Lame, and awesome VG compilations

[Bloodreign]

Besides those two compilations can't think of many worth recommending. I'm trying to locate a copy of Toaplan Shooting Battle Vol 1 for the PSX but have not tried it yet so no recommendation. It has Twin Cobra, Kyukyoku Tiger, and Tiger Heli.

This compilation will only work on a PS1, no model PS2 will run it. Heck I thought I knew better and decided to bunk the trend and try the games anyway, I believe only Tiger Heli ran, the others die on the Now Loading screen.

For those who mentioned the Taito Legends comps, the Memories comps are amazing, but have their share of flaws as well, but the game selection is at 100 games over 4 discs. Yet all 4 are oddly missing one game from TL 2 PC and X-Box, Pop N Pop.

[StarMist]

@ The Coop and M4R14NO94 = Gun Frontier on Taito 2 is broken. It may be modeled on a variant board from what the Saturn got but it's definitely inferior despite the added needed difficulty.
A comparison:

PS2 Version
---------------- runs at 70% speed. (eyeballing that percentage)
---------------- enemies shoot less
---------------- enemies take far, far more damage to destroy
---------------- songs renew after player death instead of playing through
---------------- no waterfall sound at the grand waterfall in stage 2
---------------- vortex effects are deficient on boss 3
---------------- the backgrounds slightly crawl
---------------- the music is lower pitched due to the slower speed: this is actually in its favour, though not by much
---------------- most explosion effects are lacking in colour or animation*; the exploding shells' flashes fired by various enemies in stage 5 are very pale
---------------- the long guns in stage 5 before the chasms are monochrome rather than gold flecked as in the Saturn version
---------------- There is, I think, more slowdown, but the pace is so off it's hard to tell.
---------------- There is less animation to everything.
---------------- Gruesomely difficult, much of which difficulty it's hard to believe was intended.
---------------- Difficulty options, though they seem to make very little difference.
---------------- Screen modes are either an extremely narrow pillarbox or a chopped fullscreen that makes the game yet harder.

Saturn Version

---------------- This version is much too easy, the final boss can be reached effortlessly on a single credit. The lone option to NORMAL is EASY.
---------------- Bosses die far too quickly, this version's main failing.
---------------- Screen modes are either a single-side status-box (like Fire Shark's) which is entirely satisfactory, or tate.
---------------- Slows only when a high powered bomb (power varies) is used on a very busy screen; though again there is more animation* and enemy shot

* lack of animation may not be the strictly correct way to assess this, the poor appearance of the PS2 version may owe to framerate or something else

Winner = Saturn version.

---------------- Gun Frontier is a superb game and should not be played in inferior form. As disappointing as the Saturn's version's ease is there aren't many quality shmups that can seriously be declared too easy so if nothing else it will serve as a good enticement for beginning/casual/slow shmuppers, besides which artificial difficulty terms can always be added (1-all it w/o bombing, say).

[Obviously]

Here's the ones I have experience with anyway:

Great:

Sega 6-Pak (Gen): Honestly, who didn't own this? This classic compilation is basically the de-facto starter kit for anybody interested in getting into collecting Genesis games.
Super Mario Bros. All-Stars + Super Mario World (SNES): All of Mario's classic 2D adventures in one place and with nicely updated graphics with all of the gameplay intact. Probably the best compilation Nintendo ever put together (which I know isn't saying much).
Mega Man Anniversary and X Collections (GC): Practically must-haves for fans of the series. Mega Man and Bass is inexcusably missing though.
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (360): I haven't had to hook up my Genesis in a while thanks to this.
Sonic Mega and Gems Collections (GC): A nice package of Sonic games though the Gamecube version of Mega Collection is missing the Game Gear games. They all inexcusably leave out Knuckles Chaotix but don't all these collections leave out something like that just to annoy your gamer OCD?

Good:


Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits (GC): A great selection of classic games. My favorites being Defender, Spy Hunter, Robotron and the like. There's not much in the way of extras though there are some interesting interviews and other trivia. The presentation is also kind of lame. The games themselves though are perfect.
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (GC): Not much to it other than the games. There's a cute 80's arcade presentation though, complete with pop songs from the decade. The game selection itself is great with some fun, oft-overlooked classics like Bosconian and Galaga '88!
Namco Museum (GC): Has some cool arrange versions of classic games like Galaga. I prefer the game selection in 50th Anniversary more though.
Mega Man Zero Collection (DS): No real extras though all four fantastic but hard to find GBA games in one affordable place.


Bad:

Sonic Classics Collection (DS): I admit it's playable if you really must play classic Sonic on the go, but the emulation is pretty bad and it seems pretty poorly scaled.
Midway's Arcade Classics (GBA): Terrible, dumbed-down versions of the original arcade games.
Namco Museum (GBA): Not half-bad for GBA. The games are at least fun and playable. By modern standards though these aren't the best renditions of the games. The game selection is understandably pretty bare bones too.
Namco Museum (PSX): Some people may cry blasphemy since they have the unique museum elements that are still kind of cool today. It's spread over several disks though, with some much stronger than others and some much, much rarer than others. It's a big waste of cash in my opinion.
Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MD): I want to love it because it's Mega Man on my beloved 16-bit system. It is a unique title in the franchise and collects arguably the three best games. However the graphical update isn't quite as good as the treatment Mario got in "All Stars." The music which is an important part of any Mega Man game is pretty rough here as well. There are a lot of things that bug me about it and I'd rather just play the original games collected elsewhere for cheaper.

[The Coop]

@ The Coop and M4R14NO94 = Gun Frontier on Taito 2 is broken. It may be modeled on a variant board from what the Saturn got but it's definitely inferior despite the added needed difficulty.
A comparison:

PS2 Version
---------------- runs at 70% speed. (eyeballing that percentage)
---------------- enemies shoot less
---------------- enemies take far, far more damage to destroy
---------------- songs renew after player death instead of playing through
---------------- no waterfall sound at the grand waterfall in stage 2
---------------- vortex effects are deficient on boss 3
---------------- the backgrounds slightly crawl
---------------- the music is lower pitched due to the slower speed: this is actually in its favour, though not by much
---------------- most explosion effects are lacking in colour or animation*; the exploding shells' flashes fired by various enemies in stage 5 are very pale
---------------- the long guns in stage 5 before the chasms are monochrome rather than gold flecked as in the Saturn version
---------------- There is, I think, more slowdown, but the pace is so off it's hard to tell.
---------------- There is less animation to everything.
---------------- Gruesomely difficult, much of which difficulty it's hard to believe was intended.
---------------- Difficulty options, though they seem to make very little difference.
---------------- Screen modes are either an extremely narrow pillarbox or a chopped fullscreen that makes the game yet harder.

Saturn Version

---------------- This version is much too easy, the final boss can be reached effortlessly on a single credit. The lone option to NORMAL is EASY.
---------------- Bosses die far too quickly, this version's main failing.
---------------- Screen modes are either a single-side status-box (like Fire Shark's) which is entirely satisfactory, or tate.
---------------- Slows only when a high powered bomb (power varies) is used on a very busy screen; though again there is more animation* and enemy shot

* lack of animation may not be the strictly correct way to assess this, the poor appearance of the PS2 version may owe to framerate or something else

Winner = Saturn version.

---------------- Gun Frontier is a superb game and should not be played in inferior form. As disappointing as the Saturn's version's ease is there aren't many quality shmups that can seriously be declared too easy so if nothing else it will serve as a good enticement for beginning/casual/slow shmuppers, besides which artificial difficulty terms can always be added (1-all it w/o bombing, say).

That's why you buy the PC version of TL2. It uses MAME ROMs, so it is the arcade game.