I do have a soft spot for some old-school shoot ’em up action. Being the older game that I am, I was raised on these kinds of games… I was never any good at them mind you. Regardless, I do enjoy a good shoot ’em up. Developer Irem and publisher ININ bring you Irem Collection Volume 1 for some classic arcade action.

“Get ready for the start of something big: Volume 1 of the monumental Irem Collection. If you’re a fan of retro gaming or looking for a new challenge, the Image Fight series and X-Multiply are must-play classic Shoot ‘Em Ups. Originally released during the golden age of arcade gaming in the late 1980s and early 1990s, these games have become cult classics among retro gaming enthusiasts.”

Let me get right into this. With Irem Collection Volume 1 you get three games, Image Fight, Image Fight II: Operation Deepstriker and X Multiply. All three games are available to play in their original arcade flavours, for the most part. There was no arcade version of Image Fight II and you have to play the PC Engine version, which is fine because the PC Engine was more than capable of delivering a fantastic arcade experience when it came to games like this.

As for the other two titles? With Image Fight, you can play the Japanese and World arcade versions, the PC Engine port and the Famicom/NES port too. It is nice to have other ports of the same game… but while you might check the NES version out for a few minutes, you’ll really only play the original arcade one. With X Multiply, you only get the arcade version… because there was only an arcade version, no home ports of this one. Still, as with the other games, you can choose between the Japanese and World versions.

In terms of gameplay, both Image Fight and Image Fight II are proper old-school hard, punishingly so. These are one-hit-deaths (unless you nabbed a weapon power-up and can afford to take an extra hit) and when you die, you lose all of your weapons. And yes, this does make trying to get any further pretty much impossible. Really, if you lose a life while playing Image Fight or Image Fight II, you may as well just restart.

X Multiply is a little more forgiving and not quite as punishing. Still, that doesn’t mean that the game is easy, far from it. It’s just not quite as ‘kick you in the balls and laugh’ hard. All three titles are very playable, if you’re a classic shoot ’em up fan. On that front, this is a pretty decent collection. Along with the games, you get all the usual options to pick through. There are difficulty settings, adjust the number of lives and such. You can add CRT-like scanlines for a more authentic look, adjust the screen size and all of the usual gubbins that you get with these kinds of collections. Other than that, there’s really not much else to cover.

Around £20 is how much Irem Collection Volume 1 will set you back and honestly, I’m not 100% convinced that it is really worth it. The collection is bare-bones and offers nothing more that similar collections have done before, and they did them better too. You do only get the three games and yes, you can play different ports of the games (well you can with Image Fight), you’re only going to play the arcade version because it is the far superior one. Plus, Image Fight and Image Fight II are too similar to each other to separate.

More Irem collections are incoming and they have already been announced. Soon you’ll be seeing Volume 2 with GunForce, GunForce II and Air Duel. Volume 3 will contain Mr. Heli/Battle Chopper, Mystic Riders and Dragon Breed. Then, Volume 4 and Volume 5 have also been announced, though the games on them have not (yet). Still, if you are a bit of an Irem fan, then you’ll notice a severe lack of R-Type, I’m going  to assume that one of those (or both) will have one or several R-Type titles on them.

Seeing as there are more collections on the way and seeing as this first one is not exactly having me singing its praises much, I’d suggest that you sit on your money and wait until all of the collections have been released and just pick these up once they have dropped in price. I don’t think that £20 for a bare-bones collection of three 30+ year old games is really worth it. They may be good games to play, but the overall package is really lacking, especially when compared to similar collections.

They should’ve just put the whole lot on to one collection and charged £50-£60 for the lot. With five volumes and only three games on each, this just seems like they’re trying to squeeze every last penny out of the customer. Good games but a pretty lacklustre collection.