Taito Egret II Mini (2022.3.2)

[RadiantFlamberge]

https://www.taito.co.jp/egret2mini

Sega and SNK have had their turn with mini arcade cabinets. Now here's Taito with the Taito Arcade Selection: Egret II Mini.

 

The screen is 5" with a 4:3 aspect ratio. A nice unique feature is that it can be turned 90 degrees for vertical screen games. It comes with a 6-button joystick control panel, with a spinner and trackball available separately.

 

Taito promises 40 titles pre-installed. Kaiser Knuckle/Global Champion, a fighting game infamous for its true last boss General, is one. The optional trackball and spinner combo controller comes with a SD card that adds 10 games. Cameltry (it came out for SNES as On The Ball, and plays like the rotating stages of Genesis Sonic 1), Arkanoid Returns, and Syvalion are included. E2M has a HDMI port to output the games to a TV.

It's a bit pricey. The E2M base unit will be 18.678 JPY (about $170) and the trackball/spinner controller will set you back 12.078 JPY ($110).

An extra 6-button stick is 8.778 JPY/$80. Other confirmed games include Space Invaders, Lunar Rescue, Qix, Elevator Action, Chack'n Pop, Bubble Bobble, Rastan, Rainbow Islands Extra, New Zealand Story, Don Doko Don, Violence Fight, Cadash, Liquid Kids, and Metal Black. If you go for the 49.478 JPY limited edition bundle ($450!) then it's got everything plus soundtrack CDs. You've got lots of time to save up for it... it's not coming until March.

 

Sounds really tempting to me. I'd like to see some of the other 25 slots in the 40 game roster go to Darius Gaiden, Elevator Action Returns, Bubble Memories, and Bubble Symphony. Not Rastan Saga 2 though... the first Rastan is good but RS2 is a disappointing sequel.

 

[RadiantFlamberge]

Thanks to the official TaitoChannel for the Taito Arcade Selection: Egret II Mini promo. So what all is in this? That's the million dollar question. Here are the answers.

01. Space Invaders

02. Lunar Rescue

03. Steel Worker

04. Lupin the 3rd

05. Qix

06. Pirate Pete

07. Adventure Canoe

08. Elevator Action

09. Chack'n Pop

10. Outer Zone (not related to Toaplan's OutZone)

11. The Fairyland Story

12. Kage no Densetsu (The Legend of Kage)

13. Halley's Comet

14. Bubble Bobble

15. Kiki Kaikai (the Pocky & Rocky games are its sequels)

16. Scramble Formation

17. Rastan Saga

18. Kyuukyoku Tiger (Twin Cobra with checkpoints and no 2P co-op play)

19. Rainbow Islands Extra

20. Raimais

21. The New Zealand Story

22. Tatsujin (Truxton)

23. Don Doko Don

24. Volfied (Qix 2/Ultimate Qix)

25. Violence Fight

26. Cadash

27. Mizubaku Adventure (Liquid Kids)

28. Gun Frontier (a shmup with vehicles made out of gun parts)

29. Runark (Growl)

30. Hat Trick Hero (a football/soccer game)

31. The Ninja Kids

32. Metal Black (yet another great horizontal shmup, with a beam laser similar to G.Darius)

33. RayForce (AKA Layer Section, Gunlock, or Galactic Attack)

34. Kaiser Knuckle (Global Champion, a versus fighting game with the insanely cheap boss General... SNK's bosses have nothing on him)

35. Darius Gaiden

36. Bubble Symphony (Bubble Bobble 2)

37. Elevator Action Returns (same as Elevator Action 2)

38. Dan-ku-ga (a revision of Kaiser Knuckle, which allows playing as the bosses Gonzales, Azteca, and General)

39. Puzzle Bobble (Bust-A-Move) 2X

40. Bubble Memories (Bubble Bobble 3)

 

I don't care for the original Space Invaders, but this is a solid selection. The TAS-E2M sounds like a bargain considering you'd pay more for the Sega Saturn versions of Metal Black, Darius Gaiden, Gun Frontier, Elevator Action 2, Bubble Symphony, and Layer Section/RayForce combined.

[Z1MZUM]

KiKi Kaikai! This selection is excellent.

 

I love what I'm seeing here and the main reason is to buy for my other half.