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Midway Arcade Treasures 2
by Ed Zitron on Monday 11 October 2004
Retro packages such as this are a burden to the gamer. How do you judge games that were made fifteen years ago? How can you fairly look at something such as this package and not turn your nose up in disgust, when you could be playing your new-fangled Burnout 3? Midway has the answer – you pay a great deal less for the package, and thus judge them as a whole.
The Arcade Treasures pack is a great mix of games from days gone by. We’ve got some old favourites, such as Xenophobe and Gauntlet 2, and some relatively unknown games that provide a decent chunk of entertainment for their time, such as Arch Rivals and NARC. But we’ll start at the beginning, with the basic menus. Though at first they seem chunky and load that little bit too slowly to sustain perfection, within them is a veritable treasure trove of goodies for the nostalgic. A few clicks through the menus of NARC will bring you to a front-end detailing the game’s history (this is available for every game on there.) Some have more than others, but quite a few have dedicated interviews with the staff, posters, and trailers.
The games themselves are, as always happens with the arcade-nostalgia –packs, a mixed bag. APB is a cop-car chase simulator, where you have to flash your siren intimidating to bring criminals to a halt. While good fun for a few minutes, the game slowly becomes repetitive and lacks the killer hook of other games on the pack. Gauntlet 2, on the other hand, brings back memories of furious bashing at the huge cabinet, shouting at friends to fight off the hordes as you search for keys, food, potions, and powerups. It’s also much more difficult than Fable. In four player mode the game picks up even more fun, with each player pushing for potions and food and arguing viciously. Sadly, in some sort of chicken’s option, they included a button to add health, for the feint of heart.
Rampage World Tour is another of the best of the pack. When originally released, it was far too limited to be considered on its own, but as part of a group for a budget price, the game proves to be instant hilarity. You control your chosen monster, along with two friends if you are that way inclined, to smash up the city and do battle with the army. The smashing of buildings is awfully cathartic, and joining with buddies for city-destruction is even more retro fun than Gauntlet.
There are other reasonably recent games on there (as in within the last ten or so years. As in, I can remember them as an eighteen year old). Primal Rage is, was, and will forever be horrible. Watching plasticy dinosaurs roar and Van Halen gorillas fart at each other wasn’t fun when I was given the game many years ago, and unsurprisingly has not stood the test of time. On the other hand, both Mortal Kombat 2 and 3 have. Both are great fun, though two lacks a serious amount of the animation quality of 3. These two games just about crown the package, allowing for many hours of Kombat fun. Not only that, they come with a trailer for Deception, and the largest amount of interviews in the package. The only issue is that they lack a moves list. A minor issue, I assure you.
The rest of the package is mixed, as said. Hard Drivin’ is mostly unplayable, due to how spoiled we are with our 3D graphics, and Championship Sprint is too simple – moving tiny cars around a figure of eight just doesn’t do it for the modern gamer. Arch Rivals is fun for the five or so minutes it takes to play a basketball game, but lacks variety (this is very much evident in most of the older games, such as Kozmik Krooz’r (a Robotron clone) and Wacko (another Robotron clone)). NARC is fantastic shooting mayhem, gunning down and busting criminals using guns, missiles, and super-cars. Total Carnage is something akin to a comedy contra, with true red-blooded Americans collecting the stars and stripes and killing generic monsters and men. Xenophobe and Xybots are also worthy of a mention, as both are reasonably fun, addictive shooters, that while not doing much on their own compliment the package as a whole.
Midway’s Arcade Treasures 2 would simply not be worth it for full price, and Midway realizes this. The game is a penny shy of twenty dollars, and for that price, if you remember any of these games there is no reason not to pick it up and relive those days spent hunched ‘round a cabinet, stubbing out cigarettes on the top and hoping the manager didn’t see.
 
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Guest
Registered: 31 Dec : 16:00
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Warm fuzzy memories abound in this package.
Does Total Carnage make use of the dual analog sticks?
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Comments: 2
Registered: 13 Oct : 09:12
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Er, I think it does.
Don't quote me on that one. I remember it having the best controls ever.
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The following games are scheduled to ship on October 19, 2004:
Colin McRae Rally 2005
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