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. 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.
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.
+ Titles included in the Western and Japanese releases of the collection Title Arcade release Taito Memories Alternative title Space Invaders 1978 Space Invaders Part II 1979 Deluxe Space Invaders (USA) Phoenix 1980 Colony 7 1981 The Electric Yo-Yo 1982 Jungle Hunt 1982 Jungle King (original) and Pirate Pete (official clone) Zoo Keeper 1982 Elevator Action 1983 Great Swordsman 1984 Return of the Invaders 1985 Bubble Bobble 1986 Gladiator 1986 Ougon no Shiro (Japan) Tokio 1986 Scramble Formation (Japan) Exzisus 1987 Operation Wolf 1987 Plump Pop 1987 Rastan 1987 Rastan Saga (Japan, Europe) Rainbow Islands 1987 Super Qix 1987 Operation Thunderbolt 1988 The NewZealand Story 1988 Battle Shark 1989 Continental Circus 1989 Plotting 1989 Flipull (Japan) Volfied 1989 The Ninja Kids 1990 Space Gun 1990 Thunder Fox 1990 Tube It 1993 Cachat (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:
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 Tarzanesque 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 "mixed or average reviews" for PlayStation 2 and Xbox according to review aggregators GameRankings and Metacritic; the Windows version received "generally favorable reviews". 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". 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, 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.
Notes
References
External links Xplosiv pages: PS2, Empire support pages: , , , XPLOSIV UNVEILS TAITO LEGENDS LINE-UP Empire Interactive announces the much-anticipated Taito Legends