Taito Legends

20 of the 29 games in Taito Legends are older than me. I counted. While Spectrum and Amiga fanboys were arguing over which version of Bubble Bobble was superior, I was gurgling and choking on small objects in a maternity ward. That's not to say that I don't know what I'm talking about here though. I cut my teeth on an Atari ST, so Bubble Bobble, The New Zealand Story, Operation Wolf, Rainbow Islands, these are just some of the reasons I started playing games, and they're just some of the fantastic games featured in this compilation pack.

Yes, it's a case of cashing in on old successes, yes there's quite a bit of filler, and yes the publisher has left out Darius, Chase H.Q. and Arkanoid just so it can put something decent on its next compilation. Plus, looking past the nostalgia, you realise a lot of the games are a bit wank by today's standards, but Taito Legends scrapes being worth it for the first games listed alone.

They're hardly lazy conversions either, with mouse support in the gun games and 'hi-low' gear indicators in the racing games, two developer interviews, all of the original sales flyers and 3D models of the arcade cabinets. It also comes with an art card you can stick on the side of your PC to look at with a smug sense of moral superiority having chosen not to download these games on MAME.