| Taito Legends 2 | |
|---|---|
Front box art for the European Playstation 2 version |
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| Developer(s) | Taito |
| Publisher(s) | Empire Interactive (EU) Destineer (NA) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 Xbox Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | PlayStation 2: Microsoft Windows:
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| Genre(s) | Arcade games |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T PEGI: 7+ |
Taito Legends 2 is the sequel to Taito Legends and is a follow-up collection of 39 (or 43, see below) Taito arcade games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.
In Europe and Australia, published by Empire Interactive, all three versions were released in March 2006. In the United States, published by Destineer, it was released for the PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2007 and for PC on July 28, 2007, with the Xbox version never being released in North America. However, the European PAL-based Xbox version works on the North American NTSC-based Xbox systems, without any modifications .
Somewhat controversially, eight of the 43 games- Balloon Bomber, Bubble Symphony, Cadash, RayForce, RayStorm, G Darius, Pop'n Pop and Syvalion- were split across the platforms due to porting issues[1], requiring players to buy more than one version to get every game available.
Contents |
Taito Legends 2 consists of the following 44 arcade games, split across Xbox/PC and PS2 (the Xbox/PC and PS2 versions each have four exclusive games, for a total of 39 games on each):
In any event, all of the games seen here were taken directly from the Japanese Taito Memories collections. The only exceptions were Bubble Symphony, Pop 'n Pop, and Rayforce; Bubble Symphony and Rayforce now appear on the Japanese Taito Memories 2 collections [2]; Pop 'n Pop still has yet to appear. In addition, the North American PS2 version replaces Puzzle Bobble 2 (the original Japanese version) with Bust-a-Move Again, the game's North American equivalent. The only games not included on this collection are the color version of Space Invaders (not to be confused with "Space Invaders Part II"), PuLiRuLa, and a baseball game called "Aa Eikou no Koshien", having been replaced by the three "exclusive" games previously mentioned.
The PC version of this game uses StarForce copy protection. As such, it will not run on Windows Vista or Windows 7 without updating the StarForce drivers.
Taito Legends 2 received mixed reviews with a score of 67.60% for the PlayStation 2 version based on 15 reviews, 77.50% for the Xbox version based on 1 review, and 78.33% for the Windows version from GameRankings, based on 3 reviews.[3] Major criticisms include the large amount of obscure and "filler" titles, all of which are from the Japanese Taito Memories collections in which they are little known in the U.S., (with GameSpot quoting, "There's really nothing legendary about most of the old arcade games found in Taito Legends 2." ),[4] as well as unresponsive, "flipped", and clunky controls. Kristan Reed of Eurogamer wrote a more positive response saying, "It's all but impossible to make an objective assessment that takes into account everyone's hugely varying tastes. What's definitely unarguable, though, that this particular package has much better presentation than the last one, with all games sorted into chronological order (a small but valuable point), and various useful options that make the experience far better than most retro collections."[5] However, Jason Venter of HonestGamers commented, "Unless you lived in arcades 20 years ago, you probably won't even remember half the stuff you find here. You're thus denied even the value that nostalgia might lend each selection. Taken on their own terms, most titles you'll find here are trumped by the free Flash games you can find all over the Internet."[6] Some reviewers also compared Taito Legends 2 unfavorably with the Sega Genesis Collection, writing the aforementioned Genesis Collection as superior, [7] and was also criticized for its lack of bonus content, (asides from instructions panels that can be viewed in the main menu and during gameplay).[8]