I’m not the biggest fan of shoot ’em ups, so yet another Toaplan collection, and so soon after the last two (Evercade arcade cartridges 8 & 9 were Toaplan Arcade 1 & 2), didn’t exactly excite me.

If you are a fan of classic shmups, however, this third, nostalgic trip to 90s Toaplan land is nigh on essential. Of the 7 games included (a rather small selection, it must be said), 4 of them are shooters, and though two of those are versions of the same game, Batsugun and Batsugun: Special Edition are both fantastic.

There’s also Truxton II, which is superb (even though I’m not a fan of shmups, I have to admit the ones inluded here are damn good), and the easy to play, by shoot ’em up standards at least, Vimana.

Two excellent, top-down run-and-gun titles (Out Zone and Fixeight) are joined by the final game in the collection, the weird, fantasy-flavoured block breaking game, Ghox, as being the non-shoot ’em ups in Toaplan Arcade 3.

Despite my lack of excitement about this collection initially, I have to say that it definitely exceeded my expectations. It’s a consistently excellent collection of arcade titles, a few of which feels like real hidden gems, with a couple of the others (Batsugun and Truxton II) being fondly remembered, pretty iconic classics of the shoot ’em up genre.

Do be warned that, for whatever reason, this particular cartridge is often hard to find on sale at retailers, so if you do manage to see it in stock at a reasonable price, it’s well worth picking up.

You can buy Toaplan Arcade 3 from Amazon.

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