That Hellfire soundtrack though
Coming off the heels of reviewing the GRADIUS collection, I am back with another bundle of shooters, this time of a lesser-known extent. The Toaplan Collection Volumes 1 and 2 contains nearly every game from the company’s history. Some of which players have likely heard of in one form or fashion, whether it is a classic meme, or the wonderful Genesis ports. Still these two titles are filled to the brim with classic shooters. I had a blast revisiting these and discovering a couple that I had never played. While it does lack in the extras department, it is well worth checking out, if for nothing else, but the history lesson.
The Toaplan Arcade Collection is broken down into two volumes. Each one consists of eight titles so if you want to get every game, it comes at a hefty price. Each volume retails for $34.99, so to get it all, it is $70. That is pretty expensive, but remember, you are getting 16 classic shooters.
MSRP: $34.99 per volume
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $34.99
So what is in the collection? The first volume was easily the lesser known for me. While it includes some familiar games such as Tiger Heli, Twin Cobra, and Batsugun, there were more than a couple I had never played such as Fixeight and Out Zone. The first volume is by far the most obscure with most games being vertical shooters with a couple highlights that I recognize. This doesn’t discount the other games though. There are definitely some classics in here, and I love revisiting them without investing a boatload of quarters.
The second collection definitely has more name recognition, at least for me. We get the infamous Zero Wing, which is known for its horrid translation errors. Hellfire has one of the best soundtracks of any shooter ever created. The cult classic Truxton is also here alongside its solid sequel. This volume is rounded out by titles such as Grind Stormer, Twin Hawk, and Vimana. There are more vertical shooters in this volume, and this is by far my favorite of the two collections.
There are multiple versions of each game and while there is no online play, several of the titles do include local co-op. This is neat, but in this day and age omitting online play feels like a miss. I also wish we could have seen some of the console ports included, but it is called the arcade collection, so I can’t complain too much.
While the games are always the main attraction, these collections also include plenty of quality-of-life improvements. The Toaplan Collection brings a few modern amenities with it. The standards are here such as Achievements/Trophies, online leaderboards, and save states. We also have a rewind feature, which is a must for my old reflexes and shooters. There are also some really neat assists and quality-of-life features such as being able to change the hitboxes to make it harder for enemies to hit you and even showing the hitboxes while playing. The developers have also given access to the dip switches in each game so you can cheat to your heart’s desire. The stat tracking feature is great for data nerds.
Finally, we have the standard screen options to make the games look old on new displays. CRT filters are aplenty here with several options. There are also smoothing filters and even wallpaper designs that can spice up the image. I am a boring person though and just let it run in unfiltered pixels with black borders, but the options are there for those that love to recapture that classic CRT look and feel.
The Toaplan Arcade Collection is an interesting piece of history. There are some deep cuts here, and I enjoyed discovering the games I had never played. Of course, revisiting classics such as Truxton, Hellfire, and of course Zero Wing on my Xbox in 2025 was a trip. I love the renaissance that shooters are in. Bring them all back! Being able to just sit down at my modern console and do a run of Tiger Heli is really cool.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
