Midway Arcade Treasures

"This is a good compilation game, except for one SEVERE glitch and some poor quality"

This compilation should bring back nice memories of old games disappeared for many people, as long as they are older than about 18-20. We get to replay all of those old games that we rarely see anymore. But now, instead of wasting quarters on the arcade machines, we get to play the games forever on $20. That's less than $1 per game. Not bad!

Other reviews have given short descriptions of what each game is, but honestly, you would never buy this compilation if you hadn't loved at least one of these games in the past, right? So, assuming that you can get the descriptions of each of the 24 games from other reviews, I will continue with my opinions of the compilation overall.

This ''treasure'' allows you to play most of Midway's all-time classic hits. Classics like Joust, Defender, Spy Hunter, Gauntlet, Paperboy, Rampage, Smash TV, Super Sprint, Road Blasters, Marble Madness and Rampart*** (however Rampart contains a bad map glitch on 1-player!). Many of these games were made even more popular when they were remade into NES or SNES games. Some of these games have come out into new, 3-D versions (see the new Defender game). Other more obscure, yet enjoyable titles can be found such as Joust II, Defender II, Robotron 2084, Bubbles, Sinistar, 720, Toobin', Klax, Splat!, Blaster, Satan's Hollow, Vindicators, and Root Beer Tapper.

It seems that no one can agree on their favorite game of this lot. Some people love Paperboy, some Rampage, many Smash TV, and yet others have a fascination with Bubbles, of all games! In fact, I bet each of these 24 games have some person who finds it to be their personal favorite. Yes, even Splat! or Robotron or Blaster, which I find to be the worst of the bunch. My favorite is Rampart. But as you will soon find out why, this game's glitches are the reason that I give this compilation a ''5'' rating instead of 7 or 8.

The CONTROLS are about as good as you can expect, given that most PS2 owners do not have a trackball or a steering wheel. The analog joysticks on the Dual Shock are used often and for good reason, as they can fairly emulate a steering wheel, a trackball, or arcade joystick. Obviously, some games would be better off with the original arcade controls. Root Beer Tapper should have the big pull-down tap instead of the X-button right? Well, you make do with what you have. Frankly, I have no problem adjusting my play to that of the PS2 controllers, as with most every game I have played. After a little practice (or sometimes, maybe a little MORE practice), it comes natural.

The GRAPHICS and SOUND are pretty good. The graphics are very close to what I remember from the arcades, and so is the sound. The one general complaint I would have on graphics is that they seem a little ''smoothed down'' or something, such that it is very difficult to read small-print words. Just TRY to read the directions on the screen for most of these games. Ouch. So, luckily the instruction booklet in the game has some details in it, or else you'd be lost in a few of the more complicated games. Also, Smash TV tends to slow down during large battles, which is very ironic considering that the arcade machine, which is about 100 times SLOWER, could handle it while the advanced PS2 cannot. I have to believe that this is Midway's fault for poor conversion and not utilizing the full power of the PS2 computer. Also, I have found some really annoying high-pitched noises coming out of Spy Hunter at random times when I crash. But they go away and are tolerable.

The GAMEPLAY is great. If you can't find one game out of these 24 that you absolutely love, then you either don't like old games or you simply don't like games that are made for racking up scores. The basis for nearly every one of these games is to rack up as high of a score as possible. So, there's always room for improvement right? And once you master one game, then try one of the other 23. Trust me, some of these games you will NEVER master. That's the way they used to be made though, ''quarter-eaters.'' Fortunately, and UNfortunately, some of these quarter-eaters also have unlimited continues. Therefore, in my opinion it greatly takes away from the gameplay of Smash TV, Rampart, and Road Blasters, and Vindicators, among others, where all you have to do is keep hitting ''continue'' to finish the game. In the arcade, you would not have done this without breaking your monthly allowance! Try to beat Smash TV without continuing more than 20 or 30 times. That's a feat in itself. Too bad the game doesn't keep track of number of continues, as well as the scores.

The EXTRAS are poor at best. The videos are original from their time, and so are pretty neat to watch. The trivia is ok, and the history is ok. BUT, you only get to view this stuff for SOME of the games. How can there be no history or any extras for Gauntlet?!?! And this goes for many of the games. No extras. Certainly more time needed to be put into this for something as advanced as today's home systems.

The MENUS take a long time to get used to. Find your game by locating a symbol. Fun, waste away a couple minutes finding the game you want until you get used to the system. I wonder why Midway could not have put a nice little title in white letters someplace on the screen to help make reading hieroglyphics more convenient.

The other thing that annoys me is the X Box Live version of this game allows for an online ''leader board'', where the top scores can be kept online and compared amongst various people around the world, not just in your living room. This is only annoying because I do not own an X Box! :) But, you'd think PS2 could do something like that. Again, this may be Midway's fault, to go along with...

....THE WORST GAME GLITCH I HAVE EVER SEEN ON A HOME SYSTEM. I have seen various glitches on games for home systems. To mind, one of the most annoying ones was the old Metal Gear for NES, where the character jumps in the back of a truck and then it starts rumbling and the guy says ''oh no, the truck have started moving.'' Did none of those programmers know any English? :) OK, that's pretty minor, and so was Mario's ability to get infinite lives with the turtle on the ''block'' hill in Super Mario Bros. OK, so now I have enough lives to play 6 days straight. Now what? See, those glitches were minor annoyances. They affected game play, but you could choose to ignore poor English, and you could choose NOT to get 6 trillion lives in SMB. But I've never seen a game that was unplayable!!! Yet there is one on this compilation. You see, these are old arcade games, done with old processors, old code etc. And they need to be translated, or ''emulated'' to work on PS2 or other home system software. BUT, when you emulate something, you have to make sure that it works the same and that it works PROPERLY. And Midway did not take the time to notice that RAMPART GLITCHES on the peninsula and ''Final Battle'' stages. For those of you good enough to conquer the original stages of Rampart (which are glitchless, far as I have seen), you then get to choose between a left and right peninsula stage. Well, choose either one. Both are glitched and virtually unplayable. See, the map that is displayed is that of the peninsula level, which would be very neat, with two sections of water, one high and one low that you would have to defeat ships on. But unfortunately, the game THINKS that we are playing the original map located in the NW and SW of the original 4 choices. So, you cannot surround your castles properly; if you find a castle to build around, you can only build around that one (not the others because they sit in what the game THINKS is water); you CAN build on top of water, but cannot build on much of the land. Tanks arise mysteriously from the sea, and ships float mysteriously over land.

The same is true for the stage after this, if you are fortunate enough to be able to play it and pass it. If the first castle that you choose is actually located over water (yes, I KNOW that it looks like it's over land, but you'll find out what I mean), then the walls do not build around the castle and the time runs out and the game stops (you have to reset the game, and you cannot input a high score).

Midway needs to do a better job of testing their games before putting them through full production. This compilation could have, or should I say would have been great. But it seems that Midway was way to worried about hitting a deadline or something, rather than about putting out a quality product. Which is quite ironic, being that the PS2 has been out for years now, and that these games are well over 10 years old each. One would think that with all this time Midway could have put out a high-quality, defect-free product. Or not.

I have not found any other severe glitches, but where there's one there's usually more. I suggest that if you can, wait to buy this game until it comes out in a new revision, maybe a ''Greatest Hits''? By that point I would think Midway would have corrected the glitches. Or not.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/04