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Ultimate Shooting Collection Review for Nintendo Wii

Ultimate Shooting Collection Review for Nintendo Wii

In recent years the arcade shooter has made quite the comeback, and the latest attempt to capitalize on this trend is a three-game compilation called the Ultimate Shooting Collection. These titles don’t follow the format of Asteroids, where you can move and shoot in all directions within a fixed area, like the groundbreaking Geometry Wars did. Rather, these are scrolling shooters in the mold of Defender, where you can move your ship wherever you’d like on the screen, but it always faces in the same direction as enemies and scenery fly by. Interestingly, you can play the games horizontally (like Defender) or vertically (like Galaga).

Ultimate Shooting Collection screenshot

The three shooters have a lot in common, starting with the control scheme. The A button fires, and you’ll pretty much always hold it down, as these games sit firmly in the “bullet hell” tradition and don’t restrict ammo. The B button operates a “sword” that sweeps around your ship, hurting enemies and sometimes eliminating bullets. The C button executes a special move, typically a shield. Give or take a few title-specific nuances (you can choose from different ships with different guns, and sometimes you can do other moves by pressing two buttons at once), that’s pretty much all it takes to play these games.

You can play with the Wii-mote and Nunchuk (why switch controllers after starting the game up?), the Wii-mote and Classic Controller, or a GameCube controller. All work equally well, though it’s extremely annoying that if you have a GameCube controller plugged in (as many to most Wii owners probably do, even when they’re not using it), the game won’t respond to Wii controller inputs at all. The first time we booted up the collection, we thought there was something wrong with our copy. (“‘Press any button’? I just tried every button! What the $#%&?”)

All the games also have a variety of adjustable difficulty parameters. These are arcade-style shoot-’em-ups, with quarter-munching bosses that throw loads of garbage at you, so you’ll want to set your armor to high and the challenge to “easy.” Even then, don’t expect to get very far until you learn each game’s nuances, as you begin with a whopping two continues. It’s beyond us why the developers wouldn’t have included continues as an adjustable parameter; infinite lives are no fun in an arcade game, as they remove any incentive not to die, but allowing up to five or so ships would have been nice for beginners who want to see the entirety of the games.

Ultimate Shooting Collection screenshot

On to the specifics. The arcade/Japan-only Dreamcast classic Radirgy, also known as Radio Allergy (not believing in consistency, the developers used the former name on the game-select screen but the latter on the in-game title screen), has the nicest look: it’s cel-shaded, with Super Nintendo-grade bare-bones graphics and an anime/mecha aesthetic. The (annoying, poorly translated, and unnecessary) text dialogue is in English, but many of the landmarks you fly past still have foreign characters on them. It’s also the most unique and childish title here, as one of the planes you can choose shoots bubbles – yes, bubble bullets. All of this is set to a grating, happy-go-lucky, synth beat.

Radirgy’s scoring scheme is also worthy of mention. Enemies killed at short range with the sword will give you more points, and they fill the gauge that powers your C-button shield more quickly. You can keep killing enemies with your shield deployed, which earns you still more shield time; this is crucial for not only racking up points but also getting through some of the boss battles. You’ll be doing lots of short-range killing, and you’ll need that shield a lot, because Radirgy throws loads of dangerous garbage your way.

Ultimate Shooting Collection screenshot

The five-stage Chaos Field (previously released on GameCube in the U.S.) lies at the opposite end of the spectrum. The music, a modern techno beat that can get repetitive but works for the most part, is a huge relief. The graphics are a little more modern-looking and not so cartoonish, with landscapes that actually have some details and look truly three-dimensional, but these updates make for a bland look that sacrifices Radirgy’s character. Another graphical issue is that bullets can partially overlap with your ship without doing damage, so it’s hard to tell exactly when you’re going to take a hit.

Ultimate Shooting Collection screenshot

Also, the gameplay is a little more complicated. The focus is on killing bosses, as there are no small enemies, and combining the B button with the A or C buttons will produce special moves. The sword cancels some bullets, but doesn’t hurt enemies. You can move between parallel dimensions of “Order” and “Chaos” (this replaces the C-button special move in the other games). In the former, your enemies will be weaker and the bosses’ bullets less numerous, but in the latter, you’ll score more points.

Between the two extremes, though a tad closer to Radirgy, is Karous (the last game ever made for the Dreamcast). It feels a little redundant in this collection, despite the anime graphics having a uniquely dour and gothic style. You shoot, you use your shield to hurt enemies, you shoot some more. The one important gameplay twist is that you can smack power-ups with your sword to change them into different rewards. Also, it bears mentioning that the music is the best of the three, with understated, dark sounds mixed with palatable drum beats.

The easy, medium, and hard modes supposedly correspond to three screens, five screens, and five screens with extra-intense enemies, but we’ve been completely unable to figure out what this “screen” business is supposed to mean; all the action takes place on a single screen, no matter which you pick. Unless you’re done with the other two games and still aren’t sick of top-down shooters, or you really like the idea of bleak atmosphere mixed with mindless spaceship shooting, there’s not much reason to play this one.

For many casual gamers, scrolling shooters are something to play online for free when there’s time to kill. It will take a little more dedication to spend $30 on this collection, especially considering that leaderboards, perhaps the only reason to play for long periods of time, aren’t available. For those looking for a unique take on a genre and willing to pay for it, however, these three games are worth at least a rental.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.8 Graphics
Radirgy’s visuals are the most likable, but they’re remarkably low budget; Karous’s are the same, with bleaker colors; Chaos Field’s are more polished and modern, but lose the charm. 3.5 Control
No complaints, except that you have to unplug your GameCube controllers to so much as get past the title screen with the Wii-mote. 3.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Sound effects are standard, and music varies by game. Radirgy’s is obnoxious; Chaos Field’s works; Karous’s is excellent. 2.5

Play Value
Not the kind of thing that will hold your attention for too long.

3.2 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Three shooters in one. Each game has never-before-seen play mechanics that separate it from the competition.
  • Each title has cel-shaded graphics and fills the screen with bullets.
  • The games are all challenging; players must perform a delicate balancing act between achieving a high score and staying alive.
  • Each title contains multiple options, including two to three different ships that boast different weapons and special moves. If mastering one shooter takes a while, it takes a good chunk of time to perfect all three.

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