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.
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.
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, requiring players to buy more than one version to get every game available.
Games[]
Taito Legends 2 consists of the following 43 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):
- Lunar Rescue
- Crazy Balloon
- Balloon Bomber (PS2 only)
- Qix
- Alpine Sky
- Front Line
- Wild Western
- Chack'n Pop
- The Legend of Kage
- The Fairyland Story
- Kiki KaiKai
- Bonze Adventure / Jigoku Meguri
- Kuri Kinton
- Nastar / Rastan Saga 2
- Raimais
- Syvalion (PS2 only)
- Cameltry
- Don Doko Don
- Insector X
- Violence Fight
- Cadash (Xbox & PC only)
- Football Champ / Hat Trick Hero
- Growl / Runark
- Gun Frontier
- Liquid Kids / Mizubaku Adventure
- Super Space Invaders '91
- Metal Black
- Arabian Magic
- Grid Seeker: Project Storm Hammer
- RayForce / Gunlock / Layer Section (Xbox & PC only)
- Darius Gaiden: Silver Hawk
- Dungeon Magic / Light Bringer
- Space Invaders DX
- Bubble Bobble II / Bubble Symphony (Xbox & PC only)
- Elevator Action Returns
- Gekirindan
- Puzzle Bobble 2
- Space Invaders '95: The Attack of the Lunar Loonies
- Cleopatra Fortune
- RayStorm (PS2 only)
- Puchi Carat
- G-Darius (PS2 only)
- Pop'n Pop (Xbox & PC only)
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 not previously released in the Japanese Taito Memories-series is Pop 'n Pop. 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), Pu-Li-Ru-La, and a baseball game called Aa Eikō no Kōshien.
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. 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".), 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." Some reviewers also compared Taito Legends 2 unfavorably with the Sega Genesis Collection, writing the aforementioned Genesis Collection as superior, 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).
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