Gaming Midway Arcade Treasures

[Brasil]

Unbelievable. To quote Game Informer, I believe, "this review writes itself."

Midway Arcade Treasures is the most recent retro gaming compilation/anthology to be released. While previous anthologies have featured some nifty Namco games, gamers have looong since been missing some good old-fashioned Midway, Atari, and Williams action.

I can't begin to count just how many of my friends have retro arcade games on Emulators or other...devious gaming methods (*cough*Dreamcast*cough*), and I had a feeling we would get these precious arcade classics released in a compilation, but I just wasn't sure how, when, or on what system.

You can understand my elation and joy when I read of the announcement of M.A.T. back in June or July of this year. My jaw literally dropped after I read what games were going in.

Gauntlet.
Smash TV.
Rampage.
Paperboy.
Marble Madness.
Joust 1&2.
Sinistar.
Robotron 2084.
Spy Hunter.
Defender 1&2.

[url]http://ps2.ign.com/articles/440/440843p1.html?fromint=1[/url]

Now, IGN's review essentially says, the collection is good but it sucks. They have a problem with the menus...stuff like that.

But really, IGN's negative points seem nothing more than nitpicking...harping on the "quarter button" for Gauntlet that allows players to pump up their health whenever they want. They accuse it of making Gauntlet "boring."

Now, I ask you...can Gauntlet ever be boring? I mean, running around in a maze, with hundreds upon hundreds of beasties trying to gore you through the head, regardless of a quarter button or not. Criticizing that addition is ill-advised, in my opinion. The addition simply gives players the option to give themselves a boost of 2000 hit points (in my case, 99,999 :D). Nowhere does it require players to use the button, and if IGN has a problem with it, they don't need to use it, right?

But in the recent months, IGN has taken on an air of "true gamer" in various reviews, so I question even their motives in criticizing an added assistance feature.

I found their crit of the menu itself to be a bit overly harsh. I mean, it's a menu...a menu to a compilation/emulation. I really see no fault with the menu. The disc loads, and we are at the entrance to a giant Egyptian ruin, then zoom down winding passageways to find our treasure. I don't see how anyone can fault a game simply for that.

OK, enough beef with IGN, lol.

I love this compilation. I've longed so long to play Rampage or Smash TV on a big screen, and with this, I have/can. Smash TV is just as mind-blowingly electric as I remember it to be, and is a perfect port of the arcade version (READ: ALL THE GORE).

The dual joystick works great, but you can also use the directional buttons. There's some slowdown here and there, but it doesn't detract from it; it actually pumps you up even more to see slowdown as bosses explode. I have exclaimed numerous times, "Holy ****! Check out the slowdown we're causing! YES!"

I am one who enjoys slowdown on older games. It grounds me more in the experience, and grounding a gamer in retroland is [i]very[/i] important.

Gauntlet is just as spectacular as 15 years ago. It was auditory bliss to hear, "Warrior needs food...badly."

Simply, this is an instant buy, and at 20 bucks, you simply [i]can't go wrong[/i].

If the weather wasn't so crappy right now, I'd go and rent it again...then again, Viewtiful Joe is sitting there, begging to be played.

[Semjaza]

I've been avoiding it simply because I've heard the conversions are off. Specfically in terms of interlacing problems... and since I have a HDTV, they'll be about 10 times more obvious.

So I'll probably rent it to see how well it runs on here. In the meantime I got that Activision collection for $9.99 :D

[Shinmaru]

Blah, I keep forgetting about this game - every time I think "Hmm...should I buy this game?" another game comes out and I suddenly want that. Ah, the curse of a short attention span :p

Of all the games you mentioned, the only one I still have is Gauntlet (Elf needs food...badly - not Warrior, you wimp ~_^). I'll probably end up renting the game sooner or later, because I've always wanted to play an arcade-perfect rendition of Smash TV (no good arcades where I live). Smash TV was awesome on the SNES and I assume that it's even better here, which would be quite a feat.

Hmm...I don't know whether I should feel sad because I'm old enough to remember these or rejoice because I'm old enough to enjoy them :D