Irem Collection Volume 1 Limited Edition (Nintendo Switch)

The Switch gets the biggest Irem Collection Volume 1 print run, and it's still only 4,000 copies. The Irem Collection Volume 1 Limited Edition for Nintendo Switch brings Image Fight, Image Fight 2, and X Multiply together as a Strictly Limited Games exclusive with no retail physical version available outside Japan. Every copy is individually numbered.

These three games represent a stretch of the late '80s and early '90s when Irem was quietly outclassing the competition in the arcade SHMUP space. Image Fight gave players nine swappable equipment types and turned engine backfire into a tactical weapon. Image Fight 2 dropped fully voiced anime cutscenes between stages before that was a thing anyone thought to do. X Multiply abandoned every visual convention the genre had and dropped you inside a parasite-riddled human body with weaponized tentacles as your only defense. Together, they're a masterclass in how to push a genre forward without asking permission.

The Switch format makes these portable for the first time outside Japan, which feels appropriately significant for games that spent decades confined to arcades and region-locked consoles. The Limited Edition includes the game cartridge with a colorful manual, keeping things clean and focused.

For Switch collectors specifically, physical SHMUPs are becoming the backbone of serious libraries, and a numbered 4,000-copy run of three Irem legends that helped invent the modern shoot-em-up is exactly the kind of cartridge that earns a front-facing spot on the shelf.