Shooting with Hollow point rounds..
Irem Collection Volume 2 follows up on the shoot’em action offered in Volume 1 with a run and gun collection of GunForce and GunForce II, as well as a bizarre pack-in of the vertical shoot'em up, Air Duel. While this collection introduces players to the games that helped spawn Metal Slug, it lacks the bonus content that could honor those games and the teams that built them, especially given the quality of other collections as of late.
Contained in this package are three arcade perfect ports and the SNES port of GunForce 1, which is nice to see included but it's unlikely you'll spend time with that one as the arcade port is vastly superior. The collection also sports a rewind feature, save states, and visual additions like scanlines and CRT filters. It's typical of what the publisher has done before, so you'll know what to expect if you've engaged with their prior collections. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
GunForce was developed by several members of the team that would go on to make Metal Slug. However; GunForce II is the more standout experience that resembles the origins of Metal Slug to a significant degree. If GunForce II is Metal Slug, then GunForce I would be Contra as it feels and plays like that beloved series. GunForce features six stages and while the game is considerably challenging without relying on the rewind feature, you can turn on additional cheats to breeze through it in no time.
At its core, GunForce is clearly inspired by 1987’s Contra and isn't ashamed to flaunt a wealth of similarities. You'll have variable weapon types and several vehicles to take over and demolish everything in your path. It's pretty enjoyable, and while the SNES version is included, it is the weaker experience by a great deal.
GunForce II; however, is the best part of this package. Also known as Geo Storm in Japan, which is also included, GunForce II is a riot and is certainly where the team began to show off visuals that would then be the basis for Metal Slug. This game is far more intense than GunForce while still retaining the run and gun format that was present in GunForce and what would evolve over time to their future projects. That said, GunForce II is far more difficult than its predecessor, and that rewind feature really came in handy.
I will say that much of the difficulty comes from trying to drop down and your character hanging onto the platform before you press down again to finally let go. While the hanging works in several circumstances, that extra step to take when you are swarmed can often mean the difference between life and death. It's a small nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but the art style and feel of combat nonetheless do a lot of the heavy lifting to make this game shine.
Air Duel; however, feels like the odd man out here and likely a title the publisher had no other means to release it other than packing it in here. That said, Air Duel is fine for a quick playthrough, but doesn't really make as good of an impact as the other titles in this collection, especially GunForce II.
Air Duel is in the same vein as 1942, as well as the ton of other shoot'em games that have you piloting a plane or helicopter through a swarm of bullets. Air Duel has you choosing between a jet and said helicopter, each having different shooting mechanics. The jet shoots toward, whereas the copter fires based on your movement. While it is a fine enough title to play through once, it still does feel like the publisher was grasping to add something more to the package to add some sort of additional value to its price.
While GunForce II is a solid game, the rest of the package is fairly uneven. The arcade port of GunForce is fine for what the hardware could manage back then, but $24.99 for the collection seems a bit steep for what are essentially ROMs. The addition of these games are pretty barebones with nothing to truly celebrate them. The emulator features like rewind, invulnerability, and unlimited lives/ammo is fine enough, but when we see collections like Marvel vs Capcom have hundreds of concept art available to view or the TMNT collection having a wealth of materials to celebrate its history, I wish we could have gotten something here, even at a basic level.
Overall, if you are a fan of these collections and are intent on buying them, regardless of what's involved, there is a decent few hours here at most. It's hard to recommend this collection due to there only being one really fun game here. That said, if you are interested in the origins of Metal Slug, then grab a few guns, a jet, and snag a few of those hostages to rescue, and prepare to die, alot.
Developer - Tozai Games, Irem.
Publisher - ININ Games. Released - November 14th, 2024. Available On - Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X/S. Rated - (E 10+) - Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.