PCE Works' PC-Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II Review

PC Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II Front

PC Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II Back

We at the Arcade Hunters are no strangers to PCE Works; their caliber of quality when it comes to reproductions is impeccable. If you don't believe me, just check some of our previous reviews of their  Action and Arcade Box Set and Mahjong Dreams. Quality is number one over at PCE Works and their recent PC-Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II may be their best release yet.

PC Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II Games

The PC-Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II collection includes five games: the infamous Zero Wing (arcade shmup and the origin of "all your base..."), Rayxanber III (with Rayxanber II as a bonus disc), Image Fight II and Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton (classic arcade shmup that helped start the "cute 'em up" genre). All games are exact reproductions in Japanese text; games, discs, manuals, everything is in Japanese.

Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton Disc

When we say exact, we mean EXACT. In fact, the only difference is the inclusion of a PCE Works logo which, thankfully helps to separate original versions of games from PCE Works' versions.

Manual Comparison

Above is a picture of my original Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton manual and PCE Works manual for Cotton. You can see virtually no difference except the PCE Works version has slightly brighter colors. Remember though, their version is not 25 years old like mine.

Case Details

Packaging is also a top priority at PCE Works. Besides including spine card reproductions, they add graphics on the inside of the collection case.

Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton Post Cards

If that's not enough, they always throw in numerous extras. In this case they add two Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton post cards to the collection.

Extras

They also throw in some stickers, extra free game discs, and when available, these awesome PC-Engine collector coins.

Tea Cup Box

Now we saved the best for last. For an extra 20 Euro you can obtain this lovely box that contains a Cotton themed bone china tea cup! The Cotton series use to offer promotions when a new game came out for Cotton themed tea cups. PCE Works decided to do the same with this release.

Front of Tea Cup

One side of the tea cup has the PCE Works logo and the Japanese symbol (sorry, I can't tell if it is Kanji or Katakana) that appears on Nata de Cotton's tea cop on the cover of the manual.

Back of Tea Cup

The other side includes a graphic of Nata de Cotton and Silk along with some candy, a broom, and a wolf creature. This image is a tad blurry, but the image on the other side of the tea cup is sharp. Honestly, this piece alone is what sold me on the set. The fact that PCE Works not only acknowledged, but honored the Cotton franchise's history by releasing a tea cup is insane.

While all of the games are top notch in the PC-Engine Memories: Shooting Legends II set, Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton for me is the must own. The game is a blast, hard as nails, and has a long history in arcades. It is also one of the early games to help start the cute 'em up genre. You can pick up the set for 129 Euro without the tea cup or for 149 Euro with the tea cup HERE. I strongly suggest picking up the tea cup. It rounds out the set quite nicely.