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Talk about a collection of classic arcade titles that go from excellent to “What game is that?” While I very much appreciate what I’d consider to be classics like Elevator Action, Qix, The NinjaWarriors, and Front Line in this collection, more than half of the games included border on the obscure (as in, some I can’t even recall ever having seen in an arcade, let alone played), and while it piqued my curiosity to check some of them out for a few quarters worth of play more often than not I wasn’t inclined to return to them. Whether obvious clones of other more popular (and usually better) titles from other developers, what feel like earlier formulations of Taito classics that weren’t really ready for prime time, or outright inexplicable omissions (Where TF is Zoo Keeper), too many games in this collection left me with more questions than excitement. In addition the lack of extra love and care put into providing additional media and materials surrounding the game and its promotion and release as we’ve seen in other compilations of this sort makes it all feel a bit bare bones. If you really love some of these classics they are emulated and play just fine, but it’s hard to consider this a success.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.8]