Well, I wasn’t sure if I’d even make an article like this, but since my Irem Vol 1 review is one that still gets a lot of attention and I’ve been sent questions about it + how the game’s been updated post launch, I figured I’d be transparent about my attempts to get info/updates on Irem Collection Vol 2, and thus, ultimately explain why I don’t have a review of it out today.

“But wait!” You may ask. “What do you mean it was out today? I didn’t see any eShop listing for it…” Well see, that’s the funny thing; when Strictly Limited Games opened that volume up for preorders back in the summer, it openly gave a digital release date for Feb 20th, 2024. That’s today, and it still says it on the web page as of the time of me drafting this article. Here’s a screencap to prove it in case they edit it.

So… How did this happen? Didn’t they open these for physical preorders months ago, promote them like mad, (and even opened up Vol 3 for physicals, along with a box set of all five before the contents of Vol 4/5 are even known) and then push out the first volume last fall? Just what went wrong? Is it a delay that someone missed and they didn’t update the website? Well… That’s what I went and tried to find out.

Spoiler Alert: I didn’t find much info, and all other signs of SLG stuff in general make me wonder if the company as a whole isn’t doing well. Like, at all. As the Feb 20th day approached, I emailed my usual PR contact for ININ stuff to get an idea on when review code would be sent out or when the game itself would be released, since the last communication still indicated it was due digitally for Feb 20th with no further word since. Likewise when it came to Volume 1 and how bad that it ended up being with the sheer amount of bugs, I wasn’t really informed of much means of them fixing said bugs, though a reader has provided helpful emails to let me know when a new patch went live, along with ININ expressing plans to subtitle Image Fight II a bit later down the line.

Still, as of this article, the pause bug in IF2 is still there, the rapid fire in IF NES is still busted, and the weird bugginess of the compilation is still intact. They did fix the default mapping and random speed changes, though, so at least the PCE port of Image Fight is more playable now, but my god, three months later and this expensive set is still in a broken state? The same timeframe the physical versions are supposedly meant to ship in Japan? (And yeah, the SLG versions are promised for Winter/Early 2024 too, but considering everything they worked on since April 2023 has not been manufactured, I have a heavy suspicion they’re running into some sort of funding issue, especially with games that should not take long like Puzzle Bobble somehow still being in limbo even for standard editions, so who knows if those will even ship, let alone CEs.)

Honestly, if that whole situation is why Irem Collection Vol 2 does not exist today, that would make sense. But I also ponder at how silly it is that Ratalaika, clearly capable of excellent work like Gleylancer and Shockman ports, are somehow unable to fix such blatant emulation bugs months later. Don’t even get me started on how Jajamaru is still borked with not a single patch a year after launch. My guess is ININ is just flat out not letting them fix those bugs, or they’re not bothering to pay them their worth to work on and fix stuff up. These devs can do great emulation work, just let em do the games justice!

As for the reply from PR on Irem Vol 2, I just got that not even they have a clue on when the game is launching digitally, or when code will be available; in all likelihood, it probably got stealth delayed so they can catch up on fixing the first set. And considering how it still has a long, long way to go?

Good Luck. You’ll need it. I’ll update this if there’s an official delay announcement, but I’ll find it very funny if today comes and goes with not a single mention of the game being delayed.