Taito Legends 2

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. Like its predecessor, the Xbox version of the game is not compatible with Xbox 360. As the former collection, it has been derived from the Japan exclusive Taito Memories series.

All three versions of the game were simultaneously released in March 2006 in Europe and Australia and published by Empire Interactive. The United States received the PlayStation 2 version on May 16, 2007 and the PC version on July 28, 2007 with publishing by Destineer. For unknown reasons, the Xbox version was never released in North America. However, the European PAL-region Xbox version is entirely compatible with the North American NTSC-based Xbox systems without any modifications.

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.

Games

Taito Legends 2 consists of the following 43 arcade games when combined whilst each version contains 39 games. Balloon Bomber, G-Darius, RayStorm and Syvalion are exclusive to the PlayStation 2 version whilst Bubble Symphony, Cadash, Pop’n Pop and RayForce are exclusive to the PC and Xbox versions.

The titles included in the Western release were taken directly from various volumes of the Japanese Taito Memories-series:

• Taito Memories Volume 1 (タイトーメモリーズ 上巻, Taitō Memorīzu Joukan)
• Taito Memories Volume 2 (タイトーメモリーズ 下巻, Taitō Memorīzu Gekan)^[2]
• Taito Memories II Volume 1 (タイトーメモリーズ2 上巻, Taitō Memorīzu 2 Joukan)
• Taito Memories II Volume 2 (タイトーメモリーズ2 下巻, Taitō Memorīzu 2 Gekan)

The only title included in Taito Legends 2 that was not previously included in the Japanese Taito Memories-series is Pop 'n Pop, though the standalone PlayStation port of the game was released in Japan. 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.

Reception

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] Some reviewers also compared Taito Legends 2 unfavorably with the Sega Genesis Collection, writing the aforementioned Genesis Collection as superior,^[6] 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).^[7]

References

External links

• Destineer site
• Empire support site: PC Xplosiv, PS2 Xplosiv, Xbox Empire