Bitwave Games specializes in retro entertainment we all grew up with and luckily enough for us, they have compiled this collection which has been named the ‘Toaplan Arcade Shoot Em’ Up Collection Vol 1’. This collection has four amazing titles built into it which are certain to give you hours of fun.

The first title is ‘Out Zone’ which was originally dropped in 1990. Out Zone is a vertically scrolling, run-and-gun game that is based in the future on a planet called Owagira, where you are a trained group of mercenaries that need to get as far as you can pulling the trigger.

The next title on the list is ‘Zero Wing’ which was released in 1989 is a side-scrolling shooter where you control a spacecraft called the ‘ZIG’. You get to control a bloke by the name of Trent on a mission to overthrow the cyborg alien enemies.

‘Twin Cobra’ is coming in next in the lineup of cool retro titles. It first graced our presence in 1985 and it’s back to the vertical scroll shooter style of gameplay. Twin Cobra is a sequel to a title by the name of ‘Tiger Heli’. The main objective of this game is to survive as long as possible whilst avoiding everything and everyone thrown in your path.

The fourth and last vertical scroller game in this collection is ‘Truxton’ which was first released in 1988. You are thrown into a fighter jet on the last leap to stop the aliens from invading. Like the others, you need to avoid or destroy anything that gets in your way and survive the onslaught.

Like all retro arcade-style games this kept me entertained for hours wanting to see how long I could survive the endless waves. I will need to admit, Twin Cobra would have to be my favorite. Being able to smash enemies with the helicopter was awesome. Anyone that has played retro games before will know some of them are endless classic fun and when I say endless, I mean endless.

It’s always concerning playing retro games with the controls as how well things had been mapped out and how well the game played with the mapped out keys can be retro and outdated as well. In this collection, I found myself constantly checking the controls on each game to make sure I had everything down pat. The controls had been done so well with this and the fact you can connect your Xbox Controller and keep the fun going without having to use the keyboard was awesome. I honestly preferred using the keyboard though as I felt I had some more control.

The graphics were everything I remembered from retro games of the late 80s and early 90s. They held up well in the modern day and the graphics were stunning as it took me down memory lane. Every time I booted up a retro game it was shocking to just see how far the art style has come and for something that is over 30 years old, it looks great. They’re all third person, 2D art style and all looking down or sideways onto the piece but the amount of items placed into the game to make them all look eye-catching and all looking fully visualized in their environments was great.

These are the games where you turn the audio up to 100 and immerse yourself into the games and that is exactly what I did. Everything from the mass bullet sounds to the explosions when I was dying all sounded awesome and part of the era they came from. I’m unsure if the developers when doing this collection put some work into the sounds because it sounded like it had that slight modern tweak to the game like it had been optimized but it could be my own system. Though overall, it still could not take away from that immersive classic feeling.

While not collected into one menu but a bundle of four games, for anyone that is into retro gaming and loves a good side scroller or vertical scroller shooting game this collection is for you. It’s loaded with four action-packed titles and like I mentioned before there is endless fun. It brings back some awesome memories of retro games when I was a kid and will make you feel like taking your coins to the local arcade.

Written by: Hayden Nelson