A fascinatingly curious preservation effort by Rock It Games, the TACS Classic Collection rescues ten Playstation Mobile games by Thom Hopper thanks to the efforts of developer Poppy Works. As a quick history lesson, Sony launched the PS Mobile service in 2012 before quickly shutting it down a few years later. This service invited developers to get creative and experimental with their titles which can be downloaded onto PS mobile devices, the PS Vita, and PS TV at tiny price points. As far as I am aware, this is the first time games have been revived from this long defunct, short-lived service.

This collection fully leans into its source material by offering a bizarre assortment of games, all of which happen to be accessible from a personality-filled interface. All ten games are selected by moving the carrousel left or right but the “X” button doesn’t start the game. Games are initialized by pressing the main menu button (aka the Start button) whereas X cycles between a brief introduction and that particular game’s Trophies. It works but it is a little strange. I really appreciate the 3D carts that fly around the screen when selected; it is a nice touch.

While the quality of each game varies, there isn’t a “bad” game in the bunch. Some take more getting used to, some are just plain odd, and some are satisfying once it all clicks. One thing is for sure, no two games are alike. The variety and creativity is off the charts.

Out Of Mind is a baffling platformer in which you play as a fat guy who can jump extremely high and loosely. It is strange, but this Metroidvania-lite isn’t terrible once you adjust for the slippery controls.

Radiant Flux is a short-burst shooter that sort of plays like classic Defender expect you can shoot in all four main directions. It isn’t a twin stick shooter so you always shoot in the direction you are moving which can get frustrating. Plus, the screen is constantly auto-scrolling, adding to the challenge. However, this screen-scrolling gimmick gives this game its flavor. It isn’t super great but also definitely not bad.

Super Brain Eat 3 is sort of Pac-Man-ish maze chaser. If anything, it makes me wonder about Super Brain Eat 1 and 2, and if there will ever be a sequel.

Shuttle Quest 2K is a Gameboy-style shooter RPG. The presentation is simple but the gameplay loop is interesting: launch from the hub, go out and collect materials, bring back the items you collected to make your ship a little stronger. If you put some time into it, you’ll see the charm.

Sea Run is a simple, endless runner with more Gameboy visuals that has replay value. With each run, you collect coins and the challenge gets progressively harder.

Super Skull Smash Go is a ZX Spectrum-ish action platformer with environmental puzzle elements. Once you jump on a skeleton, you can throw its skull to hit switches. This sounds easy on paper by it quite the brain teaser.

Super Tank Poker is one of the biggest highlights of the collection despite the overly simple presentation. Think Advance Wars, where you need to position your units according to the environment and distance to the enemy, but you play a game of Poker instead of straight up launching your attack.  It is interesting and sort of strange this concept hasn’t been developed further since.

Console Saga has you playing as a Gameboy in an action platformer where you need to jump and swing Bionic Commando-style but with faster gameplay. There are lots of things to collect but the higher difficulty will probably cause some rage quitting frustration.

Meltdown Moon is a weird, action-y puzzle game where you play as a little space man as your cursor. Clicking on linked colored pieces makes them disappear, potentially for a combo, but then hazards are also flying through the screen in which you need to avoid. Collecting falling stars will also provide aid. It isn’t a good-looking game but is a different type of puzzle title.

King Bean tasks the player by collecting all the beans within the shortest amount of moves as possible. It is tricky because you need to punch dirt to clear the way, move mud, create steps… it gets tough quickly.

It is important to remember when these games where made, their restrictions, and their originally released platforms. Using only a couple of buttons at most, each game is mostly designed around short-burst entertainment as they were most made for mobile environments. Which brings me to my biggest complaint – the lack of context. Going into this blind, it won’t be hard to see these games are really weird, simple, and lack a certain level of polish. Therefore, I wish there was more insight into each game while providing background of these disbanded PS marketplaces. Many players probably never each heard of Playstation Mobile, let alone know any details about it. While it is really cool to play some of these lost games on modern hardware, they act as a curious blip without any background context.

Still, the TACS Classic Collection is a surprise out-of-nowhere compilation of delisted games that still manages to be interesting, entertaining, and most importantly, historical. Simply put, we need more preservation efforts like this across all gaming platforms. Since these games are so obscure, this is a low-cost digital download any retro enthusiast should experience or at least Wishlist. Personally, I hope this sells well enough so more forgotten games can be rescued from the abyss.

SCORE: 8/10

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

X/Twitter: @ZackGaz

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