Ultimate Shooting Collection festers as a great white lie to people thinking they're getting exactly that.
Three games round out the package. Chaos Field is one that was released as a niche title on the Nintendo GameCube in North America during the final stages of its cycle, so you might be familiar more or less with that one. If you aren't, pay it no mind--Chaos Field is a stinker in every way. The other two, I suspect, will be news to you---Karous is a strange little gem that employs a unique yet underused RPG-like leveling system, and Radio Allergy is a basic shooter with eye-straining cel-shaded graphics that are about as ugly and vomit-inducing as they come. (Come to think of it, Karous suffers from the same graphical ugliness and is far worse.) The problem therein is that these games were popular in Japan for obvious reasons, and they were never localized for North American arcades. So chances are--this is the first time you've ever even heard of these shooters. The real question is--would they pique enough of your interest? I should hope not, because you'll only end up disappointed.
They're all top-down shooters that share many similarities, and I'm not just talking about their general weirdness in nature. The ships that you use in all three titles have two attack capabilities--a standard rapid-fire and a short-range sword (which erases bullets when used in Chaos Field, but not Karous or Radio Allergy) Each game offers a decent challenge that gets harder as you progress, so you're sure to be tested in your resolve in one form or another. However, the purely ugly, insipidly distracting graphics can only throw your tolerance so far. Sometimes, dialogue appears in the form of e-mail messages when you're playing Karous and Radio Allergy. Ignore it--it's all mindless chatter that makes absolutely no sense, and serves only to distract you.
To me, an "ultimate shooter collection" is only as good as the games that are included in the list, and superior shooters like R-Type, Gradius, Darius and Raiden are considered worthy of that label. But the games included in this package aren't any fun at all to play in spite of their innovations, and what's worse--they're horrifically ugly to even stare it for periods of time. Ultimate Shooter Collection commits two felonies--it fools the consumer with its ill-deserved title, and sucker-punches them with three crappy, obscure shooters. Henceforth, the publishing label will be laughing all the way to the bank with your measly $10. Deny them that small pleasure and avoid this game at all costs.