Irem Collection Vol. 3 Delivers 3 Enhanced Retro Shoot ’em Ups to Xbox

Okay, so I finally got around to trying out this Irem Collection Volume 3 thing, and wow, what a blast from the past. Remember those arcade days? Yeah, it’s bringing all that back, with some tweaks for us modern folks.

So, ININ, Tozai, and Irem got together (seriously, what a team-up) to bundle these gems from the late 80s and early 90s. You got Mr. Heli from ’87—a quirky little dude in the world of “cute ’em ups”—and Mystic Riders from the early 90s, which is all about magic and boomeranging broomsticks (never thought I’d write that sentence). Oh, and Dragon Breed—think a fiery R-Type with dragons. I heard some folks used to ignore it, but now it’s all the rage. Go figure.

These games are no walk in the park. They were designed to gobble up your quarters faster than you could say “game over.” But fear not—there’s help! You can fiddle with all these modern settings to make it less of a finger workout. Feel like the buttons on your console are a bit screwy? No problem, you can remap everything to suit your weird thumb angles.

Now, there’s loads more customization—set your number of lives, tweak the difficulty (yeah, I’m not ashamed to admit I need the easy setting now), and even turn on autofire if you’re feeling lazy or just don’t want a sore thumb. They’re trying to keep the OG feel but give a little slack for us who ain’t 80s arcade veterans.

And they tossed in quick save/load, which is a lifesaver, trust me. Plus, rewind options—cuz, let’s face it, we all screw up sometimes.

Visually, they’ve gone all out: CRT-style filters, color tweaks—you can make it look like you’re back staring at those old arcade screens, or not, your call. They even tossed in leaderboards for a bit of healthy (or not so healthy) competition.

You can grab this on Xbox One, Series X|S. If you’re into scores and showing off, you’re gonna love those leaderboards. And hey, don’t forget Volumes 1 and 2; they’re up for grabs too.

Anyway, check it out. Whether you’re revisiting your arcade glory days or discovering them for the first time, there’s something wild and nostalgic waiting here for you.