Telenet classics come to Switch with Telenet Shooting Collection

The classic 8- and 16-bit games of Telenet Japan have been having a bit of a resurgence of late, what with the various Valis collections for modern consoles, the excellent Renovation Collection 1 cartridge for Evercade — and now this newly announced compilation of Telenet shoot ’em ups.

Telenet Japan’s work was noteworthy for pushing hard on the presentation front. Most of their games featured extensive anime-style cutscenes and a lot more story context than was typically found in other games of the era. In terms of gameplay, they were mostly fairly conventional — but the care and attention that had been ploughed into giving these titles a real sense of time and place rather than being “just another platformer” or “just another shooter” made them truly special.

As you might expect from cult classics, Telenet Japan titles for their original host platforms (typically PC Engine or Sega Mega Drive) command absolutely astronomical prices on the second-hand market today, which is why the sight of retro compilations such as this new one and the ones we’ve already seen are so very welcome. They provide newcomers to Telenet’s work an opportunity to try them for the first time — and for those who enjoyed them back in the day, they provide an affordable means of having a copy on your shelf.

The Telenet Shooting Collection, as the new compilation is called, will launch in June of 2023 and will include four games. So let’s take a closer look at each of them!

Granada

We’ve previously covered the Evercade version of Telenet’s Granada, and this version should be pretty much identical outside of any enhancements that new rights holder Edia might be slipping in there.

Granada is a top-down, open-world shoot ’em up in which you’re tasked with tracking down a series of targets in each level, then defeating a powerful boss enemy. Your tank is equipped with the ability to fire in a different direction to that which it is moving in — though since this game was originally released on the Mega Drive, this is accomplished by holding down a button to “lock” your turret in place rather than taking a twin-stick approach.

Granada is noteworthy for mixing things up with each of its levels, giving each a markedly different feel from the last. As you progress through the game, you’ll travel through city streets, trundle across the back of a bomber in mid-flight, drive across suspended highways and infiltrate cave networks. It’s a really fun, fast-paced shooter, and well worth spending some time with.

Avenger

Avenger is a top-down, vertically scrolling shoot ’em up originally released by Telenet for the PC Engine’s CD addon. Shoot ’em up veterans will doubtless know what to expect from that combination: solid but relatively conventional gameplay coupled with an excellent soundtrack. And indeed that’s mostly what you get here — though there are a couple of interesting twists.

Perhaps most notable is the fact that unlike most vertical scrollers, when you move from side to side in Avenger, your helicopter actually turns slightly in the direction you’re moving, allowing you to fire diagonally. This provides the opportunity to continue hitting targets while you’re keeping out of the way of their attacks, which presents some intriguing tactical scenarios.

Another fun twist is the fact that you only have one life, but within that life your helicopter can take multiple hits. The oft-appearing powerup-carrying ships present you with a choice: picking up the canister they drop when it is red allows you to repair a point of damage, while collecting it when it is blue powers up your weapon — the exact form of which you choose prior to each level rather than switching in the middle of the action. It’s a fun bit of risk-versus-reward action.

Gaiares

Gaiares is an excellent horizontally scrolling shoot ’em up from Telenet that we’ve previously covered in its Evercade incarnation. It’s noteworthy for its delightfully overblown anime-style intro — crammed onto a Mega Drive cart rather than a PC Engine CD — and the fact that its main villain is an absolute ’90s anime queen called Zz Badnusty.

It’s also really fucking hard, and was somewhat notorious for this back in the day. This is not a game you’re going to be able to brute-force your way through, as death means getting set back to a checkpoint rather than respawning on the spot — and to make matters worse, you only have limited continues. It is an incredibly rewarding game, though; every little bit of progress you make in Gaiares feels like an absolutely massive victory.

Gaiares is probably most noteworthy for its unusual weapons system. Rather than collecting powerups as you play, you instead fire out your “TOZ System” — a pod that is a bit like R-Type’s iconic “Force” weapon. This can latch on to enemies and suck out their attack power, allowing you to make use of various different types of attack according to the enemy you drained. It provides plenty of variety, with some weapons distinctly more useful than others!

Psychic Storm

Another PC Engine CD title from Telenet, this time around pitting you against an army of dribbling, gooey, organic alien invaders. Taking the role of one of four pilots, each with their own distinctive spaceship and loadout of weaponry, it’s up to you to kick alien butt the best way you know how.

Like Telenet’s other shoot ’em ups, Psychic Storm’s main distinguishing factor is in how its weapon system works. As noted, each character has their own distinct loadout of weaponry on their ship, and this can be powered up by collecting icons as each stage progresses. A bomb that clears popcorn enemies and bullets can be unleashed any time it is charged up, but the main exciting feature each character’s ship has is its ability to transform into a quasi-organic form and rain down hot plasma death on its foes.

The transformations are incredibly powerful and make you pretty much invincible for their duration; if triggered mid-stage, said duration can be extended by collecting orbs dropped by enemies, making them borderline game-breaking at times, particularly as you get three per stage. By default, the game automatically triggers them when you get low on health, but they can also be set off manually. It’s a really fun mechanic that provides a nice feeling of power — but it does also make the game a bit easy for veterans!

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All in all, the Telenet Shooting Collection is a nice mix of games, even if we have seen two of them before on Evercade. While four games may seem like a slim lineup compared to some other retro compilations out there, it’s worth noting that buying these games individually for their original platforms would probably set you back a couple of hundred quid at the very least, so if you just want them on your shelf, this is a good value means of acquiring them.

There’s no word as yet on a western release, and Edia has taken to Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake to help fund development and gauge interest. The aim is for this to be just the first in a series of “Telenet Revival” titles — so if you want to see more stuff like this, be sure to pick up a copy when it becomes available, or support on Makuake if you can.

Given that the two Valis collections made it to the west, odds are reasonably good that we’ll see a localised release of these, though Avenger in particular will need some translation work doing to make its cutscenes accessible to a global audience. As there’s clearly a worldwide hunger for retro rereleases like this, though, I suspect Edia won’t need much convincing to partner with someone who can help them with translation as required.

At present, the Telenet Shooting Collection is set for release in June of 2023. You can find out more via the Japanese website here.

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