Taito Legends


Taito Legends is a compilation of 29 arcade games released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. The games were originally developed by Taito Corporation. The European release was published by Empire Interactive, who had licensed the games from Taito and developed the compilation. Although they did not get official credit for it in the American versions, Sega published the North American and South American releases.
Extra features include interviews with some of the game designers, original sales flyers, and arcade cabinet art.
Two follow-up compilations were issued; Taito Legends 2 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC and the PlayStation Portable exclusive Taito Legends Power-Up.

Games

While the Western Taito Legends consists of 29 arcade games, the Japanese Taito Memories includes only 25 arcade games per volume, omitting Jungle Hunt, Colony 7, The Electric Yo-Yo, Zoo Keeper and Tube It.
TitleArcade releaseTaito MemoriesAlternative title
Space Invaders1978
Space Invaders Part II1979Deluxe Space Invaders
Phoenix1980
Colony 71981
The Electric Yo-Yo1982
Jungle Hunt1982Jungle King and Pirate Pete
Zoo Keeper1982
Elevator Action1983
Great Swordsman1984
Return of the Invaders1985
Bubble Bobble1986
Gladiator1986Ougon no Shiro
Tokio1986Scramble Formation
Exzisus1987
Operation Wolf1987
Plump Pop1987
Rastan1987Rastan Saga
1987
Super Qix1987
Operation Thunderbolt1988
The New Zealand Story1988
Battle Shark1989
Continental Circus1989
Plotting1989Flipull
Volfied1989
The Ninja Kids1990
Space Gun1990
ThunderFox1990
Tube It1993Cachat

Between 2005 and 2007, in total four similar compilations had been released by Taito for the PlayStation 2 in its home market of Japan:
The games on this compilation are emulations of their respective arcade originals; however, the software lacks light gun support for Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, and Space Gun. These games place a gun cursor on the screen, which the player can move around with the analog stick, or mouse.
The games that had to be altered due to licensing issues are Jungle Hunt and Rainbow Islands. Elements of Jungle Hunt had to be altered such as the design of the Tarzan like character and the signature Tarzan yell due to licensing issues with Edgar Rice Burroughs estate. Rainbow Islands had to alter its music for the re-release due to licensing.

Reception

Taito Legends received slightly positive reviews with a score of 74.06% for the Xbox version, 71.68% for the PlayStation 2 version, and 75.17% for the Windows version on GameRankings. IGN praised the collection for a superb presentation, as well as the large amount of bonus material, but criticized some titles in the collection as "worthless filler". Other criticisms are the lack of online leaderboards, the omission of Arkanoid and Chase H.Q., the lack of light gun support for Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, and Space Gun, the lack of control configuration, and for the controls being "flipped", making it potentially uncomfortable and unnatural to many, less-adaptable players. Only the Windows version fixes the error regarding the collection's control scheme.