Thanks to ININ Games for the review code

Title: Irem Collection Volume 2
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $24.99
Release Date: 11/14/2024

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Story

A year after what might have been the worst compilation I’ve reviewed in quite some time thanks to a ton of confusing bugs and really baffling post-launch patch shenanigans, ININ and Ratalaika return with the second Volume! Originally set for February, this is now coming out near the end of 2024. Was the wait worth it, and is this trio of shooting games better than the first set, or is this yet another mess? Let’s take a look at this Irem Collection, just like before.

Presentation

Similar to the first game, you have a fancy little menu for region and game selection, before getting the usual (older) Ratalaika UI. Visual options return, including screen sizes and shaders, but yet again we don’t have any gallery features or scanned materials. You just get the games and a fancy-ish menu before jumping into them.

Thankfully, the visuals still look crisp. That wasn’t really much of a problem last time, but at least things didn’t go backward on that front. All the games look and run as they should to my eye, and they really pop out good on Switch Lite. Air Duel also can rotate 90 degrees for Flip Grip play, and looks pretty darn good on an undocked normal switch as a result. I did notice some shimmering present when using a few of the display options on that game when trying to play it horizontally, however, and found that the bigger screen options mitigated that some, but Tate is the way to go for Air Duel. Unfortunately, Gunforce II has some issues with flickering, which I later learned was part of the original game, so that just seems to be due to how the game got rushed out the door back in the day.

The music also is properly emulated! All the sound is as it should be and nothing apparently wrong hit my ears during my playtime. This also applies to the rewind feature, since last time the rewind and fast forward features destroyed the audio, but here with Irem Volume 2, the rewind didn’t really make the games act up at all, and fast forward was removed in a later Irem Volume 1 update, so I’m not surprised it didn’t make the comeback here if it killed performance last time. So far, so good for how these games look and sound, but how do these three games play?

Gameplay

You know the drill; with no bonuses, we just have three games and a home console version to go through! All of these have online leaderboards akin to Volume 1 where you just play on default settings, but don’t expect these leaderboards to be all that populated.

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GUNFORCE (Arcade/SNES)- A pretty typical run and gun shooter from 1992. Both the SNES/SFC and Arcade versions are here, and each version offers a fun little contrast with the other. The Arcade original is your typical co-op quarter eating shooter, with a ton of enemies, weapons and destructible objects to blow up, while the SNES version limits continues, scales back the action, and tries to provide a decent home experience for an early SNES title.

The SNES Gunforce was done by Bits, the same outstanding developer behind some of the excellent Game Boy Irem ports, but this SNES conversion isn’t nearly as impressive sadly. It gets the porting job done, it plays well, and the compilation emulates it to the point I didn’t feel input lag messing me up jumping in for the first time, but the game is rather easygoing and more dumbed down compared to the arcade version, which is easily the version to play here.

And boy, is the Arcade version just pure goodness. Lots of action, lots more enemies, and a lot more fun as a result of the frantic pacing! Both versions have local co-op, but I feel the Arcade one is a lot more friendly to it due to being able to use infinite continues. Just pair up with a friend and go nuts! The scoring isn’t the craziest thing here, but I still had a lot of fun with both versions here, and found the Arcade one to take the slight edge. The autofire also works properly here and in the other games on Volume 2, which wasn’t the case in Volume 1 at all, so that’ll help with reducing the button mashing. Just go in and have fun blasting away!

Air Duel (Arcade)- This is a typical vertical shooting game, being the only non run and gun in the set, along with the only game in vertical orientation. You have your typical shot and bombs to play around with, waves of enemies to take out and bosses to fight every now and then, and two different ships to pick from. You have a helicopter that can aim diagonally while moving, leading to a different way of fighting foes compared to the typical shooter, but there’s also a plane that lets you stick with the basic forward facing shot regardless if you don’t want to risk constantly misfiring at enemies.

Still, once you pick your ship, it’s off to shoot! And yeah, each stage is your typical routine, with tons of enemies to blow up, bulkier foes to take down, and an endboss to fight. Your bombs can be used to clear space in front of you if needed, (and it does drift diagonally based on your movements, like the Helicopter’s main shot) and with no charge shot your main hope for survival is to just keep powering up your main shot to be a giant wall of fire, and avoid dying to lose it all at once, since you do respawn on the fly in this game. As for how the game in general feels to play, Air Duel is just fine. The music gives me Cosmic Cop vibes which I like, and the visual style is classic Irem, but outside of being able to switch ships after every stage, this is a very safe shooter. Nothing crazy happens, and even four stages in I wasn’t finding much to be impressed by. A decent co-op shooter that controls well, but not much else to add for this one.

Gunforce II (Arcade)- A sequel to Gunforce and a pseudo prequel to Metal Slug of all things, this was Irem’s final Arcade game, and it both shows in terms of technical prowess and excellent presentation, and also in terms of being a rushed, weirdly balanced game. You don’t even get a proper ending here. But boy, is Gunforce II a treat on the eyes! Now instead of swapping between a main weapon as you pick them up, you have two guns shooting out at once! One is a typical shot at all times, and the other is for your weapon pickups, and aiming is a bit weirder compared to most other run and guns. Still, you can get the hang of it after a while, and once you do Gunforce II is a really fun game, if a bit unfair compared to its predecessor.

You can definitely tell the balancing went out the window here, as you’ll be more on your toes and having to memorize a lot of hazard way more than in the first game, and not even the easiest DIP setting plays around with you much. It also isn’t as fun to play for score compared to the first game, although it does kickstart the Metal Slug habit of your rescued hostages becoming a good score bonus if you manage to beat the rest of the stage without dying.

Still, a fun shooter, but the one game you may be disappointed by the most here due to this error, especially when the action slows down and it becomes more apparent. I thought the flickering when that happened was an emulation issue here, but it seems that no, real PCBs do show the same sort of clunky slowdown, and that just ends up being another casualty of Gunforce II being rushed out the door.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Irem Collection Volume 2 is a decent improvement over the first volume. Yes, the extra polish really did come in handy here, and I found myself enjoying the experience of playing Gunforce 1 to be way better than trying to suffer with the badly emulated Image Fight ports in the last volume. Air Duel is fine, but rather dull as a game, and while Gunforce II should be a slam dunk game due to never being reissued on consoles before, the flickering and poor game balance really dampers a bit of the enjoyment outta it,

Really, I’m at least glad this set had more time in the oven to not be a total disaster like the first volume, and I can even say this is a decent little collection of games if you like shooting titles. Sadly, with no real extras or any bonuses besides online leaderboards, this is still a really steep ask for the price point, and I once again feel that all three of these titles would have been far better as Arcade Archives titles. When the only home port is an aggressively OK version of Gunforce, there really isn’t much that extra this compilation would have to offer over a Hamster-made effort anyhow.

Overall, very middle of the road, but a small step in the right direction, even if I wish something better was included over Air Duel.

I give Irem Collection Volume 2 a 5 out of 10.