Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Midway Arcade Treasures 2 is a compiliation of games ranging from 1984 to 1997, touching all genres of arcade games from Midway and Atari. It has obscure games, historically important games, famous games, infamous games, some of the all time best and some of the all time worst, wrapped in a nice, $20 package.

The chief money-making games here are the MKs. Included here are the arcade versions of Mortal Kombat 2 and 3. Arcade version means the best graphics, but none of the frills of the console versions like versus mode and such (though they're not missed, since you have the choice of free play) Many fans consider MK2 to be the pinnacle of the series so it's great to finally have a true arcade version. Choosing to put MK3 in the game as opposed to the superior Ultimate MK3 is an odd choice, but it still holds up. It's not entirely arcade perfect; music still plays a little during a fatality, but it's close enough.

The other famous (or infamous) game included is Primal Rage, Atari's attempt at cashing in on the MK craze. For the curious, PM consists of giant, claymation dinosaurs fighting over a post-apocalypse "urth". It's certainly gory; literally wearing it's heart on it's sleeve (or next to the power bar in this case) and it's a bit more fluid than Mortal Kombat, though depth is questionable. It's like Dead or Alive; the type of fighting game you get a bunch of friends over and beat the crap out each other.

Speaking of which, Arcade Treasures does make a good party game. In addition to the above, the game features Rampage : World Tour, the 97 sequel to the classic arcade smash-em-up. Up to 3 players can join in as giant monsters and just destroy buildings. Not the most cerebral of games, but a nice way to kill time. There's also Arch Rivals; a two on two basketball game that allows fouls and would go on to be the inspiration for NBA Jam. There's also Cyberball 2072; a futuristic football game where the ball doubles as a bomb. And who can forget one of my personal favorites - Total Carnage, a sort of war-based sequel to Smash TV. Being as how the GameCube has two analog sticks to recreate the joysticks used to walk and fire, the game has a certain leg-up over the old SNES port, which makes me warm and fuzzy inside. Also included is Gauntlet 2, a solid sequel to the original classic that just makes it that much more suitable as a party game.

Not all of it is good. Pit Fighter is the first game to use graphics based on scanned images of actors. It'll also go down as one of the worst fighting games of all time. There's Spy Hunter 2; the lackluster sequel to the classic gem that tries to change the view but ruined everything. Championship Sprint is a top-down view-based racing game that lived and died in arcades on it's steering wheel. Unfortunatly, Midway Arcade Treasures 2 doesn't come with one. Hard Drivin' is a revolutionary driving game with then-mind blowing 3D graphics and the game that probably gave birth to the graphics vs gameplay debate of who can care less. There are some obscure games such as the pretty good Timber and the not so good Wacko. You do have neat games like APB, a driving game that has you playing a police officer trying to enforce the law, and Xybots, the first ever third person game. And of course, there's Narc, a very gory but very meh shoot-em-up that tries to promote anti-drug awareness. If mindless violence didn't scare kids away from drugs, I don't know what will.

What is neat, though, is that most games feature various bonus features. All games have brief bios and scans of the flyers used to sell the arcade machines. Some even have promotional videos (including an AWFUL video for Mortal Kombat 2 designed to make you wonder how this game became so popular) A bunch of the old school games have interviews with the original developers, and even a 25 minute feature on Mortal Kombat 3. Each game lets you customize various options like difficulty that only the arcade operator had control over, which is neat.

Ultimately, Arcade Treasures 2 may have a lot of crap - but gems like Mortal Kombat 2 & 3, Primal Rage, Total Carnage, Rampage, Gauntlet 2 and so on make the game worth the $20.