Taito Milestones

Taito Milestones may simply contain 10 classic arcade titles and nothing else but some of these games offer timeless enjoyable challenges that you can spend hours trying to master. I just wish there was some kind of bonus content to scratch more of that retro itch.

Taito Milestones is a history lesson in a package that only the nostalgic would want to purchase. The selection of games is good, but too retro, missing other more relevant titles that might have made the collection more attractive. Playing Elevator Action or Qix again will bring back many memories of when it didn't hurt your pocket to lose a quarter in an arcade game.

Overall, this is still a solid collection and there are some genuine gems tucked away here. I just feel that this collection could have been so much more and picked a better array of games to show off what used to make Taito such an arcade gaming powerhouse.

Taito Milestones offers good value with its 10 arcade games, but lacks any extra content or bonus features making it feel like just a set of Arcade Archives releases rather than a package worth owning for fans of the developer with bonus interviews, artwork, and other potential extras.

To sum up, I like every game included in this set, but I only truly love a few of them. That’s a problem in that I could just go and buy those few separately and keep twenty bucks in my pocket. I like the Arcade Archives quality, but I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed with how flavorless the package comes across as a whole. It’s ten Arcade Archives games dumped in a box with a simple menu to choose between them. A better selection would make this an easier recommendation, but as is I think it’s only suited for Taito die-hards and those looking for an Arcade Archives sample platter.

Should you be into ‘80s arcade games and retro curios, TAITO Milestones is going to have some appeal. The gameplay on offer here hasn’t aged particularly well, but it’s always enjoyable to be able to compare contemporary video games to those that came before, just to see how far we’ve come. Even in the six years between the earliest release and the latest of these 10 games, you can see a massive difference in quality and performance. While the lack of extra features and presentation is a tough pill to swallow, the online leaderboards for each title add excellent replay value to games that are all about chasing high scores. Going into these offerings and not expecting stone-cold classics is sure to be a refreshing and educational experience, and you might even find a few old-school arcade titles to keep on rotation.

TAITO Milestones is a no-frills package of ten ’80s-era arcade games, most of which are available separately in the Nintendo eShop. If you don’t already own the ones you want, it’s a decent collection with some obscure gems that may become your new favorites. A couple, however, don’t make a smooth transition from their arcade controls to your Joy-Con.

TAITO Milestones is a compilation of ten TAITO arcade games of the 1980s, some of which less known to the general audience. If the emulation of the games is done successfully, the overall presentation and interface is rather poor, as there are no extras about the games or TAITO that could sweeten this package, not to mention a lack of online multiplayer. Overall this could have been used to present a broader look at TAITO's past.

In what is at times an incoherent and questionable selection of titles — compiled in what feels as drab and corporately sterile an attire one can find — there does remain worthwhile moments to look back on with Taito Milestones.

That’s Taito Milestones‘ biggest problem: the missed opportunity to do really shed some light on the impact of the games it collects. These are historically significant games, but presented devoid of any of that historic context. Without that, and when almost every game is already available separately (and in an identical form, no less), saving a few bucks on a bulk-buy is the only real reason to pick this up. A collection claiming to be a celebration of the milestones of one of the most important companies in arcade history needs to be more than just a way to pinch pennies.

There may not be many games in here, but they do cover a broad range of genres and most of them are still great fun to play today. It's just a shame Switch owners have already had access to the majority of them, with the exact same features, for years already. The glaring lack of any extra features make it hard to appreciate the significance of the more obscure or basic titles unless you're prepared to go off and do some homework, and there are some very obvious milestones missing for no reason other than it allows Taito to make more money by splitting the games across multiple collections.

The two games that are exclusive are not worth the price at all. But if you don’t have any of these titles in your library or are missing a few, then this is a cost effective collection that can provide a lot of fun! As I stated before, there are no extras or exclusive modes or options included with this release. It is a strictly barebones presentation made up of mostly previously released titles. Not a bad collection for some, but a waste of time for others. All in all, a somewhat lazy and underwhelming release.

Many of the games in Taito Milestones can be quite interesting, in terms of historical and nostalgic values, but as a collection, this pack is a little too bare-bones.

These games feature the standard options and the emulation is genuinely solid in most cases. I had fun diving into each game, but again only a couple warranted a repeat viewing. This feels more like Taito Obscurities as opposed to Milestones. For the price it ends up cheaper than picking up each game individually, but that is assuming you want all ten games. As a collection this feels more like an afterthought than a solid purchase.

This score is not reflective of the quality of the games (overall). I’m not going to be putting Alpine Ski down in a hurry, and I’ve been playing Qix for decades now, so I would never begrudge it being part of a Milestones collection. Most of the other titles are interesting as a curio. The quality of the ports for all of these titles great thanks to Hamster’s technology, but nonetheless, this is a woeful excuse for a compilation, and that’s particularly surprising given that it came from the same publisher that gave us the Space Invaders Invincible Collection. That was one of the very best retro collections. “Disappointing” doesn’t begin to describe what I feel about Taito Milestones.