Sega goes old school with Taito

By Tim Surette, GameSpotPosted Sep 13, 2005 4:37 pm PT

Comp of Taito classics to be published by the house that Sonic built; collection includes Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble.

Old-time publishers sitting on vaults of classic titles are figuring out that they can take advantage of the same kids they depended on during the days of coin-op arcades. Those kids are all grown-up now, but regressing to the quarter-popping days of yesteryear is all too easy for today's 20- and 30-something gamers.

Several companies still around from the days of the stand-up arcades, most notably Midway and Namco, have packaged titles from their past library into single-disc time machines, bringing yesterday's games to today's consoles.

Taito joined the trend, by announcing Taito Legends for the PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox, which it will publish in Europe. However, Sega today came to the rescue of nostalgic Americans by revealing that it would publish the title in North and South America. Taito Legends is currently being worked on by Empire Interactive's Oxford Studios, and is on schedule for release on October 25.

Taito created one of the all-time great quarter-guzzlers in 1978's Space Invaders. That game, along with 28 others, will be playable in its original arcade format. Among the other highlights in Taito Legends are 1986's Bubble Bobble, featuring the bubble-blowing dragons Bub and Bob, and 1987's Operation Wolf, a Rambo-esque shooter that featured a light gun.

Taito Legends has not yet been rated by the ESRB and will be available for $19.99. A list of all 29 games is below.

• Battle Shark
• Bubble Bobble
• Colony 7
• Continental Circus
• Electric Yo-Yo
• Elevator Action
• Exzisus
• Gladiator
• Great Swordsman
• Jungle Hunt
• New Zealand Story
• Ninja Kids
• Operation Thunderbolt
• Operation Wolf
• Phoenix
• Plotting
• Plump Pop
• Rainbow Islands
• Rastan
• Return of the Invaders
• Space Gun
• Space Invaders
• Space Invaders part II
• Super Qix
• Thunderfox
• Tokio
• Tube It
• Volfied
• Zoo Keeper

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