Arcade Love on Steam

For whatever reason, the Steam version of Arcade Love Plus Pengo doesn't have Pengo in the compilation and that makes the game less fun or something. I figure that it's due to licensing issues or something from Sega that Pengo has to be excluded in this compilation. The Xbox 360 version has Pengo although it lacks online Multiplayer support for a complete 8-Player experience in Pengo. There may be online leaderboards in other games Triangle Service had made as well as achievements which are synchronized online since your Steam/Xbox account is hybird-ish or some sort. The bigger problem with the arcade version of Arcade Love Plus Pengo is the lack of Aime support. You just start the game and realize that there isn't any prompt for starting the game with Aime card. The other ALL.NET Plus Multi games have that perhaps for saving player data or some kind but the cabinet-to-cabinet local linkage is one essential for 4-Player Pengo experience.
At the time the compilation game was developed, there was news saying that Sega was planning on remaking Pengo with HD widescreen for the arcades but then, that wouldn't be enough was the game would be too short and mini anyway so additional stuffs would be needed. Then came the familiar sound effects when completing the bonus stage in Single Player mode. It seemed that the game was being developed by Triangle Service as if Pengo is the only popular reason to play this compilation game once it came out in the arcades. Unfortunately, the game isn't that great when compared to other ALL.NET Plus Multi games in the arcades. The beat-em-up segment of Action Skills Test is kind of a mixed bag and so is the graphics throughout the entire compilation game although there are some graphical improvements in Shmups Skills Test. CombatZeal is one major disappointment to anyone's who played Trizeal and Exzeal and expected CombatZeal to be a new sequel and the compilation game is quite fun in Multiplayer as if the game's developed with that fun in mind.
The game is alright in the arcades but it's a little bit worse on consumer systems like it's lacking the online Multiplayer support and the Steam version has made things worse with the absence of Pengo that it's NOT even WORTH playing whatsoever! You're better off playing Arcade Love Plus Pengo in the arcades if that's the case.

Game Center Love Plus Pengo for Xbox 360

The graphical quality is not gonna be that great as the graphics still look like they're based on the NAOMI graphics engine with some required enhancements. Sure, there may be overhauls but not too much and some of the stages from Shmups Skills Test are replaced in Game Center Love Plus Pengo with the new ones. Okay, so the background graphics and objects are updated but it's not the same for the sprites. It may appear that Triangle Service itself is still a small company but it could have been better if they collaborated with other companies to help out like G.Rev already did with Treasure back then.
So, it may seem that the game itself doesn't use the full power of the Ringedge 2 arcade hardware that it can be somewhat ported back to Xbox 360 as the results. The gameplay may still feel old-school and the Action Game Skills Test mode isn't that great either. The first disadvantage of the game is that in Action Game Skills Test mode thing, some of the stages involve moving the joystick in left-right or up-down directions which can be damaging to it in the first place. Secondly, in Combatzeal, there may be some overlapping of the playfield but that is more of a minor issue. Third disadvantage is that the graphics don't seem to be going next-generation at all. Forth disadvantage, Combatzeal is nothing but another mini-game in the compilation.
Overall, the game itself may be okay but I don't know if the Xbox 360 port is going to improve or not. The Xbox 360 version will be out sometime in March and you may be better off playing this on the console than in the arcades. There may be better current-gen shmup games out there in the arcade on Sega Ringedge 2 and Taito Type X2. The most fun games in the compilation will probably be Pengo HD and Shmups Skills Test. If you already have the previous Triangle Service games on the Xbox 360, this compilation should be quite affordable as well.

Game Center Love Plus Pengo

There may be rumors that this upcoming game by Triangle Service will be released for Sega RingEdge 2 which is the successor to the original RingEdge. Previously, only Pengo was the first part of the compilation and people thought that Sega planning this remake but then this is all Triangle Service’s doing all along because there are three other games in this compilation.

The first one is Action Love which is basically containing the platforming stuff, beat-em-up stuff and other stuffs that don’t seem to be controlled with the arcade controller. The funny part of that game is when you button-mash on three buttons like trying to tap the door-bell as many times as you can within the time limit, you can then know how annoying this is upon doing this AND that no one DARES to do this in real life. There’s also the run similar to 100M Dash from Konami’s Track and Field but you know what’s annoying, the screen rotates in anyway it wants during the run so you have to keep up. Having to move the joystick left and right during the 100M Dash can result in many complaints regarding the control concept for the gameplay that involves breaking so much joysticks. There are other stages like whacking stuffs once they come out of the hole but what’s the point of playing properly like that when the whole hammer is controlled with the normal controller. This is kind of bullshit in terms of control concepts and that’s the first flaw of the compilation.

The second one is Shmups Skills Test and is basically the Four Player 4:3 Horizontal Screen Orientation version of the game itself. It was originally released on Sega NAOMI arcade as part of Shooting Love 2007 where the whole game is vertical screen entirely but here, the gameplay is completely extended horizontally.

The third one is CombatZeal which turns out to be the something like the versus shmup game or perhaps the next Shmups Skills Test. There may be power-ups to disturb the other players but the flaw is that your playing field may end up blocking the other when rotated to horizontal screen.

The last one is Pengo and now the huge money is going to be sacrificed on having four machines connected to the network for 8-Player support which may seem to be complicated and every arcade center is bound to be buying four cabinets of this compilation itself.

Last flaw, the game is still looking like the 128-Bit generation with no generation shift whatsoever as if the music, sounds and the graphics are likely to be the same.