All Taito Milestones 3 games announced, includes Dead Connection

Taito Japan has announced via Twitter the remaining games for its Taito Milestone 3 collection. We previously knew of seven of the ten games. The two Rastan sequels were announced a little while ago. But it looks like the last game will be Dead Connection. We only have the Japanese release date of November 28, 2024, with a planned North American launch this Winter.

Here are all the included arcade titles, as shown on the banner:

• Bubble Bobble
• Rastan Saga
• Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2
• Rastan Saga 2 (Nastar Warrior)
• Champion Wrestler
• Cadash
• Thunder Fox
• Runark (Growl)
• Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode 3
• Dead Connection

It’s a great mix full of games that you should try if you haven’t played previously. Runark (Growl in North America) is something of an Indiana Jones beat-’em-up that has been getting a lot of reassessment and celebration. Cadash is a strangely generous attempt at a sidescrolling arcade RPG. Bubble Bobble needs no introduction.

Then there’s Dead Connection, which is seeing a console port for the first time. It’s a strange little beat-’em-up/shooter where the entire scene is depicted on screen, and you’re free to navigate your little guy around it, taking out thugs. It’s a bit like Wild Guns but without the Cabal-like shooting gallery setup. Somehow it didn’t land on the Taito Legends despite everything else on this list making it.

The Taito Milestones collections compile ten of Hamster’s Arcade Archives releases, usually including some that aren’t available individually yet. They’re pretty accurate ports of the original versions. I reviewed Taito Milestones 2 a while ago, but that wasn’t quite as stacked as this one.

Taito Milestones 3 is set to release on Switch. Only the Japanese release date of November 28, 2024 has been announced. It will be released in North America sometime this Winter.