Now it’s time to look at one of the most anticipated sets of collections coming out in the near future. The Irem Collection is a series of 5 collections of vintage games from Irem that comprise the bulk of the former publisher’s library. ININ Games has just published Irem Collection Volume 1 in conjunction with Tozai Games, Ratalaika Games, and even Irem, and four more volumes are forthcoming. Many of these titles have never been released in the US or only saw limited domestic arcade releases, meaning that these are the first North American releases of many of the titles in each collection.
Irem Collection Volume 1 is particularly cool because it’s entirely shmup-centric. Included in the collection are three of Irem’s more obscure 90s releases, Image Fight, Image Fight II: Operation Deepstriker, and X-Multiply. Of the three, only Image Fight has previously received a domestic console release and then only on the NES. Image Fight II was previously exclusive to the PC Engine Duo (the Japanese Turbo Duo – CD-ROM version of the Turbografx-16). X-Multiply was released on the Japanese Saturn and PSX but never ported either. All three games saw arcade releases, but Image Fight and Image Fight II were notably quite rare, especially outside of Japan and X-Multiply was fairly obscure as well, though it did see both a Japanese and a World release of the game in arcades.
Each game is notable in its own way, so let’s dive right in, starting with Image Fight. The first game saw a US NES release as well as a Famicom release, a PC Engine (Japanese TG-16) release and an arcade release but these different iterations of the game are definitely not equal. Due to the port of the game to NES hardware, Image Fight on the NES is a pale shadow of its arcade and PCE brothers. Background are often solid single colors and details are washed away so that even the bosses look simplistic and even silly. Bullet effects are negligible and the game ends up creating very little engagement because of this.
Simply put, Image Fight is a terrible game on the NES. The controls are fine and the core gameplay is intact however so if this was the only way you could play the game, you’d at least get a feel for the controls and design, even if it’s a limited experience. The NES game’s inclusion in this collection is fantastic from an archivist’s perspective however. As games are rapidly disappearing and companies slowly crack down on emulation, having official releases included on collections, even if they’re weak, substandard versions, at least showcase the history of various games and franchises.
Fortunately, there are better versions of Image Fight in the Irem Collection Volume 1. The ideal version of the game is the arcade one as you might expect since a dedicated PCB is almost always going to have more powerful graphics chips than a console, but the PCE version also manages to be quite good as well. Whichever you choose though, you’re in for a challenge as Image Fight is one of the toughest games around. That’s not because of its complexity however.
The entirety of the controls for Image Fight consist of a fire button and a speed adjustment button. Firing fires all your weapons and autofire is standard on the Irem Collection Volume 1. Shoulder buttons (at least on the Switch) control your speed which ranges from 1 to 4. Speed 3 seems to be the sweet spot most of the time though, so it’s easy to forget to shift down to slower speeds when going through particularly tight areas and that your shift thrusters can actually be used as a rear weapon (it’s tough to do though).
You start out with a simple laser, but as you play through the game, you’ll shoot down rotating silver and green boxes which drop either side options or new main guns. You can have up to three options at a time (both sides and rear) and they shift from orange to blue and back before you pick them up. Pick up a blue option and you’ll get an extra gun firing forward only. Pick up an orange one and your gun will automatically point the opposite of the direction you move your ship in, allowing you to direct fire diagonally, to the sides, or even behind you. You can mix and match options, but once you get all three, any additional ones that are collected turn all three either orange or blue.
It sounds a bit confusing but you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Other powerups have a wide variety of functions including wave shots, wall homing, flamethrowers, and plenty more. It’s honestly hard to keep track of which powerups are which because they show up infrequently and you rarely get the same ones twice. That makes planning ahead in Image Fight a challenge as you’ll be unable to get back your preferred powerup if you lose it and enemy bullets and walls can both destroy your main gun. Think of it as a single shot bullet shield as well as a weapon. That’s basically all there is to know about the weapons systems in Image Fight. It is important to note that while they’re a bit tougher to use, the orange options are typically more versatile than the blue ones, but most of the time you’ll die regardless.
That’s because Image Fight is one of the toughest games around in terms of difficulty. If the Irem Collection Volume 1 reinforces anything, it’s that Irem makes ridiculously hard games and this is definitely near the top. Image Fight consists of eight levels, but you’re not actually playing the game until level 6. That’s because this is an ‘image fight’ or in other words, a training simulator that gets you ready for the real fight against the alien armada that’s coming to destroy you. The first five levels are all training sims which track your kill rates and you’re required to get above 90%. Fail to do so and you’ll have to survive a punishment level that’s even harder before returning to the regular level which is already mind-numbingly difficult in the first place. The final three levels of the game are so hard that it’s nearly impossible to survive, which is why a rewind function is thankfully included in the Irem Collection Volume 1.
Even with rewinds, some bosses may take all of your skill to defeat as Image Fight throws bullets at you with pinpoint accuracy at every turn. Some shots home in on your position too so there are often no safe places to hide like other games of this era. Enemy fire can be unpredictable at best and comes at you so fast that there’s simply no way to dodge unless your speed is cranked to 4 and you’ve memorized all the patterns in every stage. Many of us (*cough*) that have owned the game for years on PCE, NES, or both, have never been able to even reach the final stages of the game, so this collection levels the playing field so to speak in order to at least finally allow for a glimpse of the final bosses and ending to Image Fight. With three versions of the game to choose from, you can torture yourself to your heart’s content however and if you really must, try to survive without any of the helpful settings that are included with this updated version of Image Fight.
That’s just the first game in the Irem Collection Volume 1 though! Image Fight II: Operation Deepstriker is also included here and if you’re wondering why you’ve read that much about Image Fight when there are two other games which are arguably better on the collection, there’s a reason. Image Fight II is basically an updated version of Image Fight with new levels and bosses. The mechanics are identical to the first game in the series so there’s no need to go over them at this point. The HUD fonts are slightly changed and the sprites are a bit more detailed but by and large, it’s essentially a copy and paste sequel, albeit with cooler backgrounds and a slightly lower difficulty.
Image Fight II is still remarkably challenging despite being easier than the first game, but at least you have a chance right up until the end. Not much of one, especially if you want to make that 90% threshold and avoid the punishment levels, but still, it’s a chance. The visuals in Image Fight II have more detail, both in ship and enemy sprites and in the incredibly interesting and often distracting backgrounds. One of them actually shows entire city blocks laid out on an asteroid with baseball fields, houses, and lots more. Other areas show planets in the backgrounds or parallax scrolling pits, but all of it is gorgeous. Both Image Fight and Image Fight II are reminiscent of classic Toaplan releases, something that’s not standard for Irem games. Most Irem releases had a distinctive look that was a bit edgier but these releases seem a little softer around the edges, more like Dogyuun or Truxton.
Regardless, Image Fight II also has one other thing that its predecessor lacks and that’s cinema sequences. This is probably the biggest failing in Irem Collection Volume 1 too, as there are cinemas between almost every level with extensive dialogue and none of it is translated in either dub or sub format. Unless you can understand spoken Japanese, you’re going to have to make up the story as you go along. That’s a shame because what’s going on certainly looks interesting and the cinema sequences look to be loosely based on a combination of Space Battleship Yamato and Macross. That 1970s/1980s aesthetic shines through in every sequence and certainly appears to be interesting. Sadly, not many Western players will get to find out what happens. Oddly, if you finish Image Fight II: Operation Deepstriker, you get a complete end sequence in English text, but that’s almost the only English in the entire game.
Finally there’s the odd man out in this trilogy of releases, X-Multiply. Wildly unlike both Image Fight and Image Fight II, X-Multiply is a horizontal shmup rather than a vertical and the design aesthetic is much more like other Irem games such as R-Type with a high percentage of organic-looking designs and an option system that allows you to guard with your extended tentacles. That’s because you’re a miniaturized ship that’s been sent inside a human body to fight the enemies inside it. This system is somewhat reminiscent of the R-Type system as well, however your tentacles are always attached to your ship so you won’t have to collect a powerup to use them.
X-Multiply uses a simplistic powerup system with only three colors, red, blue, and yellow. Red powerups give you lasers, blue ones upgrade to a guided laser system, and yellow ones turn your tentacles into damage dealing machines but limit your firing abilities significantly (avoid yellow unless you’re a masochist). You can also collect bombs to add to your destructive force and speed powerups which accelerate your ship to ridiculous speeds eventually. In fact, X-Multiply gives you so many powerups that you’re actively avoiding them much of the time and there’s no real reason to collect too many speed or weapon powerups. Once you’ve maxed out, you don’t want to risk changing to yellow weapons by accident or grabbing so much speed that you constantly run into walls and enemies. The speed cutoff in particular is absolutely ridiculous so make sure that you’re conservative in how many power ups you take.
Strategy in X-Multiply is mostly based on using your ship tentacles as bullet sponges to defend yourself while you destroy the enemy. Moving forward pushes them to the back and moving back pushes them forward, allowing you to shield yourself from various threats. Sitting still lets the arms drift to an open position where they create a wide spread firing pattern with red or blue powerups. It’s a bit of a drifty sort of approach to gameplay that’s unique in Irem’s repertoire, but not all that challenging, especially compared with the rest of the Irem Collection Volume 1.
X-Multiply is also arguably the best looking of the three games with complex backgrounds and weird bendy monsters at every turn. The bosses are challenging and a bit underwhelming visually but the level design is top notch. This is definitely peak Irem for visual design and aesthetic. You never know what’s going to come at you from level to level and the monsters could easily be designs left over from John Carpenter’s The Thing as much as video game sprites.
There’s a fair bit of other stuff thrown into the Irem Collection Volume 1 as well. You’re not just getting every version of three games (7 games in total if you count all the versions). You’re also getting a very flexible presentation style for everything. There are six different display modes ranging from full screen to pixel perfect. The screen can be rotated in any direction and there are three different wallpapers to choose from. You can even shift the color palette if you’d like with seven different options and mixes and there are five types of shaders including a CRT-style screen presentation and some sub-options based on your shader choices. That’s a lot of variation depending on your preferences. We stuck with the default settings but there are a lot of neat toys to play with here.
There are also a number of challenges available in each game. Every level of each title has its own challenge and 1CCing (beating the game with only a single credit) will unlock control enhancements that will let you tinker even more with the difficulty of all three games. Invincibility can be selected as well, and there are leaderboards for the challenges to let you test your mettle against players around the world who will likely annihilate you. Basically, all three titles are a cornucopia of shmup goodness that can be tweaked to your preferences including button mapping and that’s a refreshing change from many of the collections that have been coming out recently. Add in the ability to rewind and you’ve got yourself a winner of a package that allows for both customization and a hardcore old-school approach to shmup play.
With three classic Irem titles in all their formats and a ton of options, it’s impossible not to recommend the Irem Collection Volume 1 unless you simply don’t like shmups. And if you’ve read this far and don’t like shmups, what are you even doing? These are games that will challenge even the most skilled of gamers and having them in a domestic release is an absolute treat. At only $25, you’re getting one heck of a deal for all three of these classics and while they might not be the most balanced of titles, even as shmups go, they’re definitely a great time and heavily improved by the amount of modification possible in the menu settings of the Irem Collection Volume 1. This attention to detail bodes well for the remaining four forthcoming releases as well, so make sure you’re paying attention as they start to be announced! Regardless of how you might feel about collections in general, this one is definitely worth your time. There’s even a physical version coming from Strictly Limited Games! Even though it’s a niche title and you should definitely be aware of what exactly each game is like, this is a welcome release for shmup fans so don’t miss out!
This review is based on a digital copy of Irem Collection Volume 1 provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. Irem Collection Volume 1 is also available on PS4, PS5, and Xbox One.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.