Irem Collection Volume 1 Review

The developer/publisher Irem first began in 1968 however gaming was not their first venture. They’d sell machines for cotton candy stores. Their success led them to create IPM to build and install arcade machines in small stores. Following their release of IPM Invader (close of Space Invaders) in 1978 and to avoid confusion, IPM was re-branded as Irem Corporation in 1979. Between 1982 and 1994, they released a handful of games, mostly shmups, including the popular R-Type franchise. In 1996, they tried a comeback with Gussun Paradise, but it would ultimately end up being their last game developed.

In 1997, their parent company, Nanao, Irem Software Engineering and absorbed Irem Corporation. From that point on they developed and published mostly for the Japanese market; especially for Playstation and Nintendo. Years later, they opted out of the game development field and mainly acts as a licensor of its IPs to other developers; which brings us to Irem Collection Volume 1.

Irem Collection Volume 1 is a bundle of three classic Irem shmups: Image Fight, Image Fight 2 and X-Multiply. While it doesn’t sound like much, it does feature a few regional variants of each game. Both Image Fight games are vertical shmup whereas X-Multiply is an horizontal one. While there’s a difference in visual styles, the gameplay doesn’t change much. Image Fight is available under the NES, Famicom and Japanese Arcade versions. Its sequel is only available as the PC Engine CD version and finally X-Multiply is available under the Japanese arcade and Worldwide arcade versions. Most games do offer an option to change difficulty to give players a bit of a fighting chance.

All three games share the same formula as most shoot’em up: kill everything, dodge projectiles on your way to the boss. You can also pick up a bevy of power-ups to dispatch of enemies quicker. Players, across all three games, will be able to pick up power ups such as small ships that will follow you and shoot additional projectiles; the difference is that in X-Multiplay, they are fused to your ship like octopus tentacles. And as you’d expect, when you die, you lose everything. Thankfully, more often than not, shortly after respawning, you do get a power-up. Amongst the power up is a speed boost. While this applies to X-Multiply, players have a control over their speed in Image Fight and Image Fight 2.

Each game retains its classic visual style. Obviously, if you’re looking for the newest visual, Irem Collection Volume 1 is not the game for you. Each game has a decent variety of enemies. Given that they are shoot’em ups, the overall visual styling holds up pretty well and even is better than some more recent releases in the genre; the games’ dark/black backdrop allow players to easily spot enemies and their projectiles. While both Image Fight games have typical ships enemy design, X-Multiply has some of the creepiest enemies; stuff made of nightmares such as a giant eye shooting projectiles as it opens/closes. The soundtrack is fully representative of the chiptune era of the old school gaming era, although quite forgettable as a whole. They sound like their era; for better or for worst.

While this is a great way to get old and new players alike to sample your games, this collection has two major flaws. First up being the lack of gameplay content. With only three games, and some variants, feels a bit shallow considering other collection such as Atari Anniversary Edition includes a massive amount of games. Spreading this out across multiple collection feels like a greedy way of going about thing; if people are turned off by this first attempt, they might not even considering subsequent releases. Also these games are not for the faint of heart or casual gamers. It’s one hit death and you’re ass is booted back far back in the level when you die. Practice makes perfect, but repetition might drive some people bonkers. Also for whatever reason, when not in a game, the game asks you to authenticate yourself for whatever reason. Also, the JP version of X-Multiply offers a continue feature when game over’ed… but the developpers didn’t program any button to accept the continue option… meaning you can’t continue.

While I’m a fan of these types of collection, Irem Collection Volume 1 kinda falls flat overall. Even as a long time fan of the shmup genre, I found myself craving more. The package feels lackluster and light on gameplay content. Sure, it’s fun to enjoy classic games of one of the hardest genre out there, but it also shows how far we’ve come and shows the games’ age. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of the genre or craving old school action, Irem Collection Volume 1 is a must play. For those looking to damper in the genre or just casual gamer, you’ll find yourself frustrating with this lackluster collection.