Thanks to ININ Games for the review code
Title: Irem Collection Vol 3
System: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Price: $24.99
Release Date: 07/01/2025
Prelude
The gap between Irem Vol 1 and 2 was quite a bit, thanks to a delay for the second volume and the need to heavily patch the first volume’s many, many bugs. Taking less time than the gap between Vol 1 and 2, Irem Collection Vol 3 is here with another set of Irem gems, with three non R-Type shooters to pick from! So is this worth picking up, or does this set also have its own fair share of issues and bugs?
Presentation
The same sort of UI from the first two volumes return, now with different music. You still have a language select, and then a game select to go through before getting to the older Ratalaika wrapper found in the prior collections. Yet again, this doesn’t include any scanned art materials or bonus features, and the only thing of note to this UI that I really miss from the Shinyuden wrapper are the display options, which return and offer pretty decent filters yet again. They also scale rather nicely on the Switch 2’s screen, even with no 1080P support, so the image doesn’t look blurry at all and the pixels still manage to be crisp.
As for each of the three games, all look and sound just as they should, including the oddball resolution of PC Engine Mr Heli, the intense music to Dragon Breed, and slowdown coming into effect as they did originally. Unlike the first two volumes, I didn’t notice a single emulation issue, with Mr Heli playing just like I remembered it and Mystic Riders/Dragon Breed leaving me with a solid impression from my playtime.
Gameplay
Third verse, same as the first two; outside of the usual Ratalaika presentation, rewind and online leaderboards, there’s nothing extra to these games, meaning you don’t get any bonuses like manual scans or promo material. So we just have the games here, with four major versions!
Mr Heli- The one game with a home console port, and that one came out on the PC Engine! Known as Battle Chopper in PAL Arcades, this quirky shooter has you play as a living orange helicopter that can fly around, bomb terrain and collect crystals to purchase weapon upgrades, all as you take on enemies while exploring each of the stages.
The regional variants for the Arcade release do not really make much of a difference, since the game itself doesn’t have any notable text to speak of. So really just pick your version and go play, since either way, this game is ludicrously hard. I noted the difficulty when covering it for Evercade, and even with DIP Switch options you’ll be hitting brick walls plenty of times if you’re aiming to beat the game. The rewind helps a lot when dealing with the frustration, but even later stages prove to be a gargantuan headache despite the rewind and save states; enemies are relentless, bosses become damage sponges, and obtaining weapon upgrades becomes nigh-impossible.
Still, Mr Heli is a decent little score chaser, but it’s the PC Engine version that finally makes this game a bit more playable. The game is scaled down by quite a bit, but that also means the difficulty gets toned down a notch too, although there is an extra mode that raises it to be similar to the Arcade. Yet again, you go through the same set of stages and generally deal with the same set of challenges, except here memorizing the patterns actually feels effective and the game won’t make you want to throw your console out the window.
Thus, this PC Engine port is the version I recommend you play to actually complete VS playing for score/presentation, and even with those last stages remaining cruel, at least I’m having more fun dealing with the challenges from a well made port. (Interestingly, the preview for this version shows an english title screen, but the actual game does not have that, but again, there’s no Japanese text outside of said title screen, so the lack of a EN version doesn’t matter much here…)
Dragon Breed– For the longest time, I’ve craved a rerelease of this Irem gem in particular. Having heard of it as R-Type mixed with Saint Dragon, this game looked and sounded incredible, and with the only home version for PC Engine getting canceled way back in the day, it was either hoping for an Evercade port, Arcade Archives, or for this collection to do it justice. Thankfully, it does port this game over very well!
Unfortunately, Dragon Breed also wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as I was hoping for it to be, even though it still is a decent shooter. Yes, the comparisons to R-Type and Saint Dragon are both apt, but R-Type is less apparent outside of the powerup system, with Saint Dragon being the game that I felt shared more similarities to Dragon Breed. For starters, your dragon’s body can indeed block shots and get around obstacles ala NMK’s game, and it has a few different colored powerups that you can upgrade several times.
However, the lone weakpoint isn’t from your Dragon’s head, but rather the rider, who can even disembark in very limited circumstances to fire with his crossbow. Unfortunately, these sections are very brief, and what could have led to interesting level design mandating you disembark for a while and fight foes on foot just doesn’t exist. You instead have pretty typical, fun horizontal shooting action, but one that pales compared to the R-Type games. I did ultimately enjoy this one a smidge more than Saint Dragon solely due to memorization working more in my favor here than in NMK’s game, but I can definitely see why this one failed to catch on and didn’t get any prior ports. Still great to see it finally out from the vault, though!
Mystic Riders– The newest of the Irem games in this set, this obscurity has you take control of two witches, setting out on a quest to defeat evil throughout several stages. I held off on this one a bit due to wanting to play it in local Co-Op, and it definitely made a great game even better! You have your main shot and the ability to toss your broom around in several directions, which can be used to take care of foes pretty easily as you gather up their experience crystals.
You have two elements you can pick up and upgrade, with either a quick and easy Fire shot or a more tricky Lightning one, and it can be pretty easy to pick up the element you don’t want on accident. Thankfully, enemies and treasure chests drop a lot of gems and powerups frequently enough that if you make that error, it won’t take you too long to get back to your desired weaponry. You can even rotate the stick around to do a little twirl, which will shoot your selected element around and help if you’re surrounded by enemies, although throwing the broom was what I ultimately preferred, since it pierces foes and just was more fun to goof around with.
So why did I wait to do this in Co-Op before fully finishing up this review? Because while Mystic Riders is a remarkably fun and balanced shooter even in solo play, being the most apt for the online leaderboards of the collection thanks to all the ways you can quickly clear out foes and get bonuses, the Co-Op aspect adds a bit of fun competition that makes the whole game loop an exciting competition. Who will be the ones to get the most experience gems and most points against enemies for that end of stage bonus, and who will ultimately have the higher score at the end of the game and thus, the local leaderboard?
That sort of fun, along with the fact the game is the perfect length and remains engaging from start to finish, makes Mystic Riders the game I was surprised to have fallen in love with from this set. I honestly thought it would be Dragon Breed or Mr Heli, but this little gem and its competitive scorechasing aspect lead to me and my friend having a very fun time, and one I felt made this one of my new favorite Irem arcade games.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Irem Collection Vol 3 was a pretty fun set of shooting games, even if none of them succeed in having the addicting hook that some of Irem’s better known shooters could have on you. All are fairly decent games, and Mystic Riders is a fun playthrough in Co-Op, but none of the three outside of Mystic Riders manage to really leave much of an impression that makes me want to revisit these games off and on to improve my high scores.
Still, average games or not, I had quite a fun time scorechasing in the three titles, and was finally happy to check out Dragon Breed after all this time even if it ultimately disappointed me as a game. Mystic Riders became a surprise hit for my scorechasing needs and the easy favorite of the bunch, and it’s always nice to have another way to get really mad at Mr Heli. It was also quite nice to have a full volume where I didn’t encounter any bugs whatsoever, leaving to an identically smooth experience on both Switch 1 and Switch 2.
The only big thing I feel these volumes need at this point would be some sort of archival material, since that would really do a lot to help boost the package and make it feel more like a proper celebration of Irem’s work rather than just a nicely polished UI with some Arcade games to play. Still, if you happen to be a fan of any of these shooters and wish to play them on your Switch, then Irem Collection Vol 3 is a very solid place to play them, even if the asking price is a little steep considering the lack of bonuses.
I give Irem Collection Volume 3 a 7 out of 10.