Midway Arcade Treasures

"Fantastic, but flawed, collection of classics."

Midway Arcade Treasures had me drooling when it was first announced, but I figured that there was no way on Earth this collection sent from the heavens could live up to the hype, but somehow, it managed to, barring a couple of snafus here and there. Just look at the listing of games included in this collection: Spy Hunter, Defender, Defender 2, Gauntlet, Joust, Joust 2, Paperboy, Rampage, Robotron 2084, Smash TV, Bubbles, Road Blasters, Blaster, Rampart, Sinistar, Super Sprint, Marble Madness, 720, Toobin’, Klax, Splat!, Satan’s Hollow, Vindicators, and finally, Root Beer Tapper. 24 games, most of them classics, all for just $20. Not too shabby folks. Now, normally, I try to review each game in a compilation separately, but since there are 24 full games on here, and a review of each game would take up more space than the actual games themselves in some cases, I’ll just breeze over things in a general sense.

What amazes me the most about this compilation is how many of some of my all-time favorite games have made it in. RoadBlasters is in, and is just as much fun now as it was when I first played it over a decade ago. The same holds true for Spy Hunter, Rampage, Marble Madness, 720, Smash TV, and Paperboy. Some games included are here are new to me, such as Splat! and Rampart, which are each fun games, with the latter being the most strategic game included in this compilation. Some games I’ve played on other compilations, like Toobin’, Klax, and Root Beer Tapper, and they’re just as much fun to play now as they were then. Having so many games at your disposal, with so many genres being represented means that you’re bound to find at least one game here that you can play at a given time.

Most of them are perfect for quick play sessions, but some, like Rampart, really shine when you give them a nice, involved play session. Sadly, there are some rather odd differences between the versions of some games and their counterparts on other console compilations, including the PS2 version of this one. Multi-player games that would normally let you pick from different characters for each player, such as Smash TV, Gauntlet, and Rampage, all force you to use the default player one character for that game. I’ve read that you can rectify this by changing the game options, but I’ve yet to do this, so until I do, I’ll have to hold it against the game that you can’t pick different characters.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering how well each game controls on this compilation, after all, there are many sacrifices that have to be made from game-to-game since so many of them had customized controller setups. Well, I’m happy to report that the controls are a breeze for all the games, you can configure them to suit your liking, and the Xbox’s fantastic D-pad and responsive thumbsticks enable you to get accurate, precise controls for any game.

I’ve seen quite a few folks complain about Root Beer Tapper not having the action button configured for the right thumbstick, and while that would have been a nice inclusion, I find the R trigger button to be perfect for the game, as you can both tap the root beer with it, and do it responsively, while pulling the button down, and you can open up the root beer can during the little mini-game between levels. It’s the best of both worlds, in my opinion, as you get something that replicates the action in the game, and works well for the supplemental areas as well, as it just wouldn’t be all that natural to flick a thumbstick to open a can of root beer. Anyways, the fantastic D-pad makes moving around in the games, even those with precise control needs, like Marble Madness, a snap, and the dual thumbsticks the arcade controls of Smash TV and Robotron 2084 perfectly.

Graphically, the games are unchanged, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your viewpoint of what a “good” looking game is. For my money, these games all look great, and are a testament to how enduring a game’s graphics can be, even when there isn’t much to work with. Some games, like RoadBlasters and Marble Madness, still look great thanks to little touches within them, like rich color usage, that add a sense of beauty to the games that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

The sound for the games is just like the graphics, unchanged. To owners of the Sega Smash Pack on the Dreamcast, you know how messing with the original sound can really hurt things. Some of the games feature music that is still impressive, like Marble Madness and RoadBlasters, while others don’t make use of music, and don’t need to. Sound effects are universally fantastic in this compilation, which is a pleasant surprise. In some cases, they get across the frenetic pace and non-stop action that is going on, and in others, they convey a sense of calm and serenity.

With 24 games on this compilation, there should be enough here to keep anyone busy for quite some time. However, if the games aren’t enough, there are also some nice, if flawed, supplemental materials for the games. All of them feature some sense of historical background, whether it comes from a scan of an ad for the game, a shot of the arcade cabinet, or historical notes in general. About half of them feature videos with folks involved in the making of the game. Most, if not all of them have already been featured in other compilations, although I don’t recall them being full-screen. The video quality of them tends to vary from video to video, with some being somewhat clear, while others are just a blurry mess.

The menus used to access both the games and the videos will add some life to the compilation, but not in a good way. The layout of them is kind of clunky, with the game selection area not even listing the game titles. In order to see what game you’ve highlighted, you have to wait for the title to pop up in the little screen showing a video of the game, and then hope that you can even read the title due to the shoddy quality of the video being shown. The menus have an Egyptian theme to them, which fits the “ancient” aspect of some of the games, but it doesn’t really work all that well for selecting things, as pseudo-hieroglyphics are used as game-selection icons. Why the actual game logos weren’t used instead of these horrid-looking things is beyond me. Thankfully, Digital Eclipse almost makes up for these flaws by including a neat online scoreboard for the games via Xbox Live. This is seemingly a great way to recreate the joy felt by having the top score on an arcade machine, only on a broader scale.

Despite the few flaws contained in the collection, the end result is something that is nothing short of amazing. The sheer volume of games contained ensures that you will, if nothing else, get your money’s worth out of this disc, and the historical stuff is a nice treat as well, if a bit flawed in execution. For only $20, you’re getting some of gaming’s most enduring and beloved games. This is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the best dollar-for-dollar deal I’ve seen in quite some time. Here’s to hoping that we see another installment of arcade treasures.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/03