade platformer from the developer that never came west before is a real treat. Spica Adventure can best be compared to a spiritual successor to TAITO’s earlier game Parasol Stars, which is why ININ Games has included that game with Spica Adventure in the Parasol Superstars bundle release. You take control of Nico, a little girl with a strong parasol who goes on a wacky adventure.
Spica Adventure is a very colourful game that sees Nico run through stages while collecting rings and leaving flowers behind her, while dealing with a strange assortment of monsters. Nico can outright attack enemies with the parasol, and these enemies get more off-beat as you go along. This is not even getting into the bosses, which often reference characters from other games like Bubble Bobble and Space Invaders, and these boss fights often have multiple forms where the weak point changes, forcing you to keep changing your strategy.
Once you beat a boss, more stages become available, and like the Darius series, there are often branching paths to give you different ways to reach the final levels. The goal is to grab as many items as you can before time runs out or you reach the ending, and how much you collect will affect what ending you get. That being said, you will not be able to get the best ending on your first attempts, and the goal is to keep replaying the game multiple times.
Nico is a blast to control, and there is a lot you can do with her parasol, including being able to use it to get to higher positions and even break blocks and platforms to find new routes. You can end up destroying something you need to reach certain items, but again Spica Adventure is all about replaying the game. The more you replay, the more you will understand what the game is all about and how to get the best ending.
As mentioned above, Spica Adventure is a gorgeous game, full of colour and brilliant visuals, with TAITO taking full advantage of more powerful hardware.The animations are extremely fluid, giving the appearance of a cartoon, and the audio department is no slouch either, with some amazing music and sound effects that stand as some of TAITO’s best. Of course, none of these would matter if the game controlled poorly, but Spica Adventure has amazing controls that are perfectly responsive, meaning the game is incredibly easy to get into.
Spica Adventure came out at a bad time for audiences in the west, when an arcade game like this would be ignored completely. It was also around the time TAITO was acquired by Square Enix, which probably explains why the game never had a console release in the west until now, as the game was likely not a high priority. Still, we have the game now, and it comes with both the original game and a new version with a number of quality of life improvements and other additions to make things even better.
If you are a fan of TAITO arcade games, then Spica Adventure is one you need to check out. And even if you are not all that into TAITO games, this is still one to play, just to see how good arcade games were even when they were thought to be dying out. It also is just a fantastic game with only minor frustrations that are just meant to get you to want to play it again and try harder. ININ Games and TAITO bringing this west was amazing and I wholeheartedly recommend this game.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided