Shall I just save you the trouble of reading the entire review?

IREM Arcade 1 is an absolute must-have. There you go, that’s all you need to know.

Or is it?

Growing up in the golden age of the arcades, seeing R-Type – with its copyright defying alien design – was mind-blowing. A sideways scrolling shoot ’em up with an incredible bio-mechanical aesthetic and some genuinely innovative mechanics (including the ‘Force’ pod), R-Type deserves all of the acclaim it got, and I’m pleased to report that it has aged beautifully.

It’s ridiculously tough though – but then again, these are old school arcade titles, so that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Though R-Type is almost certainly the star of the show, I had a great time with just about every game on this collection.

10-Yard Fight is a surprisingly accessible, one-button American Football game – which distils the game down to its absolute basics and makes you pass, then run with the ball as far as you can. I’m not even a sports fan, but I really liked this.

Battle Chopper – also known in some territories as Mr Heli – is a surprisingly innovative shoot ’em up with some fantastic animation and cute sprite design. This was a game I’d heard of, but never played before; it’s absolutely superb.

In The Hunt is a brilliant – but, again, stupidly tough – shoot ’em up, with an unusual underwater setting. It’s absolutely gorgeous, packed with detail and tons of sprites – though its home conversions often struggled to replicate the arcade experience, here appears in its full, original glory.

Moon Patrol was a game I was absolutely addicted to on the Atari 2600, but that version pales in comparison to the excellent arcade title. Hailing from the distant past of 1982, it’s a lot simpler – both in audiovisual and gameplay terms – than the other titles included, but it’s ridiculously addictive, perhaps because of that classic, early 80s arcade simplicity.

Lastly, there’s Lightning Swords, a sort of Shinobi-esque hack and slash title with nice, big sprites and a relentless pace. It’s never been converted to home consoles before – so it’s quite a treat to have it here. It’s perhaps the weakest overall game on the cartridge, I felt – but it’s by no means a bad game at all; that just tells you how much I enjoyed all of the other titles in the collection.

So yes, IREM Arcade 1. If you have an Evercade, this is one cartridge that absolutely needs to be in your library!

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