Thank you ININ Games for sending us this game collection to review!

Irem Collection Volume 2 is the second of several game collections announced, and this one focuses on a quite interesting set of shooters. Two of them are horizontal ones, and one is vertical.

Each game in this collection offers a Casual Mode, with unlimited credits, cheats, rewind, save states, and more to make it easier. Rewind is activated by holding the left bumper, and is a huge help for all of these games, especially Air Duel. Unlimited credits and save states are also really handy. The other play mode is Classic Mode, which has none of those, but does offer an online leaderboard, so you can compete to see who scores the highest on one credit. Thankfully all of the games offer a turbo button, to autofire at a high rate using Y instead of A to normal fire. These games can be brutally difficult, so best of luck beating any of these games on one credit, even with the help of autofire.

It is worth noting that it seems like all games were translated for this collection if you choose English at the main menu, which is a nice touch. I assume that is also the case for the other included languages. There are a total of ten languages.

The games (and versions) offered in this collection are:

GunForce (Japanese and Worldwide, for Arcade and SNES/Super Famicom)
GunForce II (Worldwide for Arcade), and Geostorm (Japan Arcade); from what I can tell, it's the same game
Air Duel (Japanese for Arcade)

The GunForce series are some interesting games, and are often considered the spiritual predecessors to the famous Metal Slug series. It's my understanding that one of the developers of Metal Slug was also on the GunForce II team. They really do play a lot like them, and are really solid horizontal platform shooters.

The main draw of GunForce is the run-and-gun action, where you get pickups all over the place that contain new weapons, or more ammo for what you have now. It's really easy to burn through it quickly, while the emulator's built-in turbo fire does make it a lot easier, as the game is quite tough. Bullets and enemies are everywhere, and it doesn't hold back much. Weapons range from an auto cannon, a bazooka, and lasers. Each is useful, though auto cannon is somewhat redundant if you use the turbo button on the default gun.

Many levels also have turrets, buggies, helicopters and so on that you can use throughout a level. These are generally short lived, but can be a fun way to not only preserve ammunition, but to keep you alive longer as they break before you do. Unless you're really good, chances are you will go through an insane amount of lives. Thankfully, Casual mode exists.

Also, the SNES (and Super Famicom) version of GunForce is included. It seems like a pretty decent SNES shooter, though I've played better. It has a slower pace than the Arcade version, though it otherwise plays pretty similarly. I think it's a bit easier with less bullets on screen, but I could be wrong there. As someone who grew up with a Super NES, I prefer Contra 3 over this, but it's not bad.

GunForce II is quite an improved sequel, and from what I read, is the last Arcade game Irem made. It resembles Metal Slug much more, and is really fun to play. The gimmick here is that you carry two guns, and can upgrade one of them as you go, with five upgrades instead of three. Machine guns replace auto cannon, though it works similarly. Rocket Launchers work similarly to bazookas from the first game. Lasers are also similar. This new one also has grenade launchers and flamethrowers. Flamethrowers are actually more effective if used with the standard-fire 'A' button rather than the turbo fire 'Y' button. Grenade launchers explode after a moment, and have a nice blast radius.

The motion and animation of GunForce II just looks and feels better. While GunForce looked pretty good, GunForce II is noticeably better. This collection also includes Geostorm, which from what I can tell is just the Japanese version of GunForce II.

The final included game is Air Duel, a Japanese-only Arcade game. This is a really good vertical air shooter. You can choose to pilot an airplane or an attack helicopter. From my time playing, it seems like the helicopter is better for players who die often, as it seems to be more powerful for players who need to rely on autofire a lot with the turbo button. Each shot also aims slightly in the direction you move, making focus fire tricky. The airplane shoots only straight ahead, but if you are able to power up the ship with lots of collectable powerups, it can shoot many beams at once. In my time playing, if I played alone and abused the rewind system, the airplane was more powerful. If you are playing with a friend and can't constantly rewind, then I'd suggest the helicopter.

Morally, the games are pretty much what you expect: gun guys or military-style planes/helicopters shooting things. GunForce II also features girls in basically swimsuits that you can rescue as you play for more points. I did not notice anything else. The emulation is also competent and I didn't notice many major bugs.

The Irem Collection Volume 2 is a collection of classic run and gun and shoot 'em ups that are fun, if obnoxiously difficult, and largely stand the test of time graphically and otherwise. If you are a huge shoot 'em up fan, perhaps this collection is worth getting, but it's not exactly inexpensive, either. I will say that I like this collection a bit more than the previous one, even if that has more ports and versions than this does. Even still, it's a collection on what is functionally three games, so if the price is good really depends on how much you enjoy them. I feel these games did age really well, especially in comparison to the previous Irem Collection. This collection is fun for hardcore shoot 'em up fans, and can be a good introduction to run and gun or vertical shoot 'em ups, as long as new players are fine with lots of deaths and abusing the many cheats available since this collection of games pulls no punches on challenge.