Midway Arcade Treasures 2 - GameCube (GC) Reviews


	Platform GameCube Genre Classic Gaming Publisher Midway Developer Various / Midway ESRB M (Mature) Released Q4 2004

- Great roster of classic arcade games - No more quarters!

- Some games suffer from not having the arcade setup - If you're not into instant death every few steps, skip it

Review: Activision Anthology (PS2) Review: Smash TV (SNES)
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Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Score: 8.9 / 10

In my own horribly biased opinion, Midway really scored some points with the release of MAT. Sure it had, Gantlet, Rampage, Paperboy, 720 but the classic arcade title SMASH TV is what made me want to weep nostalgic tears of joy. If it was just that title, I’d be happy – money well spent and all that. Midway proves lightning really can strike twice.

NARC (left); Arch Rivals (middle); APB (right)

Midway had done me the favor of compiling in this second volume another batch of arcade games I grew up playing – when 7-11 still had arcade games. The titles that are included but not limited to Arch Rivals, Xenophobe, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Rampage: World Tour, NARC and Smash TV’s semi-sequel Total Carnage. Most of the games have plenty of archival information on the developers but only a handful of titles feature video interviews. The interviews themselves are fascinating – or at least they would be if they didn’t have horrendous audio quality and video streams that are pre-Pentium speeds bad.

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The games themselves are replicated (emulated, I should say) right down to the insane gore of NARC and the blocky as hell Hard Drivin’ (possibly my least liked driving game ever for it’s completely unforgiving physics.) A few of the titles that originally used a steering wheel in the arcade like Super Sprint Car Challenge don’t have the same affect when playing with a gamepad. It seems a minor point in an otherwise robust package.

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“Modern” gamers will no doubt complain of all the instant death scenarios. These games were originally designed to suck down quarters – and I can attest to their effectiveness. Sometimes it would take all of 30 minutes for my hard-earned allowance to vanish down the coin slot. MAT2 features limitless credits – I finally finished an entire game of Arch Rivals! – So dying isn’t quite the frustration it was in the arcade.

If you’re a sucker for nostalgia, like I am, grab Midway Arcade Treasures 2.

- Omni

(December 28, 2004)


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