IREM Collection series

[AGermanArtist]

I have ACA X-Multiply and Image Fight on PS5. I also managed to get Image Fight on Switch before it was taken down for the best part of a yr.
Been playing a little Image Fight 2 on Retro Arch today.
It really is not a strong enough game to justify buying this.

[SavagePencil]

I got a review copy and was able to play it a bit before launch. A “bit” because switch codes didnt activate until yesterday. Sorta spent last night crunching on it because jesus christ a lot of it was wrong, at least on switch and i had to lay it out

My big annoyances-

-shimmering on Image Fight Arcade. (can be mitigated with CRT filter or pixel perfect resolution) It also didnt work quite right on the leaderboards and keeps thinking you have enhanced controls on even if you disable the right checkboxes. Otherwise it seems OK…?

-NES/PCE image fights change your speed if you press shot/pod at the same time. I never played the nes port but when I played the pce ver in an emu once i swore it didnt do that. Yes, this even applies if you use the rapid fire (and yeah only one speed option for it.) so your ship will just keep swapping speeds. speaking of, rapid fire doesn’t even work on NES image fight except for pods. Joy. This basically made them unplayable.

-image fight ii is completely unsubbed. And the pause button is borked so it doesn’t actually work in-game, and is somehow mapped to the shot button. It only kicks in when you die or beat a boss, so… hope you aren’t using a rapid fire controller when either one happens or you’ll be pausing rapidly outta nowhere. I threw in a video clip.

-X multiply i had zero familiarity with but it seemed OK. You cannot disable the right analog stick in it though, even after using the menus.

Zero bonus materials at all. Also rewind/fast forward makes the games run like shit, even the NES game for some weird reason. Rewinding works better than fast forwarding though but jesus christ do not use the latter in x multiply lol

I may have been a bit snap judgmenty but considering ratalaika made a jajamaru set with a big bug that they still never patched, i am very pessimistic about this set lol. Otherwise AMA and i’ll answer on my work breaks. TLDR: just buy ACA versions and skip IF2.

Those are unfortunately problematic issues and they should have fixed them at launch. They do sound fixable...now to see if they have the gumption to actually do the fixes.

Question: I'm assuming these support Tate mode. Does the shimmering get remediated when playing in tate?

One quibble; your review says:

Thus, that leaves the weird X Multiply as the oddball here that I’ve had zero prior experience with, and it doesn’t even have any console ports to compare differences to

...but X-Multiply did get Saturn and PS1 ports.

[SeafoamGaming]

I got a review copy and was able to play it a bit before launch. A “bit” because switch codes didnt activate until yesterday. Sorta spent last night crunching on it because jesus christ a lot of it was wrong, at least on switch and i had to lay it out

My big annoyances-

-shimmering on Image Fight Arcade. (can be mitigated with CRT filter or pixel perfect resolution) It also didnt work quite right on the leaderboards and keeps thinking you have enhanced controls on even if you disable the right checkboxes. Otherwise it seems OK…?

-NES/PCE image fights change your speed if you press shot/pod at the same time. I never played the nes port but when I played the pce ver in an emu once i swore it didnt do that. Yes, this even applies if you use the rapid fire (and yeah only one speed option for it.) so your ship will just keep swapping speeds. speaking of, rapid fire doesn’t even work on NES image fight except for pods. Joy. This basically made them unplayable.

-image fight ii is completely unsubbed. And the pause button is borked so it doesn’t actually work in-game, and is somehow mapped to the shot button. It only kicks in when you die or beat a boss, so… hope you aren’t using a rapid fire controller when either one happens or you’ll be pausing rapidly outta nowhere. I threw in a video clip.

-X multiply i had zero familiarity with but it seemed OK. You cannot disable the right analog stick in it though, even after using the menus.

Zero bonus materials at all. Also rewind/fast forward makes the games run like shit, even the NES game for some weird reason. Rewinding works better than fast forwarding though but jesus christ do not use the latter in x multiply lol

I may have been a bit snap judgmenty but considering ratalaika made a jajamaru set with a big bug that they still never patched, i am very pessimistic about this set lol. Otherwise AMA and i’ll answer on my work breaks. TLDR: just buy ACA versions and skip IF2.

Those are unfortunately problematic issues and they should have fixed them at launch. They do sound fixable...now to see if they have the gumption to actually do the fixes.

Question: I'm assuming these support Tate mode. Does the shimmering get remediated when playing in tate?

One quibble; your review says:

Thus, that leaves the weird X Multiply as the oddball here that I’ve had zero prior experience with, and it doesn’t even have any console ports to compare differences to

...but X-Multiply did get Saturn and PS1 ports.

Yeah in tate the shimmering gets a bit better, but it still was present in certain resolution modes. And as for the x multiply ports, i mainly meant in terms of the collection, which wouldn’t really be able to include either PS1/sat vers

[SavagePencil]

oh that makes sense. OK, well the fact that tate mode exists gives me a little bit of hope. I'm curious if it's even possible to activate the "Arcade Mode" secret in PCE Image Fight as that requires a reset...

[SeafoamGaming]

oh that makes sense. OK, well the fact that tate mode exists gives me a little bit of hope. I'm curious if it's even possible to activate the "Arcade Mode" secret in PCE Image Fight as that requires a reset...

I could not get the soft reset feature to work, so i doubt it. I’ll try it after work though along with the other known cheats like IF NES’s stage select. They may have borked it with their weird mapping choices. I can confirm though that Tate Mode is only for arcade image fight here.

[Lemnear]

-image fight ii is completely unsubbed. And the pause button is borked so it doesn’t actually work in-game, and is somehow mapped to the shot button. It only kicks in when you die or beat a boss, so… hope you aren’t using a rapid fire controller when either one happens or you’ll be pausing rapidly outta nowhere. I threw in a video clip.

Zero bonus materials at all. Also rewind/fast forward makes the games run like shit, even the NES game for some weird reason. Rewinding works better than fast forwarding though but jesus christ do not use the latter in x multiply lol

Why ??? No seriously

Ratalaika is the dev IIRC: they are for all of ININ’s in-house stuff.

And you were right...Ratalaika is the dev.
I think i know what you mean about the "Rewind/Fast Forward" issue...i've posted some Gleylancer videos where the music continue to run faster after you used that feature (or slower) and slowly returns to normal etc.
Other than that the game runs perfectly.

[Steven]

Ratalaika Gleylancer has some noticeable input lag, although I don't think I've ever seen anyone lag test that. I wouldn't be surprised if this was laggy as well. Skip and go for ACA.

[Lemnear]

Ratalaika Gleylancer has some noticeable input lag, although I don't think I've ever seen anyone lag test that. I wouldn't be surprised if this was laggy as well. Skip and go for ACA.

Really ? It seemed very responsive to me in this case o_0 [PS4], there are difference with the PS5 version?

[SeafoamGaming]

Ratalaika Gleylancer has some noticeable input lag, although I don't think I've ever seen anyone lag test that. I wouldn't be surprised if this was laggy as well. Skip and go for ACA.

On what system? Gleylancer is oddly what I consider one of their best works and what I recommend constantly. Felt fine to me on XSX/Switch, though I did hear the PS4 ver had weird audio issues at launch. The fact they bothered subtitling that but not IF2 really makes me beg the question on how they dropped the ball and if ININ is crunching them, leading to shittier work...

Speaking of, SLG facebook updated noting that they were proud of the digital launch (lol) and that they're already working on patches that'll be included in the physical release.

...That means they haven't even started printing the SLG version, have they. The whole "ININ seeking a buyer, needing cash flow badly" rumor seems more and more true by the day lmao. I wouldn't be shocked if the JP retail ver launches before SLG's because of some retail contract they legally have to uphold (while they can keep kicking the can further down on the limprint version like they have with Puzzle Bobble, which still hasn't gotten standard editions made despite it launching at retail back in MAY)

Meanwhile they are more than happy to shove the Irem stuff out digitally in an abhorrent state, while PR pesters me to write news articles promoting or sharing their press releases about each volume (which I don't do since SFG isn't a news site and I don't like spitting out words that aren't my own). I don't personally buy the "we're working on a patch" bit either since they said the same about jajamaru while it's still bugged to the point you can't even use any of the spells in the Zelda RPG clone, which would be like releasing Mega Man 2 with only Flash stopper as a functional weapon. Been like that since February and soured my opinion on their compilations big time, along with other stuff like releasing a gimped Wonder Boy retail collection with a bad control scheme, and locking the more normal controls to the ultimate super duper Anniversary set without patching them into the retail ver.

[Sumez]

They're literally just putting the game on an emulator with a menu system.
It's been almost a year or so since this was first announced? And the projected date for all five volumes is by the end of 2024 (which probably realistically means end of 2025 at the earliest)
And the reported issues with the games seems like stuff that could be fixed in a day if the people releasing it had any actual interest in the product.
I'm not sure what kind of "crunch" would be put on Ratalaika to result in that. I think it's just a low effort production hyped up to try to increase sales.

At least SLG claim they'll listen to the community for what needs to be patched and ensure the physical release will already be patched. But it's really exhausting to see so many companies treating digital releases as an open beta at full price.
It's also exhausting to see so many emulated direct ports of classic games handled with such indifference that it lowers the bar for those releases to such an insane low that anything even remotely decent gets treated like doing god's work.

[Steven]

Ratalaika Gleylancer has some noticeable input lag, although I don't think I've ever seen anyone lag test that. I wouldn't be surprised if this was laggy as well. Skip and go for ACA.

On what system? Gleylancer is oddly what I consider one of their best works and what I recommend constantly. Felt fine to me on XSX/Switch, though I did hear the PS4 ver had weird audio issues at launch. The fact they bothered subtitling that but not IF2 really makes me beg the question on how they dropped the ball and if ININ is crunching them, leading to shittier work...

Switch. It feels moderately disgusting after playing it on a real Mega Drive for a while. Try playing it on a real MD and you'll see what I mean. I'm not sensitive to input lag at all and I still noticed it, so those who are sensitive probably find it borderline unplayable.

[Lemnear]

Ratalaika Gleylancer has some noticeable input lag, although I don't think I've ever seen anyone lag test that. I wouldn't be surprised if this was laggy as well. Skip and go for ACA.

On what system? Gleylancer is oddly what I consider one of their best works and what I recommend constantly. Felt fine to me on XSX/Switch, though I did hear the PS4 ver had weird audio issues at launch. The fact they bothered subtitling that but not IF2 really makes me beg the question on how they dropped the ball and if ININ is crunching them, leading to shittier work...

Switch. It feels moderately disgusting after playing it on a real Mega Drive for a while. Try playing it on a real MD and you'll see what I mean. I'm not sensitive to input lag at all and I still noticed it, so those who are sensitive probably find it borderline unplayable.

weird because for me on PS4:
RayForce S-Tribue (Demo): Unplayable (- - -)
Capcom Arcade Stadium 1/2: Acceptable (Limit) (- -)
Strikers 1945 II: Acceptable (-)
Gleylancer: Responsive (0)
Ghost Blade HD: Responsive (+)
DariusBurst:AC/CS (+ or ++ mmm)
Hamster: Responsive (++)
M2 Darius: Perfect (+++)

[Steven]

It might be better on PS4, but it's definitely laggy on Switch compared to a real Mega Drive.

[SeafoamGaming]

oh that makes sense. OK, well the fact that tate mode exists gives me a little bit of hope. I'm curious if it's even possible to activate the "Arcade Mode" secret in PCE Image Fight as that requires a reset...

More of a rant incoming but I tried the cheat mentioned above + the other gamefaqs one I found, and it seems that none of them but soundtest work. The pod button is also somehow select, and while I was able to do a soft reset, it was fully on accident since I learned they deadass mapped the RUN button to the main shot button, solely to have players avoid hitting the plus button to start the game. That's why IF2 randomly pauses and the speed changes happen during IF1 gameplay. It is supposed to "shut off" during the normal game but it clearly doesn't do so properly.

Why they couldn't have just left the controls alone as is instead of trying to "modernize" them completely pisses me off. I also looked to see what other reviews are like, (since I can count the amount of worldwide players on the leaderboards on a single hand, almost nobody touched this set it seems) and some of what one said legitimately irritates me as much as I frown upon dunking on other freelancers and reviewers in the space.

Nintendo life reviewed it, and it's by the same guy who couldn't figure out how to unlock the other Sol Cresta modes in that review, so... There ya go. https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/sw ... n-volume-1 It also makes outright false statements such as this having more features than ACA (lol no) and calling IF2 the best game of the bunch (which yeah opinions and all but, really? it's just so clearly not made by the OG team and feels like a level pack). Also next to no mention of the major bugs besides the continue bit in IF2, (again, from them mapping select and run to face buttons) which makes me wonder how much this guy messed around with the other options and settings. I guess maybe if you play with the enhanced right stick crap it may be a bit nicer? I did notice the bad fast forward slowdown seems to go away quicker on docked mode vs portable, but it still is unacceptable for the set to have launched in.

Per the Xbox achievement page it also sounds like that version got delayed to Dec 7th, so is that the "true" launch? Will it finally be fixed then? Doesn't matter to me, I left my review score and like with them releasing a borked panorama cotton that's better now they should have never done so to begin with and I'm not changing it even if I wake up on the 7th to somehow every problem fixed.

They're literally just putting the game on an emulator with a menu system.
It's been almost a year or so since this was first announced? And the projected date for all five volumes is by the end of 2024 (which probably realistically means end of 2025 at the earliest)
And the reported issues with the games seems like stuff that could be fixed in a day if the people releasing it had any actual interest in the product.
I'm not sure what kind of "crunch" would be put on Ratalaika to result in that. I think it's just a low effort production hyped up to try to increase sales.

At least SLG claim they'll listen to the community for what needs to be patched and ensure the physical release will already be patched. But it's really exhausting to see so many companies treating digital releases as an open beta at full price.
It's also exhausting to see so many emulated direct ports of classic games handled with such indifference that it lowers the bar for those releases to such an insane low that anything even remotely decent gets treated like doing god's work.

See to me the bit that makes this more confusing is that when Ratalaika releases something all by themselves it has almost always launched in a far better, bug-less state than anything with ININ. The Masaya stuff is pretty solid and includes scans, translations, QOL, and easy ways to play the original experience with lots of button mapping options, while anything they do with ININ feels like a crapshoot. Puzzle Bobble doesn't even allow you to use save states for christ sake despite otherwise being fun. And then when this year their recent collections have tons of bugs (Jajamaru RPGs being borked due to them adding cheats, and then the normal set shitting the bed whenever you throw a CRT filter on the Switch version) that remain unfixed for months now, + rumors of them being in financial trouble (and their recent "BLACK FRIDAY SALE ON EVERY INHAND ITEM SO WE CAN MOVE TO A NEW WAREHOUSE PROMISE" doesn't bode well to me) and then this set being promoted on their socials despite releasing in a very poor state just sours my mood immensely, and there's no way ININ is giving them the time or workflow needed to make these sets as solid as their standalone, publisher-free stuff.

Say what you want about M2/Hamster releasing stuff with bugs or inaccuracies but at least they quickly work to fix them and have almost never to my knowledge release something in this bad of a state, where button inputs just flat out don't work properly and it feels like nobody with even beginner level shmup experience tested this bad collection. I think the only sort of company that I know of that consistently releases poor sets like this (and even then, ININ has released fine sets before like Wonder Boy AC) was Qubyte, who I have the weird honor of being removed from their PR list for calling out how input-lag riddled their Classics lineup was. (Like, 8-10+ frames it felt like, it was horrid and they never ever fixed any of em, even after months of releasing new games with the same crappy wrapper, despite Breakers Collection somehow turning out OK)

So when ININ goes on social media on launch day and says they'll patch it soon, that makes me annoyed since

1: ok so for reviewers like me that got the game a day or two early are we supposed to not cover what we see? even then launch day didn't fix a damn thing and my version is still 1.01 which is bugged and borked the same way as the day I reviewed this...

2: digital buyers in Japan and US can get it on switch right now, and with this bad of quality I feel if you jump for it, you'll feel ripped off in no time until they patch it, IF they ever do, and the JP ver launched when my code activated, so even they are dealing with the nonsense I'm going through now

3: you also basically just confirm through that how the physical copies you opened for order since ages ago will be even later than predicted, already not boding well since some standard editions slated for Q4 23 got delayed to late Q3 2024 with no explanation, yet the retail ver is fine and set for Feb so why wouldn't most non FOMO bait buyers go for that instead, unless they don't bother fixing the bugs

4: why would anyone buy Volumes 2/3 right now instead of waiting for the digital launches to see how they turn out, and why would you bet your company's future on the sales of very expensive to license IREM games that aren't even the ones people begged an eternity for (R-Type LEO, Baseball Batman)

So yeah I guess I'll believe it when I see it and I'll go "oh yay I can tolerate playing this" but in the meantime I'll just go back to my ACA Image Fight and mourn the fact we could have had a solid port of the home versions, but somehow nobody else tested them and saw the speed changing at random

[Sumez]

Nintendo life reviewed it, and it's by the same guy who couldn't figure out how to unlock the other Sol Cresta modes in that review, so... There ya go.

This is Skykid, a good guy. I have decent confidence in him.

[Lemnear]

Nintendo life reviewed it, and it's by the same guy who couldn't figure out how to unlock the other Sol Cresta modes in that review, so... There ya go.

This is Skykid, a good guy. I have decent confidence in him.

Isn't Skykid an user here?

[BIL]

Yeah Sky Boy is good peeps - not just any Shumps Fren has authentic + LEGIT fanfiction about him

Plot Summary

WHY THE FUCK DID YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA

Sounds fairly potato/potahto, re this collection vs ACA ImageFight & X-Multiply's features. ACA is generally the logical progression of VING's Saturn ports. You get painstakingly accurate translation, with no perceptible input lag (ACA Metal Black was clocked at just 0.5f behind the PCB, and is faster on modern displays than the upscaled board) - plus full button remap with custom autofire, a savestate, and some QoL goodies here and there. See the recent ACA Daioh's OYAJI DISPLAY, and many more; Gun Frontier's Rank-tuned autofire, Phelios and Pistol Daimyou's rapid charge shots, Gunnail's alarm toggle, Thunder Dragon 2's ship select, Raiden's coin-in RNG control, ImageFight's Pod Shoot macro and Auto Boost Attack frequency, etc etc. Also Trigon's hitbox reduce which I appreciate but won't touch, l2bigbox rookie. Could go on and on, even before getting to the non-STGs.

Saturn Metal Black vs ACA Metal Black is a particularly handy example; City Connection promptly noping out of PS4/NSW Saturn MB, after Hamster came off the top rope outta nowhere like VING Jr.

Sometimes, as with ACA Task Force Harrier (correct ship speed), and ACA Omega Fighter in its day (correct zako aggression), they're the only accurate emulation there is, official or otherwise! That's fuckin hardcore And sometimes, the competition's emulation can't compete! See SNK40th's Guevara (random controller freezes a go-go), and Contra Anniversary Collection (arcade Contra has heaving slowdown, and the same ol' busted 3D stages as everything else pre-ACA; an exceedingly rare fumble by M2).

HOWEVER (■｀w´■) if you want rewind, or arrange modes/mechanics, or training modes etc, never mind lots of scans, ACA may make you sad. I feel bad for you son! Good thing you're only out a few bucks mirite! Consider making dummy accounts for as many savestates as you like, and remember - all grandpa had BITD was a roll of quarters and his fuckin balls!

It's also exhausting to see so many emulated direct ports of classic games handled with such indifference that it lowers the bar for those releases to such an insane low that anything even remotely decent gets treated like doing god's work.

Yep. 3;

Being glass half-full, M2 and Hamster alone have contributed a lifetime's worth of reference-standard home translations, this gen-plus. There's more than most could hope to see the end of, at least not without going full hikikomori.

But it's ridiculous, yeah. The game comes first. Fail that, and everything else can eat a fuckin massive dick. (｀w´メ)

TLDR: Hamster, M2, Everyone Else ca 2020 (colourised)

[SeafoamGaming]

Got an email confirming an Xbox release for this soon, along with Clockwork Aquario and the two Cotton ports.

I betcha they dont fix a single bug.

[Lemnear]

The only thing that stopped me for now from jumping into Arcade Archives, is the possibility in the Irem Collection to play all the games as some sort of Twin-stick Shooter. So you have 2 modes.
Damn i hate multi-ported games...

[SeafoamGaming]

New patch dropped today, without any prior warning.

Fired it up on my switch after a reader emailed me to say their PS4 version got it too. Well, they fixed *some* things but the bare ass minimum. The default mapping bug is fixed, and image fight no longer changes speed rapidly. Yay.

But IF2's stupid pause bug, IF NES's broken autofire, and the fast forward bugs are all still there. In fact, it seems on Switch at least they just gave up on fast forwarding being a thing, and deleted it from the collection entirely. I guess that's one way to not have to deal with having it look terrible that an NES game with a fast forward feature makes the framerate die.

Still reaaaaaallly shoddy IMO.

[SeafoamGaming]

Bumping because i got a new patch a few weeks ago. Finally tried it tonight.

Not a damn thing i noted in my last post got fixed. NES IF autofire is still broken! Absolutely amazing how horribad this compilation turned out. Yet it got too many high scores despite these blatant issues. I dont get people sometimes.

Also seems to have bombed in sales as i’m still the only one on a few of the leaderboards even 2 months later, which… doesnt sound good if JP got this game and turned away from it lol

[Steven]

I imagine a lot of people were probably like "Lol WTF is this shit? I have all of these on ACA already" and passed. I am one of them. This is a pretty pointless product unless you just want a physical version or want to play Image Fight II and don't have a better way to do so.

[Astro City II]

I imagine a lot of people were probably like "Lol WTF is this shit? I have all of these on ACA already" and passed. I am one of them. This is a pretty pointless product unless you just want a physical version or want to play Image Fight II and don't have a better way to do so.

It's absolutely NOT a pointless product. Especially for the Xbox shmup fans who stupidly don't even have the opportunity to buy the Arcade Archive games on their platform.

[Lemnear]

I imagine a lot of people were probably like "Lol WTF is this shit? I have all of these on ACA already" and passed. I am one of them. This is a pretty pointless product unless you just want a physical version or want to play Image Fight II and don't have a better way to do so.

It's absolutely NOT a pointless product. Especially for the Xbox shmup fans who stupidly don't even have the opportunity to buy the Arcade Archive games on their platform.

I always forget that Arcade Archives are not on XBOX, there are only the ACA NeoGeo.

[BrianC]

Ratalaika Gleylancer has some noticeable input lag, although I don't think I've ever seen anyone lag test that. I wouldn't be surprised if this was laggy as well. Skip and go for ACA.

On what system? Gleylancer is oddly what I consider one of their best works and what I recommend constantly. Felt fine to me on XSX/Switch, though I did hear the PS4 ver had weird audio issues at launch. The fact they bothered subtitling that but not IF2 really makes me beg the question on how they dropped the ball and if ININ is crunching them, leading to shittier work...

Switch. It feels moderately disgusting after playing it on a real Mega Drive for a while. Try playing it on a real MD and you'll see what I mean. I'm not sensitive to input lag at all and I still noticed it, so those who are sensitive probably find it borderline unplayable.

I noticed the Switch version has less lag when switched to classic mode. The translated version can't even be played without extra input lag.

[SeafoamGaming]

Sooooo Vol 2 was given a digital release date of tomorrow months ago and still nothing else about it. No eShop listing, no reply to the review code inquiries… nothing. Vol 1’s still broken too. I asked PR and they said they have no clue about the digital release status.

The ININ page for vol 2 still lists tomorrow as the launchd date but I’m in the “stealth delayed” camp. SLG’s rumored financial issues probably aren’t helping.

[Bear78]

Sooooo Vol 2 was given a digital release date of tomorrow months ago and still nothing else about it. No eShop listing, no reply to the review code inquiries… nothing. Vol 1’s still broken too. I asked PR and they said they have no clue about the digital release status.

The ININ page for vol 2 still lists tomorrow as the launchd date but I’m in the “stealth delayed” camp. SLG’s rumored financial issues probably aren’t helping.

It does look like they are releasing a patch for Vol. 1 to fix some issues.

https://x.com/ININ_Games/status/1758164 ... 84931?s=20

[SeafoamGaming]

Sooooo Vol 2 was given a digital release date of tomorrow months ago and still nothing else about it. No eShop listing, no reply to the review code inquiries… nothing. Vol 1’s still broken too. I asked PR and they said they have no clue about the digital release status.

The ININ page for vol 2 still lists tomorrow as the launchd date but I’m in the “stealth delayed” camp. SLG’s rumored financial issues probably aren’t helping.

It does look like they are releasing a patch for Vol. 1 to fix some issues.

https://x.com/ININ_Games/status/1758164 ... 84931?s=20

They said that about Jajamaru (One year later, no patches) and the current patches for Vol 1 haven't fixed much of anything, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Also yeah, still no word on Vol 2 coming out tomorrow and Japan did not get the game. It seems like a stealth delay.

[Lemnear]

LoL where is Vol 2?
Will they stop the series so soon? ahahah

...

[ryu]

I honestly don't get what this was about. They could have made good money had they started releasing these around the time R-Type Final 2 was making the news by bundling various R-Type games with the collections. Would have given Irems other classics good exposure to the casual crowd that only knows R-Type too.

Seems like it might be worth it for the artbook though. But one can only hope that it won't be a disappointment.