Title: Jaleco Arcade 1
System: Evercade
Price: $19.99
Release Date: Mid 2022
Prelude
NOTE: the day I’m publishing this, Evercade announced a price bump for all titles, old and new, starting Jan 30th. I will still mark any cart released before 2025 as a $20/25 cart, because I price stuff in these reviews at what the original MSRP was; that being said, I still take into consideration the current MSRP when reviewing something, but with such a small increase, I do not expect needing to edit my reviews in a major way. Just putting a note here in case it becomes a question later.
In this first (of hopefully more to come) set of Jaleco Arcade titles, we get to peek at some quirkier Arcade games, from a publisher that was rather obscure, yet still put out a bunch of quality stuff that flew under the radar in Arcades. Jaleco was more well known for their home stuff anyhow, but a lot of that has roots from their Arcade library, some of which is represented here!
Presentation
A mix of more Arcade games, with one being vertical and the other seven being horizontal. A bunch of these games share similar Arcade hardware with one another, and that also seems to impact the big emulation bug with this cartridge, introduced via the High Score saving update from over a year ago.
While the core games play fine with proper audio and visuals for the most part, the high score saving for a bunch of titles is just completely busted as of the time of writing; having the system save the high scores will just lead to them being loaded with rounded up values, glitched names, or other such errors, making save states the better way for accurately recording those high scores.
Otherwise, the only notable emulation issue I ran into even pre-High Score patch, was an oddity with Rod Land. See, the game has two quests to it, and the secondary one is accessed via a button code on the title screen. For some odd reason, loading a save state and starting up this quest will cause the cutscene BGM to sound freaky. Why loading the save state does this is beyond me, but otherwise the rest of the games didn’t have similar issues with loading save states.
Gameplay
A batch of eight games from Jaleco, and a collection pretty well regarded in the Evercade community for good reason! So let’s take a peek at eight games from various genres, covering a decent amount of late 80s/early 90s Jaleco titles.
P-47: The Phantom Fighter– A horizontal shooter from NMK, a quirky developer who produced a lot of games for contract purposes before eventually going on and making their own, self published shooters in the early 90s. While NMK was nowhere near the skill level they’d eventually gain, P-47 is a pretty darn fun shooter to kick off the cart with.
In P-47, you take control of a fighter plane and set out to defeat the Nazis, in a battle that never seems to truly end. You have a normal weapon you fire from the front, along with a secondary weapon such as bombs you can drop or one where you fire an extra bullet depending on where you’re moving the plane. Very simplistic stuff, and you can get the occasional upgrade or powerup depending on how you defeat waves of enemies, along with racking up some handy point bonuses if you get good at the pattern recognition.
The game controls pretty darn well, the scoring is fun, and the bosses are decent, if a bit uninspired at times, and this would eventually be followed up by a much more robust sequel later down the line. Still, of the horizontal shooters on this cart, I found P-47 to be the best of the bunch since the difficulty curve was just right, and it was also the most fun to go back to for scoring purposes. Pretty fun, and co-op compatible, too!
Saint Dragon– This very bizarre horizontal shooter also comes from NMK, just like P-47. Rather than you taking out Nazis this time, you take out a bunch of very strange alien creatures while controlling the titular Saint Dragon, which has the ability to use its own body to block shots and destroy small enemies.
Yes, this Dragon can move in all sorts of wild directions, and immediately you’ll have to get to grips to using the body defensively if you want any hopes of survival. Small projectiles can be nullified if you move in a way that your tail/body is a shield, but if your head so much as bumps anything, you’re done for! Of course, bigger shots will still take you out all the same, and this is a checkpoint based shooter, making this one especially tricky.
Still, I found the game oddly charming. The uniqueness of the tail mechanic, the mysterious music, and the five stage structure does make this an experience tempting to score high in and try to 1CC. Nevertheless, Saint Dragon will throw out all the stops at you, from evil powerup placement that’ll downgrade you at certain points, crazy enemy waves, and very challenging, but memorizable bosses. This one ain’t co-op either, so you truly will have to master the game to see the ending, or just abuse save states.
With all that said, Saint Dragon is a shmup I enjoyed a decent amount, even if I prefer the other 2 horizontal shooters on the cart over this one. You have to be in a good headspace to focus on this game, and be willing to deal with plenty of frustrations and trial and error; all my 1CC attempts later, and I still have never seen the second boss!
The Astyanax– Vastly different from the NES game you might have grown up with, this Arcade variation is a pretty typical belt scrolling action game, with the main gimmick being the ability to increase the strength of your attack by refraining from weapon use to charge up a power meter. Unlike the NES version which had Ninja Gaiden style cutscenes and a structure akin to that game, Arcade Astyanax is just a pretty straightforward action game with the goal being to reach the boss at the end of each level and beat it.
Your attack power does matter when dealing with enemies and bosses, but even the strongest attack won’t save you from the game constantly swarming you with enemies from the first level. You have to be on your toes and be attentive right away, and make good use of the rare lighting magic drops, which can screen clear in a pinch. Still, you probably won’t be getting far in this one at all without constant continuing, making Arcade Astyanax a game better for just enjoying the ride it provides, especially if you have a co-op partner to play it through. It does end with an interesting twist at the very least!
Rod Land– A cute little single screen game that would later inspire a puzzling spinoff known as Soldam, which I truly love. Sadly, this debut entry for Rit and Tam’s adventures isn’t quite as addictive as that gem, but still a pretty fun game to play. You have the ability to create ladders at the press of a button, and can hurt enemies by using your wand to freeze them and then throw them around from side to side.
To clear a stage, you gotta grab all the fruit, which turns the remaining enemies into bigger fruit pieces for you to defeat and gain bonus items from. Rinse and repeat, and fight the occasional quirky boss along the way, and you’ll have a pretty good time in this simple little game.
All in all, this is a pretty simplistic and really darn fun scorechaser, with plenty of point bonuses to go for, and two full quests of unique levels to tackle! The Co-Op can get rather hectic if you manage to bring a friend along for the ride, but either solo or together, Rod Land is a pretty delightful pick up and play scorechaser, and one I really wish they’d fix the high score bug on.
64th. Street: A Detective Story- This is just another take on Final Fight, and it manages to be a very blatant clone. Still, this is a typical, well controlling belt scroller that has your typical attack and jump setup, along with the ability to pull off a few stronger moves via a button combo ala Street Fighter, and being able to throw enemies into destructible parts of the stage.
You have two playable characters to pick from, and they do have their own unique moves, but even then, this ends up being a pretty dull, cookie cutter belt scroller. Still worth playing through once with a buddy since this genre works great for that, but honest to god, this just may be the weakest game of the set, and when the weakest title is ultimately a fine, but generic brawler, I think that still makes a good enough case to play 64th Street if you like brawlers.
Avenging Spirit- Oh hey, I covered this in full before! Thankfully unlike that port (which did get better), this one was a well emulated game right out of the box, and is a pretty fun action platformer with a rad gimmick of being able to possess any normal enemy you come across. You play as a ghost, and as long as your energy meter is up enough, you can possess an enemy and control them until their health bar depletes. This means you have tons of variety in ways of attacking and traveling around the stages, leading to plenty of different means for tackling each stage.
Some enemies can attack with ease from a distance, while others throw bombs in an arc or attack in a melee style. There’s just lots of options to mess around with, and to make the game even more replayable there’s two different endings you can get depending on whether or not you find the hidden keys scattered throughout the game. It also helps there’s tons of bonus goodies and point items to collect, so this one ends up being a pretty fun scorechaser as well, plus it has co-op!
In the end, the excellent variety, cool main gimmick and fun gameplay structure easily make Avenging Spirit one of the best games on the cart by far, and I’m happy to see it given justice.
E.D.F Earth Defense Force- Not to be confused with the popular steam game series, this is yet another horizontal shooter! In EDF, you and a friend pick from one of four weapons, and then set out to shoot down waves of enemies before taking on the boss at the end of each stage. Pretty typical shooter fare, and this one has some fun point bonuses you can work toward by clearing out the entire wave of enemies before leaving the screen.
Otherwise, this is incredibly generic, to the point I kinda find it boring due to how the weapon system works. You only can pick between four of them, and outside of an EXP system increasing your power, you can’t grab another weapon or get an upgrade during a level, meaning you’re just shooting for points and trying to survive most of the time. Still, as a score chaser and co-op game EDF is immensely fun, but compared to the other horizontal shooters on this cart, this is easily the least interesting to actually play to completion. At least you can co-op this one, even if P-47 is also better in that aspect.
Cybattler- Jumping ahead a bit to 1993, this vertical shooter is a late-era one from Jaleco’s library, and a pretty darn cool game. You take control of the BLANCHE mecha, as it uses the power of a rapid fire shot or a melee sword to deal with enemies, in this vertical shooter. While it may seem like your typical shooting game at first, Blanche can aim in eight directions and lock their fire in place when holding down the shot button, with the sword button being used for bigger damage up close. This also means you get a bit more points when using the riskier melee technique, making it a pretty fun way to challenge yourself into higher scores or taking out bosses quicker!
Which you’ll need, since Cybattler is a pretty frantic game in a fun way! Co-Op support, lots of enemies flooding at you, and bosses with memorizable patterns make this yet another solid entry in the lineup of Evercade shooters, but outside of playing as a cool mech I still found it to be not really that special compared to other contemporary shooters from the time. Cybattler is still a great pick and incredibly fun to scorechase or co-op with a pal, don’t get me wrong, but considering how great some of the later Jaleco shmups would be, Cybattler is just a small step up that ladder, and for a 1993 shmup, it ain’t no Batsugun.
Conclusion
In the end, Jaleco Arcade 1 is a terrific start to a Jaleco Arcade lineup, with eight great games that all play pretty darn well and are reasonably fun for scorechasing. Even if you aren’t into that, most of them are simple enough to go in and play to completion, with a bunch of them being co-op compatible, too.
Whether you want to enjoy the scorechasing aspect of P-47 or Saint Dragon, the co-op elements of Rod Land or 64th. Street, or the quirky gameplay of Avenging Spirit, there really is something for everyone here, and when the closest to a dud I can think of is 64th Street due to the generic nature of the game, that still leads to a pretty great average of games all around.
Here’s hoping this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Jaleco on Evercade, and I’d honestly like to see more early-era stuff next if they ever do revisit the partnership.
I give Jaleco Arcade 1 an 8 out of 10.