flash-hammer's Full Review: Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for Xbox
The original Midway Arcade Treasures was probably the first time one of these classic arcade compilations had actually included a selection of games that could prove entertaining, even to those who hadn't grown up with the games. It was still far from great, but Midway decided to persevere with the idea, and in 2004, the world was treated to Midway Arcade Treasures 2, which displayed just how far ahead the current crop of consoles were technology wise than their 16-Bit counterparts, by including perfect arcade ports of games that had to be downsized to fit onto a cartridge.
Yet, Midway Arcade Treasures 2(MAT2) wasn't prepared to stop their, and went an extra step and included, along with a slew of other games, Rampage World Tour, a game which appeared on the PlayStation, Saturn and N64, proving just how much can be fit onto a DVD.
This collection includes 20 games, most of which came from the time when I actually spent a lot of my time, and change, in arcades. This gave this game a boost it's prequel lacked, in that I was actually familiar with a good few of these games to start with, and had fond memories of them, so nostalgia was going to be in this game's corner. The entire list of available games, in alphabetical order, looks like this:
A.P.B
Arch Rivals
Championship Sprint
Cyberball 2072
Guantlet 2
Hard Drivin
Kozmik Krooz'r
Mortal Kombat 2
Mortal Kombat 3
NARC
Pit Fighter
Primal Rage
Rampage World Tour
Spy Hunter 2
Timber
Total Carnage
Wizards of Wor
Wracko
Xenophobe
Xybots
While the list does have it's share of pure filler, such as Timber and Wracko, but to be honest, I don't see how anyone could really complain about the ability to play arcade perfect ports of Mortal Kombat 2, MK3, Total Carnage and Pit Fighter all on the one DVD. While MK2 is the clear standout in terms of quality, even some of the games I had never heard of proved entertaining, and the package really has something for everyone who grew up, like me, in the 16-Bit era.
While it would take forever to look in-depth at each game, I'll try my best to look at the real standouts in some detail. First of all, the crowning inclusion is easily Mortal Kombat 2. Despite the fact I already own 3 versions of it (Megadrive, 32X and SNES), this is still the game I'm instantly drawn to the minute the game loaded up. MK2 is easily the best Mortal Kombat game. A decent selection of characters, each with their own varieties of special moves and 'Fatality' finishers, MK2 was brought to life using digitised actors/martial artists to represent the fighters, and includes some slick and atmospheric music, as well as being the last MK game not to incorporate the lame 'canned-combo' system that made the series all too easy to button-mash through. It has nigh perfect collision detection, and is easily one of the best fighting games that doesn't feature the words Street and Fighter in the title. On this collection, it's presented as it has never before been seen on a home console...arcade perfect. The fighters are huge compared to what I've grown accustommed to playing with, and the animation isn't missing a frame. I would have paid the £20 I handed over for this collection for the privelidge of owning this perfect port alone.
Also standing out in terms of positives are fellow fighters MK3, Pit Fighter and Primal Rage. While MK3 introduced the much maligned 'canned combos' and lacked classic characters like Johnny Cage and Scorpion in it's roster, it looked great, had awesome music and it's still pretty simple to have a great time playing it, especially on 2 player.
Pit Fighter, like the MK games, used digitised fighters, but it was never really as good playing as either of those games, and a lot of it's appeal really lay, even at the time, in it's ridiculously cheesy charm. Your fighters had a very limited arsenal of moves, but the wacky enemies, funky music and great multiplayer action meant that Pit Fighter never grew old, and still doesn't. It's like a Don 'The Dragon' Wilson movie, but in videogame form, that sort of low budget martial arts fun. What made it stand out from the crowd, was that it's multiplayer option wasn't a one-on-one versus fight ala MK, but instead the players, up to three, worked co-operatively to fight equal amounts of enemies, before fighting each other for the honour of fighting the boss. What also makes it stand out is the ability to pick up weapons such as sticks, knives and bar-stools to crack over your opponent's head. While it's gameplay may not have been as fluid or spectacular as MK2, there is no denying Pit Fighter is a great laugh.
Possibly the game that pleased me the most in the collection though, was Primal Rage. I had very fond memories of the game from my childhood, and upon picking up the SNES port not too long ago, I was disgusted with it. However, via this compilation, my love of the game, which is basically Mortal Kombat with the digitized fighters replaced with stop-motion prehistoric monsters. These graphics are unbelievabley cool, and in this, accurate arcade port, the sprites are absolutely huge, as well as being brilliantly animated. What's even better, the special moves work in this version, so it's possible to truly enjoy the game for what it is, one of the coolest fighting games of it's era.
While my experience with it in the arcades was sparse, restricted to a few plays one holiday in Florida, Total Carnage, basically a follow up to the first compilation's Super Smash TV is a top-down vertical shooter, where the game's title basically sums it up perfectly. It's a fast and furious blaster that is of a pretty high difficulty, and I'm sure shooter fans will love it, I know I certainly did. It's graphically good, with the screen being constantly full of things going on, all of them well animated, and it's a simple, super, shooter.
Rampage World Tour is basically a remake of the old game that was found on the last collection, this time featuring even more levels, and 3D-esque, ala Donkey Kong Country graphics. It still has the same goal, choose a giant monster and smash up cities, and it still gets pretty repetitive, but the fact is that it's fun for a while, especially if you are a Godzilla fan like me.
The final real highlight for me was the chance to play the legendary NARC. Remember those old "Winners don't do Drugs" ads on arcade machines? NARC is basically a display of what happens to those who didn't heed this warning. The game is a horizontal shooter, where you take control of a narcotics agent who is on a single-handed(or double if you have a friend) mission to wipe out his city's drug culture. What follows is a few stages of absolutely blowing the hell out of hilarious caricatures of junkies, from guys in pink pyjamas and trench-coats, suits with bucket hats, clowns and Dave Mustaine look-a-likes, not to mention giant beetles and mutant dogs(!) with your machine guns, rocket launchers, or running them down in your ferrari. Quite possibly the most un-PC game ever, even pretty impressive by Midway's standards, NARC's gameplay would get pretty repetitive, if it wasn't for the fact it's so damn hilarious. Graphically it hasn't aged all that good, but it's still competant, and I'm sure most gamers will get a kick out of it. Although I bet Keith Richards and Pete Doherty never really enjoyed it.
While these are the only games that stood out as being incredibly enjoyable for me, that's not to say they are all the good bits. Games like Xenophobe, Hard Drivin and Guantlet 2 are all pretty enjoyable, but I imagine people who actually grew up with them would get more out of them than me.
To be honest, the only games I don't really rate very highly are Timber and Wizards of Wor, and I really don't see many people getting anything out of them. They are well outdated, and seem to be chucked on as an afterthought.
If there is one thing I really hold against the collection, it's that the original Mortal Kombat was ommitted at the last minute. This was done so Midway could release a special edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception,with the first game as a bonus disk. Fair enough? yeah, if you live in America. You see, the special edition was never released in Europe, so we basically had to do without a port of the original game, which frankly stinks.
Trying to talk about the graphics, sound and controls of the game would be rather silly, as it varies from title to title, but to be honest, the controls all seem pretty tight, and the graphics and sound are how they appeared in the arcades. If you've ever seen these games in arcades, it looks and sounds the same here.
Also in there as a bonus is selected games recieving 'bonus content', usually an interview with someone involved in making it. While these aren't exactly overflowing with world-altering information, they do offer interesting anecdotes, and are pretty cool inclusions.
I can honestly say, that I feel Midway Arcade Treasures 2 is easily the best of all of these 'arcade collections' so far. It not only contains games deemed 'classic', but also games that are classic, yet not from the earliest days of videogames. Most of these collections feature games that can be played on mobile phones these days, Arcade Treasures 2 at least features games that while old school, are still pretty impressive.
I would recommend the game to anyone who has any fond memories of any of the titles contained within, and especially to fans of the Mortal Kombat series. While including MK1, and making it Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 included in the package would have made this so much better, probably even 5/5, just for allowing me to play a good selection of great games, at arcade quality, for half the price of a standard Xbox game means I'm full of praise for this release.
Run Xybots through deadly mazes, wander with the Wizard of Wor and chop down trees in Timber Exciting battle action with Total Carnage, Spy Hunter II ...More at Amazon
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