Review Toaplan Arcade 2 (Evercade) - I Am The God Of Hellfire

The first Evercade Toaplan Arcade collection was packed with big hitters from the Japanese company's history, including Zero Wing, Truxton, Flying Shark and Tiger Heli. While Toaplan's back catalogue has more than enough hits to make a second pack justifiable, this follow-up isn't quite as essential – but it remains highly recommended regardless.

Again, shmups are the main focus here, with four of the seven included games being part of the genre. Fire Shark is the sequel to Flying Shark and is even better than its forerunner, offering plenty of challenge and a good excuse to use the Evercade EXP's excellent TATE feature. Twin Cobra and Twin Hawk also use the TATE mode to good effect.

Hellfire is the sole horizontally-scrolling shmup on the collection and is one of Toaplan's most accomplished arcade titles of all time. The brilliant multi-directional weapon system was groundbreaking for the time, and the game's fame was expanded by excellent ports for the Mega Drive and PC Engine CD.

Wardner, on the other hand, is a cute fantasy platformer which might not look up to much, but is incredibly challenging and addictive; again, like Hellfire, it was ported to the Mega Drive with brilliant results. The two remaining titles – Rally Bike and Demon's World – are the weakest of all seven games, but you'll still lose yourself in them for an hour or two (especially Rally Bike, which uses the TATE feature).

While not quite as essential as the first Toaplan Arcade collection, this is still a brilliant way to familiarise yourself with the coin-op output of one of Japan's legendary arcade game makers.