Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 24/Dec 00:01

Taito Milestones Collection 3 – Review

We couldn’t close off 2024 without looking at another Taito Milestones collection. For the third year in a row, ININ is treating us to a selection of classic arcade titles from Taito’s back catalog. And lo and behold, our prayers have been answered, at least partially. While we’re still eagerly waiting for Space Invaders (maybe in 2025?), Taito Milestones 3 does include another much-requested title. One we asked for in our review of Taito Milestones 2, in fact! Let’s go ahead and dig into this smorgasbord of retro goodness to find out which titles reached Taito’s coveted milestone status. If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll know that we stray away from our usual review format when taking a look at retro game collections like this one. You’re not getting a single game here, but a curated selection of 10 titles after all. These hail from different years and span different genres, making it impossible to simply break down things like audio and visuals because of how much variety there is here. Instead, we’ll be focusing on how well the selection of games has been emulated, whether or not they have stood the test of time, and ultimately if you’re getting your money’s worth here. A key part of that is of course which games are included. The collection is looking very good this time around, with a handful of bona fide classics, alongside lesser-known games, some of which are exclusive to Taito Milestones 3… for now at least. So which games are you getting here? The headliners are the legendary arcade platformer Bubble Bobble and hack-’n-slash classic Rastan. Sequels to both of these games are also included here. You’ve got Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2, as well as both Nastar Warrior and Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga III. As if that wasn’t enough Rastan action, our hero also gets a guest spot as a wrestler in Champion Wrestler, as well as being playable in Cadash, which is a Zelda II-like side-scrolling platformer. You’re also getting a run-and-gun game in the form of Thunder Fox and a side-scrolling beat ‘em up in Runark. Rounding things out is Dead Connection, an oddball shooter game that feels a bit too experimental to sit comfortably with the other games in terms of accessibility and retro goodness. The titles currently exclusive to Taito Milestones III are Thunder Fox, Dead Connection, and Warrior Blade. The latter two even make their official debut in the West here. When looking at the individual games in terms of, well, gameplay there are clear winners here. Even if you haven’t played any of the games included here in the past, you’ve at least heard of Bubble Bobble, and with good reason. Nearly 40 years down the line, the game remains as addictive as ever. Cadash feels more fleshed out than its arcade origins would have you believe, and it was easily our favorite of the lot. It’s not without faults, but if you keep in mind that it was designed to suck change out of the pockets of teens in arcades, the difficulty becomes easier to swallow. Fortunately, you have infinite credits and unlimited continues. Not every title included here stood the test of time equally well. While Rastan and Warrior Blade are both enjoyable in their own right, Nastar Warrior is very much the red-headed stepchild of the trilogy. While Nastar Warrior looks and sounds great, the gameplay simply isn’t enjoyable. The platforming segments are poorly designed and combat feels unbalanced. Dead Connection is, unfortunately, another stinker, mainly because of how inaccessible it is. This is partly because it’s an outlandish game, and partly because it’s only playable in Japanese, making the game feel very inaccessible. The other games in Taito Milestones 3 range from just okay to pretty good, leaving you with just two bad apples in the bunch. That’s a higher success rate than either of the previous two collections. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the emulation quality is top-notch, given that this was handled by Hamster Corporation. Hamster Corporation has been releasing all sorts of retro titles on the Nintendo eShop weekly, under the Arcade Archives moniker. It’s business as usual here, including the ability to remap buttons, use save states, and adjust display settings to your liking. Unfortunately, that also means that there is no bonus content here, like an art gallery or a music player. Some basic features like rewind, quick save, and quick load are also sorely missing. On the upside, many of the games included here were originally intended to be played with two players and Taito Milestones 3 does allow you to give these a go in multiplayer mode. Whether or not the collection is worth the €39.99 asking price depends on a couple of factors, as usual. The vast majority of the titles included here are available as standalone releases through Arcade Archives. You might already own some of them, or perhaps you’re only interested in one or two. Granted, Taito Milestones 3 does offer a hefty discount compared to purchasing everything separately, but it’s a matter of quantity over quality. The individual releases cost €6.99 each, and we expect the currently exclusive titles to be added to Arcade Archives over time. It’s probably worth noting that the Score Attack and Caravan modes from the Arcade Archives releases aren’t included in the Taito Milestones 3 versions, though if you’re only looking to play the main mode of each game, you should be good here. Conclusion Although the Taito Milestones formula hasn’t changed since the previous two collections, we do feel like Taito Milestones 3 is the strongest entry, simply because of the selection of games included here. Don’t get us wrong, there is still room for improvement here in terms of features that could be added, but the games themselves do the heavy lifting here, as they should. We can’t dismiss the existence of the Arcade Archives releases of these games though, so whether or not you should add Taito Milestones 3 to your library depends on just how many of the individual games you already own and how many of the rest you’re actually interested in.