Taito Legends 2

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sun May 07, 2006 3:10 am

Turrican wrote:Thunder Force, do you happen to own a Memories copy as well?

Nope, I don't have a copy of Memories, so someone else will have to try the PS2 Legends 2 vs. Memories performance comparison.

Jac2Mac · Post by **Jac2Mac** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:04 am

I think that Empire should not have included Insector X and Space Invaders '95 on the Taito Legends 2 collection because they are far too cute. I would have put in place of Insector X and Space Invaders '95 Mega Blast and Ryu-Jin because they are two serious shooters with no humor whatsoever and because Ryu-Jin has a cool song heard during boss battles where the guy says Rock 'n' Roll over and over again.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:17 am

Jac2Mac wrote:I think that Empire should not have included Insector X and Space Invaders '95 on the Taito Legends 2 collection because they are far too cute. I would have put in place of Insector X and Space Invaders '95 Mega Blast and Ryu-Jin because they are two serious shooters with no humor whatsoever and because Ryu-Jin has a cool song heard during boss battles where the guy says Rock 'n' Roll over and over again.

Yeah, but Arcade Insector X beats the living crap out of the Genesis port, so at least you get to play the original.

Well, E3 is this week, so we'll see what happens!

Jac2Mac · Post by **Jac2Mac** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:54 pm

I don't think Taito Legends 2 will ever be released in the US because Sega doesn't want to and because Sony hates 2d. Oh yes, Taito should have included the Genesis version of Insector X instead of the arcade version or Taito should have made the arcade Insector X serious with no humor just like the Genesis version and it would also run on Taito B System hardware.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:24 pm

I think Jac2Mac is a joke account from one of us forum members.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:35 pm

Turrican wrote:I think Jac2Mac is a joke account from one of us forum members.

he is too unfunny to be a gimmick account

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:50 pm

Jac2Mac wrote:I don't think Taito Legends 2 will ever be released in the US because Sega doesn't want to and because Sony hates 2d. Oh yes, Taito should have included the Genesis version of Insector X instead of the arcade version or Taito should have made the arcade Insector X serious with no humor just like the Genesis version and it would also run on Taito B System hardware.

Get off my internet.

Jac2Mac also said:
I think that Empire should not have included Insector X and Space Invaders '95 on the Taito Legends 2 collection because they are far too cute. I would have put in place of Insector X and Space Invaders '95 Mega Blast and Ryu-Jin because they are two serious shooters with no humor whatsoever and because Ryu-Jin has a cool song heard during boss battles where the guy says Rock 'n' Roll over and over again.

I say:
Just because they are cute does not make them bad, if anything it'll make Taito Legends 2 that much better.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:25 pm

oh yeah, I heard that some of the non shmups in Legends 2 PS2 have issues too. One of the functions in Football champ doesn't work and many of the newer games like Arabian Magic run slow. I hope some of the issues get worked out for the US release, if it does come out. Also, according to Empire, the game does use the Memories source code, so the issues that may not be in the Memories might be some bugs in transferring the games or rushing the game out.

Danny · Post by **Danny** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:01 pm

A lot of the "bugs" that people experiance on the taito legend discs are because people are playing them in 50hrz which cuases problems due to missed frames during emulation.

If I had a copy of the PS2 version I would confrim it for sure if theywere broken or not. But I'd say stick with the Xbox/PC version. G Darius can be emulated at full speed and with no slowdown on ePSXe anyway...

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Wed May 10, 2006 3:09 am

Jac2Mac wrote:I don't think Taito Legends 2 will ever be released in the US because Sega doesn't want to and because Sony hates 2d. Oh yes, Taito should have included the Genesis version of Insector X instead of the arcade version or Taito should have made the arcade Insector X serious with no humor just like the Genesis version and it would also run on Taito B System hardware.

I don't care for the Genesis version of Insector X. It is a hideous bastardization of the game's original concept, just like Hudson is currently doing with Bomberman Act Zero on the Xbox 360.

The humor in the arcade version of Insector X is well done and quite welcome- a break from the serious themes of most shooters.

I'll go with the Xbox rev of TL2.

~Kid Icarus~ · Post by **~Kid Icarus~** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:47 pm

Taito Legends Vol. 2 is on offer over at play asia:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-r-7 ... -1270.html

Just snagged a copy. I have a JPS2, I'll post impressions of GDarius when it arrives if you like?

steveovig · Post by **steveovig** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:17 pm

~Kid Icarus~ wrote:Taito Legends Vol. 2 is on offer over at play asia:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-r-7 ... -1270.html

Just snagged a copy. I have a JPS2, I'll post impressions of GDarius when it arrives if you like?

That's Taito Memories Vol. 2, if I'm correct. Still it's a good bargain.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:27 pm

Yeah, that's Memories, which IIRC has a different games list than Legends...still, that IS a nice deal. Not sure what's different about the "special pack" versus the regular one, though.

AJhooglestein · Post by **AJhooglestein** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:08 pm

Danny wrote:A lot of the "bugs" that people experiance on the taito legend discs are because people are playing them in 50hrz which cuases problems due to missed frames during emulation.

What's strange is that the "bugs" happen in both 50 and 60hz mode. I have no idea why it isn't at full speed at 60hz.

Since the PS2 vesion was develeloped by Taito Japan and the Xbox/pc versions by Empire, the Xbox/pc versions should have none of these "bugs".

~Kid Icarus~ · Post by **~Kid Icarus~** » Fri May 12, 2006 7:49 am

steveovig wrote:
~Kid Icarus~ wrote:Taito Legends Vol. 2 is on offer over at play asia:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-r-7 ... -1270.html

Just snagged a copy. I have a JPS2, I'll post impressions of GDarius when it arrives if you like?
That's Taito Memories Vol. 2, if I'm correct. Still it's a good bargain.

Ah apologies, as long as it contains G-Darius I don't care though!

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:17 pm

AJhooglestein wrote:
Danny wrote:A lot of the "bugs" that people experiance on the taito legend discs are because people are playing them in 50hrz which cuases problems due to missed frames during emulation.
What's strange is that the "bugs" happen in both 50 and 60hz mode. I have no idea why it isn't at full speed at 60hz.

Since the PS2 vesion was develeloped by Taito Japan and the Xbox/pc versions by Empire, the Xbox/pc versions should have none of these "bugs".

It's also quite criminal that they didn't comment much on their forums.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sat May 13, 2006 5:02 am

Well, E3 has come and gone, and there was no announcement of any kind regarding whether this game will come to The States or not. I have to say, that's a bit disheartening.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun May 14, 2006 8:53 pm

The Coop wrote:Well, E3 has come and gone, and there was no announcement of any kind regarding whether this game will come to The States or not. I have to say, that's a bit disheartening.

To say the least; I wanted to hear some news as well about this, and it just plain stinks.

Carmen · Post by **Carmen** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:15 pm

Damn, I'd really like to play RayForce, especially considering how I fell in love with RayCrisis....

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 6:01 pm

I have a question about this game...

How would a PAL version of the PC release work on a US PC? After I learned about what would happen with the PAL X2 on a US Playstation, I'm curious to know if a PAL PC game would have similar problems on a US PC. I ask namely because this game getting a release in the US is beginning to seem unlikely, and I already know that the PAL XBox and PS2 versions won't work on my consoles without them being modified.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:05 pm

The Coop wrote:I have a question about this game...

How would a PAL version of the PC release work on a US PC? After I learned about what would happen with the PAL X2 on a US Playstation, I'm curious to know if a PAL PC game would have similar problems on a US PC. I ask namely because this game getting a release in the US is beginning to seem unlikely, and I already know that the PAL XBox and PS2 versions won't work on my consoles without them being modified.

I don't think PC games have issues about the PAL/NTSC standards. PC monitors work different than tv sets.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:35 am

Just to throw a little info out there, I got Taito Legends 2 today. It's the Euro release for the PC, and it installs and plays just fine on my US PC. So if anyone else in The States wants to, you can import the PC version and play it. I'd try looking on eBay. I've seen it there for roughly $30 shipped (not bad when you consider a US release would cost you $21.19 after tax).

Much joy is being had this evening.

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 12:39 am

The only new info about it is the TBA has been dropped, the 2006 is still there, and Sega will be the publisher, still doesn't determine a release date though.

PepsimanVsJoe · Post by **PepsimanVsJoe** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:48 am

Well I've been playing Taito Legends 2 for a bit.

The game always defaults to 50 hz (US gamer here) so that's kind of annoying.

Darius Gaiden is slow as all hell and it's maddening(Though I did one life Hysteric Empress later on..something I haven't done before). The thing that stuck out the most is that usually the song that plays through the first two stages does not finish before you reach the second boss(unless you're a terrible player) but the song finished before I even killed Golden Ogre...wtf

Elevator Action Returns is solid solid goodness. Didn't really notice any apparent flaws unlike DG.

If it wasn't for G. Darius I probably would have been better off with Xbox version because I would have gotten a LOT more playtime out of RayForce/Bubble Symphony/Cadash. RayForce 2 is absolute junk and Sylvalion is only entertaining when reading the text between stages.

Puchi Puchi Carat is a pile of shit. Cleopatra's Fortune on the other hand is really good though very punishing if you make a mistake(Which happens way too often for me)

I hate Puzzle Bobble. The end

Disappointing that the version of Growl is the US/Europe version. The blood and the subsequent messy decapitations that followed explosions were very entertaining. But the game isn't that good to warrant importing the Memories version.

Lightbringer is not nearly as good as I remember. I mean it is still decent as an isometric brawler/action rpg but there are a load of cheap hits and sometimes even attacking an enemy can be maddening. Great soundtrack though

I could use a recap(oops) of what exactly is wrong with the Legends version of Metal Black. I'll also throw in that I actually really got into the game when I played the TL version and managed to 1CC to stage 4. Very atmospheric game and I love the intro.

Gekirindian I actually enjoyed now. Again I 1CCed to stage 4(odd huh?) and could probably do a full 1CC as the game felt rather easy. And also I'm the last person on earth who cares about TATE so after fixing the ratio(it was originally set to stretch to fit the entire screen and look like hell) I was set.

Arabian Magic always felt slow to me but eh. Unfortunately for that game it came out around the time Konami and Capcom were pushing some great Beatemups out there so yeah I felt like playing those instead of this. Still better than Sega's Arabian beatemup game though(Which aside from the wonderful System 32 engine it was a bag of crap)

Don Doko Don, Liquid Kids, Qix, Space Invaders 95, etc I'll need some more time with them.

Rastan Saga 2/Nastar/Worst game ever- Okay maybe not(or maybe so) but I seriously despise this game. The game requires absolutely perfect jumping and if you fuck up too much the bosses become near impossible. Also ignoring that the game just is not fun to play at all(Compared to the extremely good Rastan 1) Another waste of an excellent soundtrack.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 8:40 pm

Bloodreign wrote:The only new info about it is the TBA has been dropped, the 2006 is still there, and Sega will be the publisher, still doesn't determine a release date though.

It doesn't, but that is good news-at least we know that the US releases haven't been cancelled. Thanks for the update!

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:25 pm

PepsimanVsJoe wrote: Rastan Saga 2/Nastar/Worst game ever- Okay maybe not(or maybe so) but I seriously despise this game. The game requires absolutely perfect jumping and if you fuck up too much the bosses become near impossible. Also ignoring that the game just is not fun to play at all(Compared to the extremely good Rastan 1) Another waste of an excellent soundtrack.

Oh man that game is such a turd. Taito did redeem themselves with the third part but man is 2 awful.

Supposedly the XBox versions are more accurate to the originals? Something to do with them just dumping some equivalent of MAME onto the XBox version with the roms, whereas the PS2 versions are ports that did not escape slowdown and some longer load times. It would explain the music finishing so fast.

I of course was over a friend's house yesterday who has all the Taito Memories and didn't think to try them out or ask how they stack up.

More importantly, someone on another board who claims to have obtained both PS2 and XBox versions posted that the XBox version has more screen proportion options than the PS2 version for several of the games.

theevilfunkster mentions this too. The interface is redone for the XBox version whereas the PS2 one uses the same menu from the first game? Bwah?

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:42 pm

The PC version uses ROMs. Not only that, but if you zip up the folders for each game, and drop them all into MAME, the games start right up... proper MAME names and all. The only thing missing is the dipswitch options when you hit "Tab". So if you don't like them in the TL2 set up, you can MAME them.

Interesting factoid... Rayforce in TL2 comes up as Gunlock in MAME (the folder's labeled "gunlock" too).

Neo Rasa · Post by **Neo Rasa** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 10:54 pm

That is interesting. I guess using the world release rom was the easiest way to "localize" it since they probably figured on the PC game being the easiest to import.

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:41 am

PepsimanVsJoe wrote:Puchi Puchi Carat is a pile of shit.

I actually enjoyed Puchi Carat. It's a strange mix of Breakout and Puzzle Bobble (two games I also enjoyed) that's grown on me... and the background with this scantily clad cat/bunny chick makes for a nice wallpaper as you play too

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 2:51 am

Well, I don't think we're getting this in the US. I emailed Sega today, and got this response:

"Dear Mr. Halligan,

Thank you for e-mailing Sega Technical Support.

I have no news about a new Taito Legends 2 game.

Information about future Sega game releases
is shown at our web site.

Just go to www.sega.com and select Sega of
America. Future releases are given by Title,
by the Platform, and by the ESRB (rating).

Please visit this site frequently to get the most
current information about Sega and Sega games.

Sincerely,
-Sandi
Sega of America Technical Support"

Or if we are, Sega really isn't the publisher, or perhaps we'll get it next year. Any which way you shake it, chances of a US release look pretty dim at this point.