It seems like Sega Genesis Collection, EA Replay and Metal Slug Anthology have been getting all the attention lately. However, some of you may not know that Taito is throwing their hat in the ring with Taito Legends.
Legends packs in 25 classic Taito games ranging from Space Invaders to The Legend of Kage. And although the game won't feature multi-player support, players can share up to 21 games wirelessly with other console owners via the PSP's game-sharing function. Also, Cameltry, Crazy Balloon, Balloon Bomb, and The Legend of Kage have each received graphical upgrades along with being adapted to the PSP's widescreen.
Gamespot, who just recently previewed the game, said "It's also a shame to see that little effort has been made to expand Taito Legends beyond including emulated versions of classic games. It's good to see that the PlayStation Portable's features have been used to allow wireless game sharing, but aside from the games themselves, there's little to keep you going for a long time."
It looks like the retro compilations are starting to pour in, but I think companies will have to do more than stuff a bunch of their old games onto a UMD and send it out the door for them to be successful.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-15-2006 @ 4:19PM
kabir said...
where are the verticle shooters? flip the psp on it's side and bam, it's the best machine for verticle shooters. didn't you make some of the best ones, taito?
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10-15-2006 @ 5:58PM
Gattsuru said...
I can think of a lot of virtually perfect ports. For example, sticking Legend of Mana and Secret of Mana on the same disk and adding wireless functionality would no doubt get the fans drooling. Legend in particular would be an excellent "grab-and-play-and-stow". A collection of the better "old-school"-styled shooters like Warning Forever and similar bullet hell shooters would be both simple to purchase rights to and provide to a vast market that otherwise simply wouldn't have heard of or played the game.
There are dozens of other such old games which are either third party or Sony authors, all of which could fit the handheld's abilities and formats well. It'd be a much better and more reliable choice than tossing out more PoSs like the recent clone of Ace Combat, and come out faster, as well.
It's a matter of picking the good games, the ones that would be hard or expensive to find or difficulty to play outside of the classic controller setup. Instead we're finding stuff that's been put in every Old-School Collection since the SNES was around, making it feel like a waste of a UMD.
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10-15-2006 @ 8:15PM
wisemanleo said...
The idea behind these ports can be said to be an attempt to add to the replayability factor. In this case, the answer is simple: add online functionality. Even if it is something as simple as having an online database of top scores, and especially downloadable levels, can exponentially add to a game's timeless feel.
With this said, it's not a matter of picking the right games, but more of what needs to be done with them.
Best example: Tales of Phantasia PSP. Although it was a straight port from the PSX version, the PSX version was a complete remake of the SNES release. Graphics were redone, soundtrack was redone, more voice-acting was added, and as well as more scenes. It was a much better game to play than the GBA version, which was just a straight port from the SNES with no sugar added.
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10-16-2006 @ 11:08AM
Ken Edwards said...
Taito Memories Pocket and Space Invaders Pocket have been out. For a while now. In Japan. Maybe they are combining the two for a US release, but will one UMD include both games?
Great games, BTW, if you want to import them. Of course now it might be a moot point.
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