Midway Arcade Treasures 2 – XB – Review

I had the joy of reviewing
the first offering of Midway Arcade Treasures a while back. That was a fun blast
to the past with only some controller issues to keep it from being a more-often
played game. As is the case again here, some of the classics do not translate will
into platform consoles with modern (too fancy) type controllers. Still, there’s
a lot of bang for the buck with this bodacious bundle.

MAT2 brings us back to the golden age of arcade
gaming with classics such as "Wizard of Wor" and
"Xenophobe", as well as more "modern" oldies like Mortal
Kombat 2 & 3, and the once hilarious "Arch Rivals". I remember
seeing games like "Pit Fighter" and being amazed at how they had taken
actual people and digitized their bodies into a game you could control. That was
groundbreaking stuff back then. If you grew up in the current generation of
games, the evolution has not been as dramatic. Yes, Doom has changed a lot from
1 to 3, but in between those versions there has been a lot of competition and
the evolution is not as easy separate. Back in the heyday of coin-op games,
these games made us drop in quarters without thinking. I remember walking up to
some of these machines and knowing that one simple roll of quarters would
never be enough for the night.

The afore-mentioned Wizard of Wor is the
oldest game in the collection that I can identify. I remember playing that in
the 80s, and being quite good at it. I was delighted to see it in this bankroll
of games, but quickly found out that the newer controller made me worse at it
than the more simple 4-way position one that the arcade version had. That was
the worst game in this pack as far as translation goes. Most of the others were
not as severely altered by the newer controller.

I actually did better at a lot of these games
than I did years ago when paying for playing made you try harder. Trust
me… you take a game much more serious when you have $10 worth of tokens in it.
I am still terrible at Mortal Kombat(s). I was always better at the
lesser-liked Pit Fighter, and that still holds true. I did not play Arch
Rivals much in the arcade (always too busy with people waiting), but liked it
when I did. You actually got to cheat at a sport! My inexperience with it
shows, as it took a long time to get half-decent at it, but never enough to do well.
Narc was a game that I did not do well at years ago, but kicked butt now. I
guess it’s the years of side-action scrollers that helped me. I plowed through
it much more easy than when it was new. The same goes for Total Carnage and
Rampage: World Tour. The latter-mentioned game was a friend’s favorite. I only
played it because he was good at it and that helped me succeed. Now, I am good
at it myself, though it’s still not a great game. It’s just a sequel to
something more unique at the time. It never did well once the novelty of
controlling your own Monster wore off.

I never played Spy Hunter 2 in the arcade.
Never even saw it, actually. I was not good at this at all. It was slow
(action) and quite lame, actually. Also new to me were Timber, Wacko
and APB. I recall seeing Hard Drivin’ as a sit-down game for the
first time. That was amazing, but on my TV with a hand-held controller, the luster
fades. It did not hold much fun to me, as I could not separate it from new, more
fun driving games. Usually, I have no problem keeping generational issues
in my head as I play, but some games do not allow me to utilize that separation.
Some games are just bad– then or now. Hard Drivin’ was a great sit-down game,
but not as a controller-based driver with difficult steering.

The sounds were 100% authentic to the originals.
That is not a hard feat to accomplish. What’s new is having some of them in
stereo separation through my surround system. I never knew some of them could
sound like that! Though some of the sounds and "talk" is silly to hear
now, I found it refreshing to experience it through a modern acoustic system.

The graphics, like the sound, are exactly
reproduced here. That’s a good/bad thing. The bad traits look worse on a large
TV, but the cool subtle things are still fun to see. Though I am not inches away
from the action like the arcade days, it’s better to have them on a bigger
screen with nice color. Nothing was worse than paying to play a game that
was encased in a cabinet with a shoddy monitor. Particularly better were
fighters like MK2 & 3.

Until there is a hand-held controller (I am aware
of the huge arcade-style ones out there) that mimics older cabinet controls,
we’ll be cursed with games that do not translate well. Despite settings, some
just never allow you to move well. Some of these games have only 4 positions,
but your controller may have multiple. Added to the conflict is using the
triggers for some of the action. That does not feel natural with some of these
games, and it’s a hard learning curve. Buttons are buttons… triggers require a
totally different motion and use of the fingers. Tell me how to squeeze the
trigger to block a punch with the same finger you need to execute a killing
move?

Aside from those usual complaints, it’s a great
collection of games. If you liked playing them in the arcades, you will probably
like them here as well. If you are a slow-learner when it comes to adjusting to
the controller, your gaming will suffer. If you have no problems, and pick it up
fast, you’ll thrive in the endless-quarter action offered here. There’s the
ability to save scores (not games/levels!) and get online for play. There’s no
waiting and never-ending "Continue Game?" action. Keep them coming,
Midway… though I am not sure what’s left, I look forward to them all.
Despite spending hours playing them, I still have not had the urge to kill
anyone– as the screaming parents of the old Mortal Combat days warned us back
then.

Gameplay: 8.5
Some of these "simple" games
are better than the exceedingly expensive modern games. Not in graphical ability,
but sheer, full-blown gameplay. Isn’t that what gaming is all about? These are
the games that helped us learn better hand-to-eye coordination and drove some of
us into the computer industry. They are very additive to play if you give them a
chance. Forget the need for the bigger and better "Quake engines", and
try some old-school gaming for the sake of gaming. These are the titles that set
the benchmark for comparing today’s games worthy of your time. Depending on the
gamer, the good ones are still good, and the bad ones are still bad (dang
you, Mortal Combat!).

Graphics: 10
This is the first perfect score I have ever
given for a game. It’s a no-brainer, as they have reproduced the arcade graphics
100%. Hence, the high score. You can see a (fascinating) difference between the
evolution of MK2 and version 3. The oldest game I recognize is Wizard
of Wor, and it looks downright clumsy next to MK3, but nonetheless perfectly
rendered to the smallest detail.

Sound: 10
If I give the graphics a
perfect score, I have to do the same for sound. Yes, some of the sounds and
music are terrible, but graded as being authentic to the way they were "back
then", they are perfect. Perfectly terrible in some cases, but flawless. Even
better is to have the sound running through a modern, home system– without the
distractions of people chattering and other machines beckoning you to come
closer, as in the arcades.

Difficulty: Medium
Aside from the much-maligned
button annoyances, most of the games are easy to pick up and understand. Even
for newbies to them, they should be easy to learn. After all, many in the arcade
used one button and a 4-way solo joystick. However, some were hard to play in
the arcade, and remain that way at home.

Concept: 8.0
This is always the hardest to rate, as
they are not new– but new to many and a great way to bring the fun past into
the home. I’d like to see someone come out with a "retro controller" set. Maybe
a simple stick and a simple paddle controller or something. That would make
playing some of these games much easier to pick up. I see that some hand-held TV
games are out there that have these controllers (like the "Pong" controller for
Atari), so they can make them for X-Box.

Multiplayer: N/A

You can go online and play these via X-Box Live, but I did not attempt
that. Gauntlet 2 has a 4 player option, which was always fun in the
arcade. I imagine doing that online would be great. Arch Rival the
fighting games would be more fun online against strangers– as they wouldn’t
have to hear me curse as I was beaten around like a ragdoll.

Overall: 9.0
I am thoroughly enjoying these retro games as
they come out. Less so much the Atari 2-bit games, as many were bad then, and
playing them with complex machines is just misery. The more advances games
translate a lot better and have a lot of replay value. These are games that were
designed for maximum fun– not trying to make a tolerable game work with lavish
backgrounds and cell-shading. Back then, they had less tech to work with so they
had to focus on the maximizing the action in front of you, and your imagination
had to help out- a lot. Being able to play them again, without plopping down
pounds of quarters and inhaling ozone all night, is fabulous. I hope they keep
coming. It may not be "Pac-Man fever", but it’s close!