Though pretty ubiquitous on 8-bit and 16-bit consoles – as well as in the arcade – in the 80s and 90s, Jaleco seem to have always been underrated, in my humble opinion.

The previous Jaleco Evercade cartridge – Jaleco Collection 1 – is a great compilation of some of their console games, again demonstrating just how underrated they are.

The same could be said of this mix of arcade titles – roughly half platformers and half shoot ’em ups, with a beat ’em up thrown in for good measure.

Though they initially look like generic takes on more well known games, pretty much all of the games here have a neat touch that sets them apart.

For example, though 64th Street: A Detective Story looks like any number of Final Fight-imitating, urban-set scrolling beat ’em ups, it has a much greater level of interactivity with the environment than was common at the time. You can throw enemies at their allies, at other objects or even through shop windows. It’s also blessed with nicely chunky sprites – and it’s really responsive and immediately fun to play. It’s a shame it’s not better known or remembered, but it’s great to discover as a hidden gem on here.

Or how about vertically scrolling mech shooter, Cybattler – which has enemies attacking you from all angles and your character being able to shoot in all directions to cope with the relentless assault. Consequently, it has the feel of a twin stick shooter despite looking like a classic 90s shmup – it’s great to discover this for the first time on this cartridge too. Oh – and Evercade EXP owners can also make great use of the machine’s TATE mode with Cybattler!

P-47: The Phantom Fighter is one of my least favourite games on the collection, but it’s not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination; a sideways scrolling WW2 shooter, it’s good but feels a bit more generic than other titles included.

I felt similarly about another side scrolling shooter on here, Saint Dragon, which is definitely – for me – the weakest game included. It’s beautiful, visually, but the dragon character you control feels sluggish and too big a target to avoid the onslaught of the enemies that are thrown at you in classic, non-stop shoot ’em up style.

And yes, there’s even another horizontally scrolling shmup on here: EDF – Earth Defense Force. Though this one perhaps looks quite derivative, it features a great levelling up system that sets it apart from its peers.

Then there’s three platformers – but, just like the shmups, each is different enough that their inclusion is definitely justified.

The Astyanax is a hack and slash platformer in the vein of something like Taito classic Rastan; its NES version, which is very different, featured on the Jaleco Collection 1. It’s another game which looks great; the pixel art has aged very well indeed and it plays really nicely too.

Avenging Spirit feels a little bit like a Contra or Midnight Resistance style platform run and gun game – except there’s a huge twist. In Avenging Spirit, your character is actually a defenceless ghost – yet you can possess any of the enemies you come across – which makes for a varied experience that you can pretty much tailor to your own play style, within reason.

Lastly, there’s single screen platformer Rod Land – which reminds me a bit of Tumblepop on Data East Arcade 1, but there’s a mechanic or two that really sets Rod Land apart. For example, in a very unusual turn of events for a platformer, let alone a single screen one, you can’t jump! Instead, you create ladders to make your way up the screen to get rid of enemies. It’s a fantastic game, but then long term readers of my reviews will know that I’m an absolute sucker for single screen platformers – which are a real lost art form, sadly.

So Jaleco Arcade 1 is a great Evercade collection; though you could hardly call the compilation eclectic, given that it only really covers a few genres with the 8 games included, each title feels pretty different in practice and there’s numerous hidden gems on here that are well worth discovering. Excellent stuff!

You can purchase the Jaleco Arcade 1 cartridge from Amazon here.