Midway Arcade Treasures: Deluxe Edition – PC – Review

About the best
thing going for this compilation of games is the price. You are getting 29
games fur under a buck apiece. The games will bring back old memories of
pumping quarters into coin ops, spending hard-earned allowances or paper route
money for an hour of two of top-notch entertainment. Ah, the memories of
riding my bike to the local arcade on a summer morning hoping the latest game
had finally made its debut at the local gaming establishment. Kids of this age
were first introduced to casino-like sounds of coins dropping, musical sounds,
and players mashing buttons watching their high scores being beat. When asking
a complete stranger to play doubles was actually something. Now with online
multiplayer games the tradition has passed and we have new technology that
lets us play with a fellow gamer clear across the world. Unfortunately this
game missed that mark entirely.

There are 29
games in all and some do have some multiplayer capabilities. That is if you
want to program your keyboard so you can huddle around it and play. C’mon
guys, is this very realistic? There is just not nearly enough room for four
people to play Gauntlet 2 on one keyboard. Sure if you have four gaming pads
you could probably get by, but on a 19-inch LCD? I would just as soon play on
a console hooked up to a 35-inch TV before going through all that. Each game,
and I do mean each, is only set up for keyboard play, so if you want to use a
game pad you have to configure each game individually to play. This is not
only tedious but very time consuming.

Another
drawback to these games is that it requires two disks to launch the exe files.
So you have some games on one and other games on the other. This makes having
both disks at the ready a must and you have to constantly switch disks if you
want to play a game that is not found on that particular disk. That’s fine for
most games, but a compilation? Why not have everything on one DVD or at least
be able to launch the executable files from either disk? My feeling is that
Midway Arcade treasures 2 and 3 were offered as their own games and the
publishers found it easier just to repackage them together in one new box
using old inventory and call it a deluxe version. Just a guess here.
Furthermore why not include treasures one also and really have a good
compilation of games?

The games show
their nostalgic like visual and audio qualities that make any modern-day gamer
appreciate how far technology has grown. Visually the titles looked as good as
they did in the arcade but something was amiss on sound. Some games lacked any
background music and others had sound hiccups as you played. Not all were bad
but enough differences to make you cranky. Another disappointment. 

I enjoy titles
or compilations that offer many games but I have to admit that I feel that
this was a thrown together idea just to make a few more bucks. A swing and a
miss. 

29
classic arcade games including:

Single
Player Games


• APB™
• Hard Drivin’™
• Off Road Thunder™
• Race Drivin’®
• San Francisco Rush the Rock: Alcatraz Edition™
• S.T.U.N. Runner™

Two Player
Games


• Arch Rivals™
• Badlands™
• Championship Sprint™
• Cyberball 2072™
• Hydro Thunder® 
• Kozmik Krooz’r™
• Mortal Kombat® 
• Mortal Kombat® II
• Mortal Kombat® 3
• NARC®
• Primal Rage®
• Timber™
• Total Carnage™
• San Francisco Rush 2049™
• Spy Hunter® II
• Wacko™
• Wizard of Wor™
• Xybots™

Three/Four
Player Games


• Pit Fighter™
• Rampage® World Tour
• Super Off Road™ with bonus Track-Pak!
• Xenophobe®
• Gauntlet® II 


Review Scoring Details for

Midway
Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition

Gameplay: 6.0
Unless you
plan to play with the keyboard, you will have to set up each game individually
for game pad use. We are talking about 29 games here, Sheesh! Then to add insult
to injury you have to keep two discs at the ready, which you have to shuffle
between when loading the games. This obviously should have been on one disk or
just one executable file found on either disc.

Graphics:
7.0
No
enhancements here. But these are nostalgic games. They hold true to their
place in time, but when you are used to seeing today’s colossal graphic
engines they don’t even compare.

Sound: 6.5
Same as
graphics. You are not going to find any mind-blowing surround-sound effects
here. Some games lacked any background music like the Mortal Combat trilogy
and a few others had some sound issues that were just plain annoying.

Difficulty:
Easy
The games
are pretty much simplistic to play; it’s just getting the games configured to
your preferences that is the challenging and time-consuming part.

Concept:
5.0
First off, I
love the idea of game compilations. Unfortunately I felt that this one was
thrown together from a bunch of unsold copies put into a different box. If you
are going to put a compilation together why not include the first arcade
treasures disk, too? Furthermore, put them all one DVD or at least have one
executable file for all the games so you don’t burn out your CD drive’s tray.


Multiplayer: 4.0
There is no
Internet or LAN-type play. You can set up other players to huddle around a
keyboard on some of the games that allow you to play with more than one
player, or possibly set up a couple of controllers. In my opinion, if I wanted
to go through all that, I would just play on a console. Not even a LAN option
for a PC game? Truly sad.
 

Overall:
5.5
Not bad for
20 bucks, but when I think of the hassles of going back and fourth between
disks, I would just rather play another game compilation or fire up a console.