Taito Milestones 3 - Review

After releasing two Taito Milestones collections, you might think that the group have no more games to share, but as Taito has been making games since the 1970s, they have thousands of titles they could add into a collection. Which is why it surprised me to see that Taito Milestones 3 included some of their bigger hits, but also one that the West never saw before. Does this collection keep the fun going, or should these games remain locked away?

Going into this review, I knew about two of the games and Bubble Bobble was one of them, so there was a lot that was new for me in this collection, especially with Dead Connection. Looking up the games on the Switch, roughly half of them are available as a standalone item, which is because the games that are included are done by the Hamster Corporation. Now if you already own all those games, is there a reason to buy this collection? It really depends on how much you want some of the titles that are left over, but more on that in a bit. Last year when I reviewed the Taito Milestones 2 collection, one of the complaints that I had about the release was just the sheer lack of anything extra, no music library, no concept art, just the games and I am sad to report that the exact same thing is happening here. For their first release, I could have forgiven the lack of extras, the second release also missing was a mistake and now this release one proves they don’t care. What really makes this an egregious misstep is that they didn’t even put any effort into the menu where you select the games from.

When you boot it up, you will see the above screen and that is it, there are no sub screens, no text overlay for the game titles, not even any description on what the game is, just that. Now it might not be an issue to select a game like Bubble Bobble, but what about Warrior Blade, the logo for that one is so very hard to read and its small. Now when you go into your selected game, you will be shown the controls, which is nice, but from there you are on your own. When you do pause the games, you will get a menu that shows off a number of display options and a manual, with the latter explaining the games controls and if it has one a story. The display options are sadly limited to enabling a frame, turning on or off a wallpaper to break up the background, turning on and tweaking the scanlines and rotating the image. While I do appreciate the fact that there are options, I do wish there was more going on, but sadly they are the same ones that every Arcade Archives title has had, so extra for here was unlikely.

Ok, so the collection part is missing everything that modern collections offer up, but it does contain a decent batch of games, so how do they shake out? Honestly, it is going to come down to your preference on what you like in a game, some like Bubble Bobble are timeless, but others like Champion Wrestler are products of their time and as such are a little clunky to play these days. As someone who has fun with games like Contra, I was happy to see Thunder Fox included, it is also one of the games not available on its own, yet. While again, modern version of the run and gun genre have made things infinitely more accessible, I still had a lot of fun with this one. The game did get a bad Mega Drive adaptation, which I know some folks love, but this arcade version is far superior, plus it helps being able to just run down people in a car instead of wasting bullets.

Rastan evokes a lot of Golden Axe in its approach, but with more of a Ghosts ‘n Goblins viewpoint and it still plays well. What stands out about this game from the collection is just how nice everything looks, given the game is almost 40 years old, you can tell the developers worked hard to ensure that it stood out upon its 1987 release and that effort still shines through here today. The sequel however is just as clunky today as it was when it released, with the name being the only thing that connects it, as the quality is a lot less. Think of the sequel like the Return of Jafar to Aladdin, both continue the story, but the quality across the board is wildly different.

The game I was most curious to try here was Dead Connection, as it had never released outside of Japan before and it is interesting. The game honestly looks like it would be a light gun title, especially with how many of the stages are laid out, but it plays a little like Streets of Rage, except you have a gun and can John Woo dive around the place. The story is basically that four guys have been recruited to clean up the streets of their city from the mob that controls it. Each stage will give you a goal to achieve, whilst you have to stay alive and as you proceed through the stages, you will fight more and more challenging bosses. There are a decent amount of weapons that you can pick up and depending on the character you are playing as; things will play a little differently. Now would I say pick this collection up, just for this game, no I would not. But if you are a fan of most of the games within, then this is just a very nice bonus on top of the rest.

The Taito Milestones collections are hard to recommend, because while they usually contain a decent number of fun games, they have nothing else going on for them. Now if this was the only way you could get all these games, then it would be worth it, but most of these games are available on their own. Again though, the lack of extras really feels like a missed opportunity to highlight the work that went into making these games in the first place and, with almost every other collection including them, makes this look half baked by comparison. If you love classic games and adore the works of Taito then picking this up should be an easy decision, but if you are coming in for one or two games, best to check if they are sold on their own, because the rest of the collection might not be worth it.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by InIn Games

The Pros

Some of the games in the collection are just as fun to play today as they were decades ago

Dead Connection is a great inclusion, as it will be entirely new for many players

The Cons

The lack of any extra really makes me wonder what the developers are thinking

Many of the games being able to be bought on their own does limit the value on offer