I must confess I skipped the first of these IREM Collections when it came out back in 2023 – neither X-Multiply, Image Fight nor its sequel included on there have ever really set my world alight, so as much as I love a shoot ‘em up, and am a sucker for a retro compilation, I was never going to get twenty quid’s worth out of that one… Double-up to full price for all fifteen titles planned to eventually span a total of five similar volumes and that would have been a different matter though! However, that’s another story, and for discovery alone, IREM Collection Volume 2 does interest me a lot more, with another batch of three old arcade titles put together by ININ and Tozai Games that I’ve mostly never played before, so here we are! We’re talking the worldwide and Japanese arcade and SNES versions of groundbreaking run and gunner GunForce, then worldwide and Japanese versions of its sequel, GunForce II (or GeoStorm in Japan), which never made it out of the arcades, and finally another schmup, Air Duel, which never even got beyond Japanese arcades, so we’re getting two first ever worldwide releases on console here to boot!

And we’ll get into all of them in a sec, which we’ll be doing on Nintendo Switch, but you can also pick up this compilation on Xbox and PlayStation digitally (with a UK price to be confirmed at the time of writing but it seemed to be $24.99 elsewhere), as well as in a limited edition boxed format and a very fancy Collector’s Edition from Strictly Limited Games here. By the way, I should also mention I was kindly given a review code by the publisher. Right, with all that out of the way, let’s fire it up! Game selection is done through a compact but slick games carousel, rotating through each of the three titles, then a press of down on each is going to present you with alternate versions where available. You’ll then be given a choice of casual or classic modes for each one, with the former giving you access to save states, rewinds, DIP switch settings on the arcade games, plus cheats such as invincibility or infinite lives throughout, while the latter will give you access to online leaderboards. As standard, you’ve also got various display options, with regular things like different screen sizes and ratios, scanlines and wallpapers, but also a surprisingly in-depth set of shader and colour options, most of which are way beyond anything I’m ever likely to mess around with but it’s great that they’re there! Sadly, there’s not much else in the way of bonus material or additional content, if that’s what you’re looking for, so with that, I think we can get into each of the games that are here in turn!

We’ll start in 1991 with GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island (to give it its full name), a pioneering run and gun game that can be seen as the first steps towards the genre perfection that is Metal Slug! That said, I reckon it plays more like Contra than its spiritual successor, as you (and a friend for the ultimate rush) battle hordes of aliens to stop a rogue CPU and restore freedom to the world. You’ve got some seriously floaty controls at your disposal but it feels fine all the same, and is really fun! Loads of vehicles and big guns to hijack too, from mortar guns to helicopter gunships, as well as plenty of power ups to find; I’d have liked a standard grenade all the same though. Even without, difficulty is pitched just right and the boss battles are engaging albeit simple. One interesting aspect to the combat is that unlike many side-scrolling run and gun games of this ilk, contact with the enemy doesn’t mean death – you’ll only take damage from their weapons or being hit by their vehicles. Some spectacular fiery special effects for the time too, and combined with loads of environmental and vehicular detail, both visually and in the atmospheric sound effects, is a real sign of things to come from this team. Animation is more on the functional side, and likewise the music, which is well structured and very punchy synth rock without ever being particularly memorable. Finally, it could just be me but I’m not seeing any real regional differences here in the arcade versions, so let’s see if that’s got anything new to offer…

I think the 1992 SNES port was the game’s first introduction to Western gamers, and like the arcade game, I’m not really seeing much difference between that and the Japanese Super Famicom conversion also included here. Meaning neither has any particular redeeming features for me to pass on to you! It carries over the original’s five stages, albeit single player only and with some missing vehicles and truncated sections, but offers three difficulty levels to choose from on top. It’s really monotonous whichever you go for though, and isn’t helped by the constant parade of tinny sound effects as your character moves way faster than the screen scrolls (except when you’re hit by slowdown), and although the original did control in a very “arcade-like” fashion, this does even more so while also being far less responsive. And the hit detection is definitely hit and miss! It often looks very pretty though, with some very well reproduced backgrounds in particular, but unfortunately that’s not enough to stop you wishing you were playing Contra III on your SNES instead! I guess it’s nice it’s here for completeness though, even if in reality, unless you’ve got some weird nostalgia for it, it’s unlikely to see much action once you’ve seen what it’s got for the first time.

If you want action though, look no further than GunForce II! While we could see hints of Metal Slug in the first game, this 1994 sequel is its unquestionable foundation, chock full of spectacle, bombast, extravagant details, environmental destruction and its trademark humour, although that would become a little more politically correct in its successors! Set in a post-apocalyptic future, you to take control of Max or Lei, simply blasting your way through five different stages to rack up high scores. The action is literally explosive from the outset, and even more so with a player two, with you dual-wielding regular and special weapons, totally overpowered while also totally vulnerable. It plays like a dream, with real pace and vigour, and a fantastic weightiness to everything you end up shooting at stuff with. Sound is equally meaty, and there’s even more layers and way more guitar-based punch to the music this time, and although still not particularly memorable, you couldn’t ask for a better accompaniment to some of the most incredible set pieces ever included in a game to that point – in fact, the burning forest behind the insane first level boss fight is pretty much unsurpassed to this day! As frantic as it almost instantly gets, there’s still a fairness to the game and a great sense of progression, although like the first game, you can also keep credit feeding when things get too much because in this one at least, there are sights and sounds throughout that you really don’t want to miss! I have played a bit of this previously but apart from the naming, once again I’m still not seeing a lot of difference between regions.p so just take your pick.

I alluded to not being a huge fan of some of IREM’s other vertically-scrolling shoot ‘em ups earlier, and I’m afraid that sentiment also extends to our final game, 1990’s Air Duel. It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with it but aside from being able to switch between helicopter and plane after each level, it just doesn’t do very much that I find especially interesting or hasn’t been done better elsewhere. Anyway, the year is, er, 2004, when we’ve been devastated by a nuclear war and a secret organization called D.A.S. is causing further chaos, which you need to stop! If you know Toaplan’s Flying Shark or Tiger-Heli or similar, you know the score – shoot smallish waves of flying and ground-based enemies over earthy but vaguely exotic environments in your choice of vehicle, while a friend does the same should that be an option, eventually coming up against a boss. The militaristic, proggy electronica playing in the background might sound familiar if you’ve been playing GunForce II because this is where it originally came from, and is equally well suited here (as you might expect). And everything else is all perfectly competent too, with a nice learning curve and little to not enjoy, but as said, I just didn’t find any of the exhilaration I was looking for here, even when it really started to get going, which also took a bit too long for its own good. The levels vary from impressively detailed post-alien invasion futurism to generic blurry landscapes, while there’s a progressive mix of enemies and a decent scale to the bosses, and it all moves well and with lots of visual effects and sci-fi sounds to up the interest a bit more than the gameplay alone can. I hate to say it but it’s fine, and I’m sure I’ll have some fun coming back every time I’m back for some more GunForce II, even if I can’t really see it ’ever reaching the heights of all my Toaplan favourites.

What do I know though? Air Duel can’t be a genre legend for just being rare, and is by the GunForce and Metal Slug folk, so deserves its inclusion in this loosely-themed collection for that alone. The clear star of the show for me though is GunForce II, which just about marked the end of Irem as an arcade game company, in turn leading to a bunch of disgruntled employees forming Nazca Corporation and all those Metal Slugs, among other things. Its predecessor is still a blast too, and both even more so if you’ve got a second player involved! Okay, the SNES port is only here for completeness, and likewise the regional variations, and I’m unlikely to go back to any of that much in future, but had I not been fortunate enough to get a review copy, I was going to buy this anyway and I can honestly say I wouldn’t have been disappointed.