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Among the lesser known games you might want to give a shot is Strato Fighter. It bears more than a passing resemblance to Irem's R-Type series in graphics and style, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The visuals still hold up decently enough, perhaps a bit more so than the gameplay, which is a bit too straight-forward and simple in this day of bullet-death twitch shmups. Even so, it's nice that Tecmo included it here; the more retro shmups we get, the better!
Another surprise was Pleiades, which was more fun than I remembered it to be. Decidedly retro in gameplay, it uses the same graphical style as one of my other early 80s favorites -Phoenix. With an uncomplicated and hands-on approach from the golden age of arcades, it was actually more fun to me than some of the other younger games in this collection.
Sadly, it's basically all down hill from there. Games like Swimmer, Star Force, Bomb Jack, Senjyo, and Pinball Action aren't too recognizable, and you're sure to tire of them rather quickly. Star Force was the predecessor to the famous Star Soldier franchise, which saw much love on the Turbo Grafx-16 (and not nearly enough in the U.S.). Don't let its legacy cloud your mind, however, as it plays more like the Sega Master System game Astro Warrior than any of the classic shmups it inspired. The remaining choices can be best described as filler. Honestly, none of them will have you playing for more than a few minutes at best. Be it Swimmer's droll and monotonous log-dodging or Pinball Action's sleep-inducing tables, you'll be hitting reset very quickly.
Lacking the Famous Tecmo Polish
That's basically the whole problem here. Retro collections are supposed to bring the best parts of a company's history to younger generations of gamers, yet this collection hardly makes even the feeblest of attempts. Where is Tecmo Knight? Its exclusion is simply unforgivable. What happened to Silkworm, Guzzler, and Tecmo World Cup? Why leave them out? The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden was also omitted, since it's featured as an unlockable in Ninja Gaiden Black (as if that game needed anything else to be great). Considering the paltry selection here, why would you purposely limit the set? It's not like Tecmo has a massive backlog of coin-ops waiting in the wings, and there aren't really enough games left for a second volume.
Overall, Tecmo Classic Arcade is a disappointment. Though the games are well emulated, without hiccups or glitches, there just isn't enough meat on these bones to sate your retro hunger. When you consider that the Xbox release is a revamped version of Tecmo Hit Parade for the PlayStation 2 – which featured only seven games- the whole situation becomes intolerable. If you're going to improve something, do it right. Tecmo is a company known for its attention to detail and perfection, which is what makes this compilation all the more frustrating. Save your quarters friends, this arcade's not worth your time.
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