- Ben Bero Beh, 1984, Platform. Armed with a fire extinguisher make your way through a burning building, one perilous floor after another to save your girlfriend Nao-chan!
Ben Bero Beh, is an interesting game, but not necessarily a good game. The goal is to make your way through a burning building, one floor after another to save your girlfriend Nao-chan but the gameplay is extremely lacking,. Maybe it is a case of the game being dated but this was just not fun at all. The more I tried to play and enjoy Ben Bero Beh, the more frustrated I became. I did like the many cameos from other TAITO games like Elevator Action and Chak’n Pop, but that just made me want to play better games instead. It is interesting how Elevator Action characters appear here, because Ben Bero Beh is itself a variation on the Elevator Action format of gameplay, but the game just feels clunky in comparison and downright frustrating.
As stated, the protagonist Dami-chan must descend down different floors and avoid gas explosions, crumbling floors, as well as enemies and damaged lighting fixtures. All of this makes it sound like a perfect follow-up to Elevator Action but in actuality, the game just falls short. This is a frustrating experience and I could not wait to be done with it.
- The Legend of Kage, 1985, Hack-and-slash. Utilize your shuriken and trusty kodachi sword to rescue Princess Kiri as the swift ninja Kage. Bravely face the forces of the nefarious warlord Yukigusa Yoshiro!
An infamous game, The Legend of Kage is also known by some as the game where you fly by jumping. This is ostensibly a hack-and-slash game but I must be honest and say that this one was just too frustrating for me to get the hang of it. I spent a while and just could not get used to how the controls worked. After multiple attempts, I gave up and moved on. Sorry, but this one was just too frustrating for me and I could not do it.
- Kiki Kaikai, 1986, Shoot ‘em up. Mischievous yōkai have captured the seven gods of fortune. Courageous shrine maiden Sayo-chan, free them!
Now we are getting to the good stuff. Kiki Kaikai sees you play as a shrine maiden in a top-down run n gun game taking out various enemies in Japan. This may sound familiar to some and there is a good reason for this as Kiki Kaikai is actually the game that led to the beloved Pocky& Rocky series, and this original game is just as good.
While I called it a rrun n gun, it is better to describe it as an overhead multi-directional shooter. You will move in four directions taking out enemies as they appear from off-screen with Sayo-chan’s special o-fuda scrolls in eight directions, or her purification rod that can only be used directly in front of her. You can even upgrade these abilities and techniques if you find special paper slips left by defeated enemies, and those will either make the attacks more powerful or give them more range. Just be aware that this is a hard game and one hit will kill you and make you start again from a spawn point.
This is one of the best 80s arcade games from TAITO that is not Bubble Bobble or the Darius series and there is a lot of fun to be had here if you are up to the challenge.
- The NewZealand Story, 1988, Platform. Traverse the colorful maze-like levels as Tiki while dodging enemies left, right, up and down to hopefully free his Kiwi friends!
The New Zealand Story is a game with a strong reputation, as it was one of the biggest games in Europe and especially the UK at one point. The game as the description states is about a Kiwi bird named Tiki trying to save and free his friends and this is a game that lives up to its reputation as a classic. Your goal is to avoid the enemy attacks and the traps and spikes in each level with a Kiwi friend to rescue at the end. Tiki can attack with a bow and arrow but if you get certain pickups the arrows will change into other weapons like bombs, fireballs and even lasters, but all of these act a little bit differently.
You can also make Tiki ride a large amount of vehicles and there is an interesting variety to encounter. Tiki can ride in balloons, blimps and even a UFO, which you can find from enemies that you defeat. there are so many great ideas in this game and the art and music are some of the best of TAITO in the 80s. The maze levels are never frustrating and exploration is encouraged as well. This is a highlight of this collection.
- Darius II, 1989, Shoot ‘em up. Hundreds of years after the events of Darius humanity once again clashes with the Belsar empire. Zip through the solar system and fight!
Darius II is the three-screen version and looks beautiful in both handheld and TV modes. This game actually managed to grow the formula from the original game by adding in new features. For example, you can now orient the Silver Hawk left and right during boss fights for more strategic movement and attacks, while also making the ship more powerful and giving more attack options. The enemies and bosses have also had their offensive capabilities increased and now have identifiable attack patterns that make things more enjoyable.
The music and visuals have also been greatly improved over the first game, making this a superior sequel in every way, Even though I prefer the dual-screen version over the three-screen version, Darius II is a great game no matter which version you play, and there are a few versions indeed. This may not be the best shmup in the collection, but it is darn good.
- Liquid Kids, 1990, Platform. Control Hipopo, the young hero of the hippo tribe, in a water bomb-flinging adventure to restore peace to Woody-Lake and rescue his girlfriend!
A sort of spiritual follow-up to the New Zealand Story, Liquid Kids stars a platypus named Hippopo who must rescue another Platypus, and along the way must fight off enemies with the power of liquids. It is a neat concept, as Hippopo will use balls of water of various sizes to take out foes, or even freeze them for a time. The water will also be used to solve some light puzzles along the way, making this game a puzzle platformer with combat elements.
Liquid Kids has some of the most beautiful visuals for a Taito game from the ‘90s, with a cartoon look that feels timeless. The music is admittedly not the best that Taito has produced but is serviceable here when combined with the overall presentation. There is very much a charm from that era of game development that can be seen here and is something that is lacking in a lot of modern games that try and recapture the past.
The main draw in Liquid Kids though is the gameplay and Liquid Kids feels natural to play, and its mechanics are easy to learn and get a hang of. Taito always made games that were understandable, but Liquid Kids feels very polished. Adding in the additional features of Arcade Archives, such as difficulty settings, save states and more, Liquid Kids becomes a game that is incredibly enjoyable to play even now, with tough enemies and fair gameplay.
- Solitary Fighter, 1991, Fighting. Pick your fighter from a lineup of gritty combatants and challenge round after round of contenders on your way to the top!
TAITO made some great arcade games, especially in the 90s, but the fighting game was a genre they could not break into all that well. Solitary Fighter is a subpar fighter that feels sluggish and awkward even by the standards of the time. A sequel to Violence Fight (Where did they come up with these names?) Solitary Fighter just feels too stiff to be fun and I would not spend too much time on it.
- Dinorex, 1992, Fighting. Lead your prehistoric beast to victory in gargantuan arena-destroying combat and claim the throne as Dino Rex!
Oh no, another fighting game, and of course it is extremely lacklustre. This is a fighting game that sees you play as a warrior guiding a prehistoric beat in fights against other prehistoric beats and all of the criticisms of Solitary Fighter are here but the problems are much worse. This game was a chore to play, with stiff and unresponsive controls and moves that just don’t work right, making for an experience I was glad to move on from. There are some things worth noting though, as Dinorex used stop-motion animation for each of its dinosaur fighters, two years before Primal Rage did. Sadly, the only Primal Rage here is from trying to play this mess. This was not initially intended as a fighting game either, as the project first entered production as a shmup from the team behind Gun Frontier and Metal Black, before TAITO decided to chase trends. They should have stuck to what they knew how to do.
- Gun Frontier, 1990, Shoot ‘em up. Strap yourself into the seat of your revolver-shaped fighter plane and blast the alien space pirates out of the sky. Liberate the people of the space colony Gloria!
Shmups are what TAITO has always been best at and Gun Frontier is certainly a unique one. This is actually a space western with a revolver-shaped fighter aircraft as you go through through six stages, to fight off Wild Lizards who are evil space pirates. If that is not weird enough, your weapons are dual machine guns that get powered up and multiplied by US dimes that you get fom buffalo-shaped enemies. So yeah, this is a weird one but it is not bad.
The plot is a bit insane but this vertically scrolling shoot ’em up is actually really fun. The mechanics work great and I like how the bombs actually work in relation to your movement and how there is a lot of strategy involved. The recovery system and checkpoints also provide some nice touches and overall Gun Frontier is a neat shmup that feels a bit underrated all things considered.
- Metal Black, 1991, Shoot ‘em up. Conquer the alien race from Nemesis. Collect their Newalone molecules to use against them and overcome their onslaught!
Metal Black was the game that surprised me in this collection. I had always heard that the game was a great shmup but I was unprepared for how good it was. This is a shmup that was initially designed to be part of the Darius series but became a new game instead, although it technically ended up using the working title of Gun Frontier II, with many of the same staff working on it. What we have is one of the most pure fun side-scrolling shmups ever made. There are some gimmicks obviously, but it never gets in the way of the gameplay.
There is no triple screen here, or weird powerups with the weapons, but just a pure game. In fact, there are no alternative weapons and no bombs, with the only way you get stronger is by collecting what are called Newalone molecules that will increase your ship’s beam level. The more you get, the more powerful your ship becomes and this is how you defend yourself. At mid or max beam level, you can also unleash a devastatingly large attack to utterly annihilate enemy ships and generate a lighting attack that will destroy ships around you.
Just be careful as enemies also have their own beam levels, including the bosses. Boss fights can actually lead to beam duels where you will need to mash a button to push back against the opposing beam, something that was later borrowed for G-Darius. The visuals are great, the sound is great and the game is just some of the best fun to be had with a shmup. This game that was intended as Darius 3 instead managed to stand on its own as the best game in this collection.
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So is this collection worth getting? Honestly, the asking price may make you unsure. Individual games like Metal Black, Liquid Kids, The New Zealand Story and Kiki Kaikai are all amazing, but the four games that dragged the collection down are very much not. Still, the four good games mentioned, along with Darius II and Gun Frontier do make a compelling package on their own, and would come to the same price as the collection, so it does balance out overall, even with the four games that hold it down. For the six good games here, I suggest checking this out.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
