One of the best things about this collection to me, is that it's centered around many a game that I've really never had a chance to play.
I played a few Ikari's in the arcade, have played Athena and a small bit of Psycho Soldier, some of others on here. But a lot of this is the kind of thing I wouldn't have noticed as special way back when, or just wouldn't have been in my local arcades. So it's GREAT to get a chance at such again. I'm quite happy this doesn't include the normal Neo-Geo stuff. It really lets the tops of this particular era shine independently on their own.
And it's especially great to see Arcade and console editions included side-by-side, as well. That's a trick that's so often missed out on. I actually feel like that fact doesn't get enough mention when talking of this game. For comparison, I LOVED the arcade version of Sega's Shinobi back in the day, but really got to learn the series on the Master System version. But that version is pretty much lost to time now-a-days. (I'd love a Master System collection, y'know...)
I don't think I've ever heard of "Fantasy" before, but... I remember how much I got into Sinistar, with it's "BEWARE, I LIVE!" and "RUN!! RUN!" way back when. The voices in Fantasy would probably have stuck with me for years, if I had to chance to play it.
So... yeah, a great collection that just gets better! I don't think there's been a classic game collection like this, that I've felt has as much older games I want to actually PLAY, and not just witness, on it... since the Taito collection on PS2. Never even heard of Dungeon Magic back then, and my experience with Darius arcade had only been through magazines. I was into that, more than I was my "modern" purchases at the time. Having DLC titles to give a bit of space, to allow people to actually focus on the release, rather than just blitz through them in a one-and-done way, is perfectly fine with me, too.