The third installment of the "Irem Collection" series, which brings Irem's arcade and home console masterpieces to the latest consoles! Includes 7 versions of 3 titles: "Mister Heli's Great Adventure" (Japanese and American arcade and PCE versions), "Magic Guard Gunhoki" (Japanese and American arcade versions), and "Dragon Breed" (Japanese and American arcade versions)! This is a long-awaited lineup, with all of these titles being ported to consumer consoles for the first time!
"Mr. Heli's Great Adventure" is a side-scrolling shooter game released for arcades in 1987. In order to save the planet from collapse, you control a cute orange helicopter with small legs, "Mr. Heli," and advance through various stages, such as a green floating island, a moving bedrock area, and an underground clock tower, while defeating enemies and avoiding obstacles. Along the way, you can purchase power-up items by collecting crystals, so the goal is to fully strengthen yourself and defeat the final boss MUDDY, who lurks deep underground. The game features pop and vivid graphics and comical characters, which are rare for Irem's works from this period, but the difficulty is high and quite challenging. "Irem Collection Vol.3" also includes the PC Engine version released in 1989.
"Dragon Breed" is a side-scrolling shooter released for arcades in 1989. The player takes on the role of the protagonist, the young King Caius, whose goal is to defeat the Demon King in the final stage together with the giant dragon Bahamut. The protagonist rides on the dragon's back and attacks with weapons, rams into the enemy with the dragon, or wraps the dragon's long body around the protagonist to protect him from enemy attacks. Bahamut can be used for both offense and defense depending on the situation, and this is the true essence of Irem's shooters. Before you know it, players will even feel a bond with Bahamut, and this is the game's greatest feature.
"Magic Guard GunHoki" is a side-scrolling shooter released for arcades in 1992. The game is based on the theme of a wizard riding a broom, and the colorful, pop, and cute graphics, along with upbeat music, create a worldview that is rare for an Irem shooter, but the game's deep, highly strategic game design, including "charge shots" to fire powerful magic spells and "broom shots" where the broom flies in the opposite direction to the directional input, still has the Irem feel. The game also supports two-player simultaneous play, which was becoming mainstream at the time, and joining in mid-game is also supported.
In order to allow you to enjoy these masterpieces to the fullest, the Irem Collection is equipped with various features such as online rankings, on-the-fly rewinding, and save and load status. The common appeal of Irem's past works is the graphics and music that express a unique worldview at a high level.