Irem Collection Volume 1 Limited Edition (PlayStation 5)

If 999 copies felt too exclusive, here's your entry point into physical Irem ownership. The Irem Collection Volume 1 Limited Edition for PlayStation 5 brings Image Fight, Image Fight 2, and X Multiply together in a Strictly Limited Games release capped at 1,500 numbered copies worldwide. No retail version exists outside Japan, so this is still very much a collector's-only affair.

These aren't just any three shooters. Image Fight basically invented the modular weapon loadout for the genre back in 1988, letting players swap between nine different equipment types mid-run. Image Fight 2 took things further with fully voiced anime sequences bridging its stages, a move that was borderline revolutionary in 1992. X Multiply, meanwhile, remains one of the strangest and most compelling SHMUPs ever made, sending players inside a human body to fight organic horrors with tentacle-based weaponry. Together they represent a stretch of the late '80s and early '90s when Irem was quietly pushing the entire genre forward.

The Limited Edition comes with the PS5 game in its case, a colorful instruction manual, and that individually serialized cover sheet that marks your copy as yours alone. It's a clean, purposeful package built for the collector who wants the games preserved properly on a modern disc without needing the full collector's edition spread. Sometimes the game itself is the centerpiece, and three genre-defining SHMUPs on a single disc make a pretty compelling argument for that philosophy.