Soldier Collection?

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:40 am

I don't think anyone else has noted this yet, and it's partially speculation, so I'm willing to close it if nothing comes of it, but anyways, I was browsing around Play-Asia, and notice this page, for a supposedly upcoming product...

There's nothing about it on Hudson's official site, so P-A might just be going off of bad information or something, but if this (and the release date) turns out to be true, we might have something other than Sapphire to look forward to on the PSP...if anyone has any more info on this, post it here.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:41 pm

So it would include (logically):

Super Star Soldier
Final Soldier
Soldier Blade
Star Parodier

Are there any others? The PC-E games run via emulation if you have CFW, but I think it's either SSS or SB that lock up early on in the game. Also, Star Parodier, that's a CD game right? I've never played it... any good for those who have? PC-E CD emulation is far from ideal, so that'd be a major reason to pick this compilation up if it is real.

320x240 · Post by **320x240** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:12 pm

subcons wrote:So it would include (logically):

Super Star Soldier
Final Soldier
Soldier Blade
Star Parodier

Are there any others?.

Gunhed/Blazing Lazers as an ulockable?

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:43 pm

Sounds good...although...I coulda swore I saw something about this already. PSP, no surprise there. Wouldn't want to try on a DS so much.

ARCADIA · Post by **ARCADIA** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:59 am

seems to be real (99.999999.....%)

Post by **Ghegs** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:41 am

Pretty cool, actually. But even though I own a PSP, I'd rather see these new retro collections out for PS2...

kennyrh · Post by **kennyrh** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:32 pm

subcons wrote:PC-E CD emulation is far from ideal, so that'd be a major reason to pick this compilation up if it is real.

If you have a recent version of Magic Engine . . .I'd say PCE CD emulation is pretty good

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 11:25 pm

kennyrh wrote:If you have a recent version of Magic Engine . . .I'd say PCE CD emulation is pretty good

I meant for PSP. Unless there is a version of Magic Engine for PSP that I'm unaware of, then I stand corrected! I'm only aware of HuE and PCEP. The latter runs CD games better from my experience, but sound is still all over the place depending on the game.

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:48 pm

PSP's retro collection game library is getting huge.

Soldier Collection
Gradius Collection
Parodius Portable
Twinbee Portable
Salamander Portable
Sega Genesis Collection
Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
Capcom Classics Collection Remixed
Namco Museum Battle Collection
SNK Arcade Classics
Taito Legends Power-Up

And let's just assume you don't want to count those Atari and Activision collections, Metal Slug Anthology... There are those other Hudson Japan-only PSP collections too, I couldn't remember the names.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:11 pm

Wow, when you add it all up, that's pretty impressive. I completely gave up on shooters when I had the original PSP, but now that the newer model has a working dpad my interest is slowly ramping up again.

gunm · Post by **gunm** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:38 pm

Anyone know if the Soldier Collection (PC Engine Best) is going to be brought over here? Since a couple titles are on VC, I'm guessing it's not out of the realm of possibility, and I would love to see it as a $19.99 value title like Gradius Collection was.

I did pre-order at PA though, just in case. :p

al138 · Post by **al138** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:14 pm

For those who live in the United States and are looking for a domestic importer, NCSX opened pre-orders today:

http://www.shopncsx.com/pcenginebestsol ... ction.aspx

It's $1 cheaper, and while shipping is a bit more expensive, you'll get it faster.

It looks like an interesting collection.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 11:33 pm

gunm wrote:Anyone know if the Soldier Collection (PC Engine Best) is going to be brought over here? Since a couple titles are on VC, I'm guessing it's not out of the realm of possibility, and I would love to see it as a $19.99 value title like Gradius Collection was.

I did pre-order at PA though, just in case. :p

I'd highly doubt a domestic release (assuming you're in the US?). The only compilation that made it over like this was Gradius and that's at least recognizable to most US gamers. Star Soldier on the other hand isn't really in that category. Plus, Star Soldier for PSP never released outside of Japan, so...

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 2:23 am

My copy of this came in the other day...someone requested impressions in a different thread, but I figured that here would be the best place to put them. Also, I received the Yuna/Sapphire collection in the same shipment, so I'll be referencing that a few times.

In any event, all four games are indeed there, no idea if there are any extra unlockables or whatever...one thing I wasn't expecting was the inclusion of "Special Caravan" versions of Final and Blade. As far as I could tell there were no differences between those and the Caravan modes included with the "regular" games, maybe they were separate "collector" carts included for the sake of completion or something, I'll have to defer to someone with more PCE expertise than myself on that one. Aside from those, there are also two replays per game (one boss rush and one caravan run) by...that guy who pushes buttons really fast, I forget his name.

Having had little experience with the originals I'm pretty unqualified to compare these ports to them, but I didn't notice anything that distracted me from what was happening, a la dropped frames, slowdown, etc. Three view modes can be switched between anytime with the R button, but unfortunately you can't configure the button layout (same goes for Sapphire). As compensation you get both a "normal" and "rapid" fire button, though the "normal" fire rate is usually enough to get you through as it is.

All in all it's a relatively bare-bones compilation, but everything the original games had is here (to the best of my knowledge) - if you already have the PCE versions there's not much to persuade you to snag this as well, but for someone like me who has no plans to get another system just for a few shooters this isn't a bad way to experience them. Anyone else has anything to add, feel free.

Zeether · Post by **Zeether** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 3:38 am

BulletMagnet wrote:...that guy who pushes buttons really fast, I forget his name.

Takahashi Meijin.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:05 am

BulletMagnet wrote:In any event, all four games are indeed there, no idea if there are any extra unlockables or whatever...one thing I wasn't expecting was the inclusion of "Special Caravan" versions of Final and Blade. As far as I could tell there were no differences between those and the Caravan modes included with the "regular" games, maybe they were separate "collector" carts included for the sake of completion or something

Actually surprised you didn't know of these - anyway, these were copies used at Hudson's caravan tourneys, that's all. I believe they came just as loose hucards, since I've never seen cases for them. I am a bit disappointed they didn't include Gunhed Ta(i?)kai, because that is the only way I can enjoy that game. The Special versions of Final and Soldier are pretty unnecessary, really.

As compensation you get both a "normal" and "rapid" fire button, though the "normal" fire rate is usually enough to get you through as it is.

LGB figured out that you can do considerably better in the caravan games with autofire. I've yet to try it but I wouldn't doubt his word on this.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:45 pm

Any hands-on impressions with the Star Soldier Collection? I'm anxious to hear about how good or bad that collection is.

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 7:57 am

The "Special Caravan" cards are really valuable collector's items in the PCE market. I'm sure they're rare in terms of "not many of them exist," but they're not rare in terms of "hard to find for sale," as pretty much all the big retro game places in Akiba had them on a regular basis when I was there.

Neat that they're in the collection though.

On a side note to this, Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (yes, the $300-$400 one) is on the PSP Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Galaxy Fraulein Yuna (say that three times fast) compilation release. It's not really the ideal setup to play it on, but considering the price difference... it's pretty much the only reasonable way to get the game.