When I was a lot younger, the number of games that came out were small in number and large in the time between them, which meant when you got a game, you played it a lot. One such game was The New Zealand Story for the NES, so when it was announced as one of the games in the Taito Milestones 2 collection, I knew I was in. Did my excitement over one game colour my expectations, yes it did, but was the end result worth getting hyped for?

The answer is maybe, it really depends on your preference with classic games. There are some names like The New Zealand Story or Darius II that are going to get your attention, but then there are games like Ben Bero Beh that might be completely unknown to you, as it was to me. As the games are based on their original arcade releases, some versions might be different to your memories, like mine with the NES release for The New Zealand Story. This is not a bad thing, there is enough familiarity there to draw you in, but then enough of a difference to keep you playing, at least sometimes.

Of course, as I was initially drawn in by The New Zealand Story, I did put a lot of time into that game and its as hard as I remember it being, but I still enjoyed my time with it. Metal Black and Gun Frontier both proved to be fun shooters, with one being side-scrolling the other being a more traditional shmups. Darius II was also a highlight and is in no way connected to the king of the Achaemenid Empire. Where things fell apart for me was with title like Ben Bero Beh or Liquid Kids and even Dino Rex and that last one is especially sad. If you are not aware Dino Rex is Street Fighter but with dinosaurs instead of people, but its slow, clunky and has this god awful constant roaring noise, which makes it hard to deal with.

That seems like a good segue in the various options across the games. Now the collection does provide you with a series of screen filters, which aim to replicate the look of old screens and they work. But the settings are not one for all games, it is one in each game, meaning if you like a specific style, you have to set it yourself in each title. For those who find old school arcade games to be a bit of a challenge, each game does have a few settings you can tweak, giving you more lives by default, making the game easier and so on. There is no clear instruction that its possible however, so if you don’t go looking for it, then you might not know, but that can be good if you want a challenge. The one area where things fall over is with the audio, the games sound fine, but there are no customisation settings here. The game does give you a few audio presets, high bass and such, but that is it, if screeching dinosaur noises drive you crazy, you either learn to deal with it or mute the game.

That sadly leads into the major issue I had with the collection, the lack of anything apart from the games. If you come in expecting nothing but the game, then you should be fine, but considering almost every other retro games collection on the market includes additional content, be it sketches, history of development or even a music playback option, having nothing is a letdown. The other missing element is there are no other versions of games that have them, for example The Legend of Kage was made for arcades, but then ported to NES, MSX, Commodore 64 and more. The same is true for The New Zealand Story, Liquid Kids and others, so leaving out other versions is a massive misstep.

The Taito Milestones 2 collection is a good collection of arcade games, with some being more appealing than others. Your millage on the games will vary, depending on what type of gamer you are, but there is enough variety that you should fine something to play here. The problem isn’t in the playing of the games, but the lack of everything else around them, no art, music or anything else found in modern retro collections. Game settings can be tweaked, which is nice, but finding the option to do so will take some hunting, making it a less than user-friendly approach. While good games are always welcome, given the lack of historical elements or other versions of the games, the collection is really only for those who remember the original arcade releases or just love all things retro.