TAITO MILESTONES from ININ Games brings a collection of 10 arcade classics to the Nintendo Switch. Learn more about it in our Taito Milestones review!
TAITO MILESTONES from ININ Games brings a collection of 10 arcade classics to the Nintendo Switch. This one is powered by Arcade Archives, which means we’re getting faithful versions of all of these arcade games, thanks to the experience from HAMSTER, who has worked on bringing dozens of arcade classics to consoles. What TAITO classic arcade games are you getting in this collection? The ten games are Qix, Space Seeker, Alpine Ski, Front Line, Wild Western, Chack’n Pop, Elevator Action, The FairyLand Story, Halley’s Comet, and The Ninja Warriors. This is a lineup that takes us from 1981 to 1987, with a varied set of games.
Each entry in the collection allows you to create what it calls Interrupt Save Data, which means it will save where you are at that exact moment so that the next time you launch that game, you’ll restart from that point. You can also configure the display with a frame around the action, change its size, add wallpaper, or a filter to change the way the screen looks. The games can also be configured by changing the number of lives when you get an extra life, the difficulty, and other stuff. You can change the button settings, review the online score rankings for each game, as well as check a manual that will let you know how to play each game.
Qix is a classic arcade game that has inspired a ton of games featuring the same gameplay mechanics but with revised themes and graphics. You’ll control the Marker as you draw at a slow or fast pace around the screen and must close off linear areas of different shapes and sizes to score points. You’ll score more points if you close off an area by drawing slowly, but this increases the risk of being hit by the Qix enemy or the Sparx that moves around the edge. To clear a stage, you must close off at least 75% of the entire screen, which is easier said than done! You must act quickly because you’re on a timer, and the longer you take to complete a stage, the more Sparx will spawn, and they’ll eventually become more aggressive. Depending on if you closed off an area while drawing slow or fast, the shape that will form will be either yellow or blue. Qix is also available as a separate Arcade Archives release for $7.99.
Space Seeker is a bit different from the rest of the pack. The screen will present you with a map where you will spot the enemy air forces and mobile fortresses. When you come into contact with one or the other, you’ll move to a separate screen. For air force screens, you’ll be going up against enemy forces head-on from a cockpit view. If you come into contact with a mobile fortress, then you’ll be in a bit of a trickier scenario. The screen will move sideways in a more traditional shoot ’em up style, and you’ll have to try and escape before it’s too late. Once you’ve survived through all the enemy air force battles and mobile fortress scenarios, you’ll move to another map.
As the name suggests, Alpine Ski is a skiing game in which you’ll need to ski down the slope as you avoid snowmobiles, skiers who are too slow for their own good, trees, and rocks. You boost your score by hitting the score markers along the way. There are going to be some ice patches along the way that can make things extra slippery, so be careful! Once you complete the ski course, you’ll be taken to the slalom course. The slalom course has you zigging and zagging between the poles as you hit the score markers along the way while trying not to hit the poles since knocking one over will deduct 100 points from your score. Managed to complete the slalom course? Great! You’ll now be on towards the ski jump course. You must get your timing just right to be able to make a jump and avoid landing on any of the trees. The longer your jump distance, the better the score! After this one, you’ll be taken back to the slope course to repeat the cycle. You can also buy Alpine Ski as an Arcade Archives game for $7.99.
Front Line is a game that has you take on the role of a foot soldier that is trying to reach the enemy camp. You’re going to have to defeat enemy soldiers and tanks to reach the camp, which you’ll have to destroy with your powerful grenades. You might run into a blue tank or an armored car, which you should definitely get into so that you can deal more damage while being able to sustain attacks without dying right away. Since tanks and armored cars are so powerful, if you run into one, you better be riding one to deal some damage! If not, you’ll have to use your grenades to get rid of them! Just be careful, because the explosion from the grenades you throw can also kill you!
For Wild Western, you’ll be playing as a sheriff who must take down the gangsters that are trying to rob the train. You’ll need to do this while avoiding obstacles such as rocks and cactus, as well as staying away from the train. Oh, and, you know, not being hit by any of the bullets. You’ll use both sticks to move your character and aim as you shoot at the gangsters. If one of them manages to get on top of the train, you’ll have to ride next to the train and jump on top of it to defeat the enemy as you crouch to avoid the water pipe that can end up hitting the sheriff. Complete a stage, and you’ll have to go into a bonus stage where you can try to shoot at a coin that your horse kicks over to double the bonus points you will get. Wild Western is also out on Switch as an Arcade Archives game for a $7.99 asking price.
Chack’n Pop is a 2D platformer in which you’ll be playing as Chack’n, who must explore a cave to recover the love hearts of his wife and him, which were stolen by monsters. The game uses an enemy from the beloved Bubble Bobble, but it features very different gameplay mechanics. Your character can walk on the floor or the ceiling but can’t walk on walls. It can launch bombs that can be used to defeat the enemies. One button rolls bombs left, and another one rolls right. If your character is caught in the smoke of a bomb, you’ll lose a life. You’ll get a training level so that you can get the hang of things since you need to defeat enemies in your way to use a bomb to release the hearts in cages for that level so that you can remove the block that is keeping you from leaving the maze and collecting the hearts. You can also use the bombs to destroy some walls.
Elevator Action is one that I played a lot back in the day in the arcades. The gameplay loop is a minimalist one, and the controls are simple. You’ll be taking control of a spy who must infiltrate a building and fight against enemy spies in order to steal a bunch of confidential documents. You’ll have to use a lot of elevators – as well as some escalators – to find the rooms with red doors that contain the documents. Shoot at enemies to defeat them or at lamps to have them crash on top of an opponent while also making everything go dark for a few seconds. As you try to stay alive, make sure you don’t fall down an elevator shaft! You can also jump at an enemy and give them a good kick to knock them out! Once you’ve collected all of the secret documents
The FairyLand Story is a single screen 2D platformer in which you’ll take control of a young witch who must use her magic to defeat the monsters that have invaded the castle. Your goal, therefore, is simple: take care of all of the monsters to move on to the next stage. When you hit them with your magic, they will turn into sweets, which can then be pushed by your character or by enemies. Once a single monster is left, you have a short window of opportunity to defeat it before it disappears. At least, even if it disappears before you defeat it, you’ll still carry on to the next stage! You can also jump on top of monsters to reach higher ledges, but you need to be careful they don’t jump while you’re on top of them, or they’ll knock you down. Avoid touching monsters, being attacked, or being crushed by sweets, or else you’ll lose a life. If a moon appears on a stage, then all monsters will be turned into sweets for a short period of time, so you should make the most of it and hurry up to use your magic to make all sweets crumble into pieces! You can get this on its own for $7.99 on Nintendo’s console.
Halley’s Comet is a vertical scrolling shoot ’em up that has you flying on a spaceship as you try to save the planets in the Solar System from the imminent danger of the titular comet crashing into them. Any enemy, missile attack, or fragment of Halley’s Comet that you allow to make it to the bottom of the screen will damage the planets you’re defending. Because of this, you should shoot at anything that is on the screen at all times. As you destroy asteroids, you’ll also uncover power-ups to boost your spaceship. Lose all of your lives or allow the damage gauge to reach 100%, and then it’s game over! You can collect power-ups to increase your spaceship’s speed, add more fire beams, add a wide beam, increase extra drone ships that can be used to activate special abilities, and more. Halley’s Comet is out on Nintendo Switch as an Arcade Archives release for $7.99.
The last game in this collection is The Ninja Warriors. This arcade game was released back in 1987 and is one of the games available separately on Nintendo Switch as an Arcade Archives release – with a $7.99 price tag. On Switch, you can also get The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors and an enhanced remaster of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System sequel. As for this arcade release, which is presented as an extra widescreen game, you’ll be taking control of cyborgs Ninja and Kunoichi, who are on a mission to defeat the Banglar, the Demon King. You’ll be using your skills and weapons to defeat the onslaught of enemies that are out to destroy you, chipping away at your life bar with every hit. You can also defend yourself and block some attacks if you time things right. Lose all of your life, and you’ll have to add another coin to continue. While your melee weapon can be used over and over again, your shurikens are in a limited supply, so be sure to make every single one of them count!
While six of the game’s in this collection are out on Nintendo Switch as separate releases under the Arcade Archives umbrella, buying them separately would cost you almost $8 more than buying this collection of 10 games. I spent more in quarters playing Elevator Action, Qix, Front Line, and The Ninja Warriors than what you’d have to spend to buy TAITO MILESTONES, which is out on Nintendo Switch on April 15 with a $39.99 price. You can also visit the partner store from our friends at Strictly Limited games to get the physical Limited Edition or the TAITO MILESTONES Collector’s Edition, which includes a PCB-Retro Box, a pin, 10 trading cards, 3 marquee stickers, 10 instruction sheets, 6 flyers, a sticker sheet, 10 postcards, a magnet, a 10 coins collection, and a soundtrack CD for. The Limited Edition includes a manual and is available for €39.99, while the Collector’s Edition is out for €89.99.
Disclaimer
This TAITO MILESTONES review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by ININ Games.
