Taito Legends pack or Taito memories?

[Dylan1CC]

Nice write up on the Taito Legends comp on 1Up. But according to Parish, Legends has more games than the memory packs. So which should I get (as long as the Japn Memories 2 has New Zealand story and Rainbow Islands, then I am OK)

Excerpt (Raystorm is his personal fave out of them all):

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3148163

Taito has been particularly busy on the retro front in the past year, releasing not one but four different classic compilations: Japan received Taito Memories I & II for PS2 and Taito Memories Pocket for PSP, while Sega published Taito Legends for Xbox, PS2 and PC in the U.S. And these aren't those crummy 32-bit collections with a paltry handful of games; we're talking 20 to 25 titles per set. Furthermore, only about half the games in Legends appeared on the Memories sets. All told, that's roughly 60 unique titles.

edit: OK, the story is unintentionally misleading since some titles he lists are only on the Memories packs while hyping the Legends disc.

[Neo Rasa]

To be honest, if you're a big Taito fan there's enough unique games to make it worth getting all three (Taito Legends, and both Taito Memories volumes).

Taito Legends is a weak collection for a shmup fan (great collection overall).

[Ganelon]

Once/if Taito Legends 2 comes out, Taito Legends 1&2 will have everything Memories 1&2 has (except Cadash and a baseball game) plus many more classics.

[Neo Rasa]

Why no Cadash? It got a world release.

[PaCrappa]

To be honest, if you're a big Taito fan there's enough unique games to make it worth getting all three

That's where I'm at in life. I still need to ante up for the second JP one though.

Pa

[BulletMagnet]

(as long as the Japn Memories 2 has New Zealand story and Rainbow Islands, then I am OK)

IIRC, New Zealand Story is on Memories, but Rainbow Islands isn't.

[MadSteelDarkness]

I own all three and must say that Memories vol. 2 has gotten more mileage in my PS2 than the other two (Legends and Memories vol.1) combined.

But I agree with Neo Rasa and Pa: get all three.

[Turrican]

Once/if Taito Legends 2 comes out, Taito Legends 1&2 will have everything Memories 1&2 has (except Cadash and a baseball game) plus many more classics.

Play.com has it listed for the end of March, with box screenshot and full game s list:

http://play.com/play247.asp?pa=rcs&page ... tle=866288

[Bloodreign]

Yeah that's the PAL release date, if this holds true to the first game Europe will see it first, I'll preorder it whenever I can nail down a U.S. release date (it should be coming to the U.S. according to the Empire forums moderators) unless by some turn of events the game reaches both sides of the big pond on the same day. Whenever I go to pick up my MGS 3 Subsistence Limited Edition preorder, I'll preorder Taito Legends 2, but again I hope to nail down a U.S. release date before then.


I won't miss that baseball game Ah Eikou no Koushien, but I'll miss Cadash, plus I've noticed neither Memories nor Legends puts Chuka Taisen in, is it something to do with licensing?

From the Empire forums:
Legends 2 will be released in the States - the distributor hasn't been decided yet. Legends 2 is well on schedule, the XBox version just went into pre-certification.

One thing to be aware of though, there will be a few differences between the PS2 and (XBox/PC) versions. This time the PS2 version is being done by the Japanese team that did Memories as they've already done all the work, being Japan though they didn't do an XBox/PC version so we're covering that.

We're making every effort to ensure the games play identically, however the user interface will be radically different between the two and the games lists have a couple of differences. Its probably worth checking both lists before deciding on which one to buy. (or buy both of course )

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Kick ass.

Lack of Cadash makes me cry but that list is sweet!
Oh wait it's missing Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories oh what a shame.

Either way this is a first day purchase as soon as it comes out.

[Turrican]

Very interesting - this means that Legends 2 is made using the main bulk of Memories.

And last time I checked, everyone was pleased with the quality of emulation - besides some lack of tate.

[Neo Rasa]

Haha Violence Fight.

"A tournament favored by underworld rapscallions, criminals and bad drivers alike."

Is there some legal reason as to why they can't just use the Japanese interface exactly but with English text?

I'm really glad about the XBox release for Taito Legends 2. I try to buy as few PS2 games as possible. It's basically become my AtlusStation 2.

[Xexyz]

I'm surprised there are so many Cadash fans. I find the game particularly average. More of a Rastan Saga fan myself. Then again, I've been playing the Sega Genesis version of Cadash all these years, but it can't be much worse then the arcade version can it?

[Ganelon]

Nope, the Genesis version is pretty good excepting the missing 2 characters. I really enjoy Cadash due to its RPG nature and free-roaming world whereas Rastan Saga is just another sidescroller.

And nice to hear they finally confirmed a US version of Legends 2.

[it290]

I'm a huge Cadash and Rastan lover. As a kid, the games I played and enjoyed the most in the arcades were side-scrolling action games like these -- Shinobi, Rastan, Cadash, Toki, Quartet, Rolling Thunder, etc. Shinobi, Rastan, and Cadash remain amongst my favorite games today. I played Cadash a good while after I had played Rastan, and even then it struck me as a sort of successor -- it was made by Taito, set in a fantasy world, and had similar sidescrolling hack-and-slash gameplay. I didn't play Rastan 2 for some time after that, and needless to say I was immensely dissapointed.

I can't understand at all why they wouldn't include it in the second volume. It is certainly a well known and respected Taito game, and must have been fairly successful in the states -- I remember seeing it in at least 3 or 4 places back then. Surely it's more well known than many of the games listed, including the aforementioned Rastan 2. I'll probably pick up this pack just for the Darius games and a couple others (the vertical shooters are great too, but I think they'll be yoko-only), but this still makes no frickin' sense. The Cadash ROM is only like a meg or two and it's emulated perfectly, so what's the problem?

[Neo Rasa]

Is it possible there's some company in the US that has the name Cadash trademarked, and this is stopping it from coming out here? That's the only thing I can think of, but even then they could just make the title screen say "Fantasy Battler" or some such nonsense for the US release.

Rastan Saga 2, man that game was garbage. I first played it on the Genesis, where the only good thing about the game, the music, was butchered beyond belief. I thought I was playing some parody of an actual Rastan game.

Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga 3 was great though.

You know what the biggest cocktease ever was? After that mediocre arena fighter Barbarian came out in the US/Europe, Taito distributed it in Japan. So out of nowhere on the Japan release lists you see "Warrior Blade: Rastan vs. The Barbarians" and get your hopes up for a couple of seconds.

[it290]

I thought of that, but 'Cadash' is a pretty unusual name and presumably Taito themselves would have it trademarked since it was distributed and released on two home platforms here.

[zaphod]

The arcade is better for Cadash.

personall i find it plays fine in MAME. the home ports are highly innacurate.

[Dale]

Anyone of these collections blows all other classic arcade game collections out of the water, Get all three.

P.S How well does Elevator Action play on mame does anybody know.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

For the most part the Genesis version of Cadash was closer. Sure the Turbografx version sounds like a decent port since it has all four characters. Unfortunately the game play is not as good, graphics are very different(sometimes looking a lot worse), and the entire game just feels off.

Genesis version is great aside from the missing characters but it's still not a patch on the arcade version. Lovely game though even if the Priest was broken(invincibility spell wtf come on).

And yeah this Taito Legends 2 pack is all kinds of awesome. Dungeon Magic/Lightbringer is SWEEET. Arabian Magic is great as well as Growl for pure insane punching/exploding bodies action. Oh and we get arcade perfect(or very very very close) G-Darius for once.

Granted I own a modded PS2 now(go me!) but having all these games for half the price of the Memories packs is NICE.

[dave4shmups]

I'm a huge Cadash and Rastan lover. As a kid, the games I played and enjoyed the most in the arcades were side-scrolling action games like these -- Shinobi, Rastan, Cadash, Toki, Quartet, Rolling Thunder, etc. Shinobi, Rastan, and Cadash remain amongst my favorite games today. I played Cadash a good while after I had played Rastan, and even then it struck me as a sort of successor -- it was made by Taito, set in a fantasy world, and had similar sidescrolling hack-and-slash gameplay. I didn't play Rastan 2 for some time after that, and needless to say I was immensely dissapointed.

I can't understand at all why they wouldn't include it in the second volume. It is certainly a well known and respected Taito game, and must have been fairly successful in the states -- I remember seeing it in at least 3 or 4 places back then. Surely it's more well known than many of the games listed, including the aforementioned Rastan 2. I'll probably pick up this pack just for the Darius games and a couple others (the vertical shooters are great too, but I think they'll be yoko-only), but this still makes no frickin' sense. The Cadash ROM is only like a meg or two and it's emulated perfectly, so what's the problem?

Yeah, I played a LOT of Rastan as a kid! The Safeway near my house had that game, and, later, the Savage Bees!

I thought Legends was just a one volume release for the US and Europe? I have the US release and am ticked that they didn't include the original Qix; makes no sense considering that they included both sequels.

@Ganelon, do both Taito Memories work with Swap Magic 3.3?

[FRO]

And nice to hear they finally confirmed a US version of Legends 2.

Any word on when it's set to be released? If it's in time, that'd be a great b-day present from my wife

[Ganelon]

@Ganelon, do both Taito Memories work with Swap Magic 3.3?

Sorry, I've got no clue.

[dave4shmups]

And nice to hear they finally confirmed a US version of Legends 2.

Any word on when it's set to be released? If it's in time, that'd be a great b-day present from my wife

Wow, I didn't even know about this-I'd like to know a release date as well! I suppose Empire is handling this one again?

@Ganelon, no problem.

[Ganelon]

Sort of. Go back to Bloodreign's post for the info. Empire is basically letting some team from Taito handle the PS2 version and handle the other versions themselves. Nobody knows who'll do the localization (whether Sega as before or somebody else).

[Turrican]

Once/if Taito Legends 2 comes out, Taito Legends 1&2 will have everything Memories 1&2 has (except Cadash and a baseball game) plus many more classics.

Wait - Space Invaders Color (found in Joukan) is missing as well from both Legends packs, am I correct?

[Ganelon]

Yeah, seems like you're right. I always thought Space Invaders Color was the same as Space Invaders Part II but I guess that isn't the case.

[jiji]

I picked up Taito Legends last night, and...man, I wish Legends 2 had been available instead of this. I can't admit to being very familiar with Taito America's catalog outside of Qix, and from what I can see of it here it's pretty well C- and D-grade stuff. Even the games of Japanese origin outside of the well-known standards are not exactly the cream of the crop.

And would digital-only controller support have been too much to ask? Is it unreasonable to think that I'd want to play some, you know, arcade games, with something other than the Dual Shock 2's d-pad? Also, why does each game default to "easy" difficulty, requiring every game to be switched to the default difficulty for a proper challenge?

I about died when I saw the games with vertical orientation being forced into 4:3 aspect and couldn't find a way to change that at first. Thankfully, a quick check of the manual told me where the global setting for that was...

[The Coop]

From the Empire forums:
Legends 2 will be released in the States - the distributor hasn't been decided yet. Legends 2 is well on schedule, the XBox version just went into pre-certification.

One thing to be aware of though, there will be a few differences between the PS2 and (XBox/PC) versions. This time the PS2 version is being done by the Japanese team that did Memories as they've already done all the work, being Japan though they didn't do an XBox/PC version so we're covering that.

We're making every effort to ensure the games play identically, however the user interface will be radically different between the two and the games lists have a couple of differences. Its probably worth checking both lists before deciding on which one to buy. (or buy both of course )

You mean it really is going to be released for us US folk? YES!

[dave4shmups]

I picked up Taito Legends last night, and...man, I wish Legends 2 had been available instead of this. I can't admit to being very familiar with Taito America's catalog outside of Qix, and from what I can see of it here it's pretty well C- and D-grade stuff. Even the games of Japanese origin outside of the well-known standards are not exactly the cream of the crop.

And would digital-only controller support have been too much to ask? Is it unreasonable to think that I'd want to play some, you know, arcade games, with something other than the Dual Shock 2's d-pad? Also, why does each game default to "easy" difficulty, requiring every game to be switched to the default difficulty for a proper challenge?

I about died when I saw the games with vertical orientation being forced into 4:3 aspect and couldn't find a way to change that at first. Thankfully, a quick check of the manual told me where the global setting for that was...

Interesting...I hate the the Analog requirements on a lot of PS2 games.

So, is 2 available in the States now? (Don't know if you live here or in Japan.)