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[NSW] Psykyo Collection Volumes 1 and 2

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    [NSW] Psykyo Collection Volumes 1 and 2

    Every time someone shows one of these two games, he gets asked how they are, and in my case, I reply I still have to play them...up till today.
    Each collection holds four games:
    Vol. 1: Strikers 1945, Gunbrid, Samurai Aces, Sol Divide
    Vol. 2: Strikers 1945 II, Gunbird 2, Tengai Blade, Dragon Blaze
    Both collections work the same way: boot the game up and you can choose between games and gallery mode. Both selections bring to a second menu where you can choose the game you want. There are no global options (audio levels, screen/controller rotation, filtering type), each game has its own set of options.

    Screen options include four-way rotation (though rotation type will always show 90 degrees, clearly a bug) and three filtering options. Default is two, a smooth/blur filter not particularly aggressive but does add a bit of softness to all games. Filter one is nearest neighbour, filter tree is NN plus scanlines; you can't adjust scanline intensity.
    Horizontal shooters can choose betwee wide/full screen and proportional.
    Wallpapers for all games are simple "arrange" (a generic background) and "simple" (black). Vertical shooters also show how you set up the controller.

    I don't think you can configure separate controllers individually and you can't use ZR/ZL at all. I've played with the Pro Pad and I didn't had any issues, with the exception that it made me long for a proper arcade stick. Some of the later patterns require the precision of a stick, even in relatively easy games like the first Gunbird.
    Some games can use "new" and "original" fonts, which makes Sol Divide and other text-heavy games a bit more readable. I don't really know if Gunbird 1 and 2 use the original, terrible English translation, I'll have to compare them to the PAL copies I still have.

    The collections don't come with a paper manual, and the digital instructions included are a simple list of commands and what bonuses do, no recreation of the original booklets...in a way it makes sense as these are arcade ports, rather than ports of the home versions. You can configure lives, number of continues, and so on through the config menu, though this will reset the game; reconfiguring controls won't, of course.

    One great thing is that audio levels have been harmonized between games, so if you set the volume at 40% for Gunbird, setting Sol Divide at 40% will result in the same level of noise. For some strange reason Volume 2 is louder than Volume 1, not by much though. Gunbird 2 also has some minor spelling mistakes in the config menu ("bomb" instead of "Bomb" like every other game).

    I think that what's in here are the versions already available as digital standalones, game thumbnails show "for Nintendo Switch" below the titles. I've played one credit for each game and I couldn't find any major flaw in their emulation, although games with pre-rendered sprites (Strikers II, Sol Divide) weren't as pleasing to look at as games with "proper" sprites. Gunbird 2 had some metallic voice samples, the ones from Gunbird 1 sounded better.

    Are these collections good? I'd say yes, though only four games per cart might not be particularly tempting for some people, and if you are only interested in one game per collection (let's say only the two Strikers), standalone purchases are definitively better.
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