Game: Midway Arcade Treasures 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 29th October 2004
Continuing with the second half of this collection (the first half can be found here), there are classics such as Primal Rage and Rampage World Tour to come, alongside some lesser known arcade games. The first 10 games on the collection were mixed, containing some absolute classics, such as Arch Rivals and Cyberball 2072, alongside less enjoyable games. Let's hope there's more enjoyment to come as we begin.
Game: Pit-Fighter
Console: Arcade
Developer: Atari
Release Date: 1990
Pit Fighter is a fighting/beat 'em up crossover where players must jump, kick and punch their way to victory against opponents, to become the champion. Up to 3 players can fight simultaneously, and the number of enemies depends on how many players there are. The game used digitised images of actors, just like Mortal Kombat, but was released prior.
The version of this game on Midway Arcade Treasures runs significantly faster than the original arcade game, which can cause quite a problem in terms of players strategy and reaction times. Most of the time button mashing is the best policy to get through a fight, and even then players are likely to die 2-3 times per fight. There'd be a good progression of difficulty if it wasn't for the speed of the game, but on the whole it's pretty bland.
Graphically the game hasn't aged well, and only looks about as good as the original Mortal Kombat, if not a little worse. The game's soundtrack is fairly enjoyable and is reminiscent of Mega Drive titles of the time, but the sound effects and voices can easily grate on players.
Overall the speed of this conversion of Pit Fighter ruins a lot of its playability, since all strategy and technique is null and void however, there are signs that this wouldn't be the best of games even if that were fixed in its graphics, sound design and overall repetitive nature. While it may have seemed fresher at the time of its release there's tons of better games out there now.
Rating: 30/100
Grade: E
Game: Primal Rage
Console: Arcade
Developer: Atari
Release Date: 1994
In the early 90s, a fighting game featuring dinosaurs and other primal creatures, battling it out to gain followers and rule the world sounded like a good idea, and so Primal Rage was born. The game plays much like a standard tournament fighter, allowing players to beat enemies one by one until all have been defeated. There's also special moves and combos much like Mortal Kombat, with blood, and other slightly more disgusting effects.
The controls allow for heavy and light punches and kicks as well as standard movement. The lighter attacks are hardly ever useful as they don't do as much damage as heavier attacks, and aren't that much easier to land. The game seems to play a little more smoothly and enjoyably than the Mega Drive version, which is understandable since it was in arcades.
Graphically the game looks pretty good, if a little low resolution in places; especially the motion captured followers of the beasts. The music is nothing special and doesn't particularly add to the experience in any way. The sound effects aren't bad although I doubt it'd be particularly hard to produce basic dinosaur sounds. The game's difficulty is a little strange; easily letting players win the first round of most battles but then turning the difficulty up on them.
Overall this is more fun than the Mega Drive version, but still full of the same control and AI flaws. The graphical improvement is noticeable but there's no other real reasons to seek out an arcade version of the game.
Rating: 61/100
Grade: D
Game: Rampage World Tour
Console: Arcade
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 1997
Rampage World Tour invites players to destroy towns and cities as an oversized animal, while eating food and humans found in buildings to regain health. The controls are simple and allow players to jump, punch and kick, though the kick is most effective. In each level, most of the buildings must be destroyed before progressing.
For a game about massive destruction and oversized animals, Rampage World Tour is incredibly boring. Not only does it quickly turn into an exercise in simply pressing the circle button as many times as possible for each building, but each level is essentially the same thing, with more people attempting to shoot your mutant.
Graphically the game is in a cartoon style and performs quite well in terms of animation. The effects of destruction and explosion are nicely represented and add a little to the game's fun. The sound effects and music are played at quite a low level, and don't seem to add too much to the overall experience.
On the whole, Rampage World Tour is a repetitive and fairly uninspired game which shows promise in principle but doesn't ever really deliver on the arcade style destruction it would need to have to be a good game. Having played a subsequent iteration of the game on the Wii, I got the impression that Midway made the first Rampage game and then ran out of ideas.
Rating: 46/100
Grade: D
Game: Spy Hunter II
Console: Arcade
Developer: Bally Midway
Release Date: 1987
Driving games in 1987 were understandably basic, but that doesn't stop them from sometimes being enjoyable. What does stop them from being enjoyable is when they're incredibly hard to play. In Spy Hunter 2, you control a car which is hunting down spies on motorbikes, with its mounted guns. There are other weapon upgrades such as missiles and oil, but players are lucky if they even get the chance to use them. Enemies can come from behind or in front of you, but since the cars guns are front mounted, anything behind or to the sides has a free shot at you.
Managing to drive the car up a ramp and into the allied van will allow for an upgrade of weapon, but honestly I've only been able to use one of these once due to the fact that either the motorbikes or helicopters will explode the car and get me told off for crashing the car. Turns on the games consequently last around 1 minute each and consist of getting hit by unavoidable bullets and missiles.
Graphically the game is basic and it's sometimes hard to tell what direction your bullet will go in due to bends in the road. Things aren't too bad for 1987, and some funky music makes up for it a little but players are still left with an almost unplayable mess of a game.
Rating: 8/100
Grade: F
Game: Timber
Console: Arcade
Developer: Bally Midway
Release Date: 1984
Timber is a relatively simple arcade game where a Mario lookalike attempts to chop down an allotted amount of trees in a given time. The player controls the lumberjack's movement and can choose to swing the axe left or right. While chopping down the trees, bears will throw bees nests at the player which must be dodged, or hit with the axe. There are also birds which fly around later levels and get in the players way.
A bonus stage appears after every 2 successful rounds, challenging the player to maintain their balance on a log which is submerged in water. While the main game is easy, this minigame is pretty hard and is unpredictable. The difficulty increases with each level completed, up to a maximum of 19 trees needing to be chopped down, with a decreased time limit and tiny logs to balance on in the bonus stages.
Graphically the game doesn't seem to have a very well defined style, mixing cartoon parts with relatively badly defined objects and backgrounds. I think this can easily be forgiven as it was released in 1984, and the game plays fairly well. The music grates a little after a while, but it's not bad. Overall this is a fun little arcade game despite being a little too simple, and not having a whole lot of variety.
Rating: 13/100
Grade: F
Game: Total Carnage
Console: Arcade
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 1991
As the sequel to Super Smash TV, Total Carnage had a lot to live up to. While the gameplay remains much the same, the theme has been changed from a game show to a military style. Players attempt to avoid hordes of enemy soldiers and vehicles whilst collecting american flags, gems and disarming bombs. Weapon upgrades can be collected temporarily by walking over certain power ups. With flame throwers and rocket launchers on offer, it's just as destructive as the first game in the series.
Both analog sticks are used to control the movement and shooting direction respectively, with some strategy required to avoid being hit by any of the opposing forces. The screen does tend to get very busy at times, much like in Smash TV, but this seems to have upped the difficulty somewhat. On the plus side, players get infinite continues, so that they can reach the end of the game, no matter how many dollars beating the game in an arcade would have cost.
Bosses take an incredible amount of bullets to beat; far more than those from the first game. Graphically Total Carnage looks great, with well defined enemies, powerups and collectibles. The soundtrack is in a similar style to that of Smash TV although I didn't enjoy it quite as much. I'd recommend playing this with a friend, as the option is available and it takes some of the rather extreme difficulty away.
Overall this is close to being as much fun as Super Smash TV for the Mega Drive, but lacks the wackyness due to the removal of the gameshow themeing, and the implementation of more conventional challenges in a few parts of the game. Total Carnage did receive a SNES port, but it seems like it'd only be a scaled down version of the arcade title.
Rating: 80/100
Grade: B
Game: Wacko
Console: Arcade
Developer: Bally Midway
Release Date: 1983
The main character from 1982's Kozmik Krooz'r returns in Wacko, an arcade shooter where matching pairs of monsters is the aim. Players control a spaceship, which can shoot in four directions and are tasked with shooting monsters of the same type successively. In later levels of the game, shooting a non-matching pair will create a pair of mutants, which must either be reversed by shooting them once again, or matched by mutating their matching counterparts and then shooting both sets of mutants.
Gameplay is generally fast and involves a lot of avoiding monsters that are already on screen. Even early on in the game there can be as many as 8 pairs of monsters on screen at once. Added to the fact that paired monsters shrink, but don't disappear in later levels, this makes for a lot of concentrating in order to stay alive. Players are given 3 chances to make contact with a monster before the game is over, which often results in short turns.
The spaceship is controlled with either the d-pad or left analog stick, while the 4 directional shot is controlled via the face buttons or right analog stick. These controls work well and give players the opportunity to strategise their shots and movements. One major problem with the game is the size of the play area relative to the monsters, and the fact that they'll often go off one side of the screen and appear on the opposite side. This can make it hard to accurately shoot monsters, especially when they're changing direction constantly.
Graphically the game is bright and somewhat surreal with a variety of monsters and the alien player character onscreen. The audio is rather lacking, containing just arcade style "bleeps and bloops" rather than a soundtrack. Overall it's a far more promising game than Kozmik Krooz'r, but it remains basic in gameplay, look and sound.
Rating: 40/100
Grade: E
Game: Wizard of Wor
Console: Arcade
Developer: Bally Midway
Release Date: 1981
Wizard of Wor is a maze shooter where 2 players, or the player and computer work co-operatively to defeat monsters and progress through the various dungeons the game has to offer. Players can control their movement with the analog stick or d-pad, and shoot with the X button in the direction that they are facing. As the levels progress there are more monsters, some of which are even invisible, that move faster and faster around the maze.
The game is fairly difficult and the computer player isn't particularly skilled so I'd suggest enlisting the help of a friend. Gameplay isn't particularly interesting since it's confined to the maze itself and levels usually only last around 30 seconds each. There are a limited amount of "worriors" for each player, and when these are expended the game is over.
Graphically the game makes a lot of use of red, blue and yellow as colours although they don't represent teams, meaning that it's possible to shoot your allies in error. The sprites used a fairly basic and there's not a whole lot of animation when they're moving, but this is to be expected for the time. Soundwise there's almost constant computerised voice clips, but it's impossible to decipher what they're saying. Overall Wizard of Wor fails to be an exciting game in the modern day, however fun it may have been in 1981.
Rating: 14/100
Grade: F
Game: Xenphobe
Console: Arcade
Developer: Midway
Release Date: 1987
Xenophobe was a predominantly three player arcade game, which could be played with one or two players also. The screen is clearly divided into three portions and even in single player mode, players only get 1/3 of the screen to play on. The objective of the game is to rid various space vessels of "Xenos" or aliens, and prevent them from self destructing by collecting codes and keys to enter into their computer system.
Players can move left or right through the rooms of the current vessel, and aliens will attack from all angles, even through the floors and ceilings. They can also latch onto players, draining health until the appropriate button to remove them is pressed. Weapon upgrades are available and can help players immensely. Although the general control scheme is good, most of the game is spent crouching as the smallest Xenos are at a low height.
Graphically the game has a nice cartoon style, and moves very smoothly. It's a shame that so much of the screen is taken up by other players, especially when they're not even taking part in the current game. The menu music for the game is very good but gameplay is accompanied by silence, with only sound effects playing.
Overall Xenophobe is another example of a game that would have been impressive and fresh for its time, but has lost a lot of its charm over time. While I can appreciate the sound and graphics still, the gameplay seems repetitive and poorly thought out. Perhaps it's far better with 3 players, but single player mode seems to drag on.
Rating: 45/100
Grade: E
Console: Arcade
Developer: Atari
Release Date: 1987
While it certainly wasn't the earliest example of a 3D shooter, using 2D graphics and angle changes to give an impression of depth, Xybots is a great early example of the genre. Set inside of a maze, players must find their way to the exit point, avoiding or killing monsters on their way with either their gun or zapper (though the zapper takes away 10% health each time it's used). Player health drains slowly as levels continue, so speed is of the essence.
The left analog stick is used to move around on screen, while L1 and R1 are used to shift the view 90 degrees left and right respectively. It takes a little getting used to, but the controls make sense once players have become accustomed to them. At the end of each level there's a shop which offers upgrades and special items, including 150% max health and slower health drain.
Graphically the game seems rather basic from its screenshots, but the 3D effect really enhances play and wasn't a common feature of games at the time. The map at the top of the screen is helpful to players, although in later levels it zooms in to provide more challenge. Musically, the game features an enjoyable range of tracks behind gameplay, as well as some decent sound and vocal effects.
Overall Xybots is a fun maze style shooter, with plenty of challenge for one or two players, a good strategy/power up system and innovative gameplay. This game stands out above a lot of the other games on the collection, seeming almost like a prototype Doom or Wolfenstein title. The limitations of the 3D are the only things holding the game back from being truly amazing.
Rating: 77/100
Grade: B
With an average score of 42.75 across the entire collection, it may seem as if Midway Arcade Treasures 2 hosts an mediocre selection of arcade games, but the average score has been brought down by the likes of Kozmik Krooz'r, Hard Drivin', Wizard of Wor, Spy Hunter II and Timber. Without these games there'd have still been 15 on the collection to choose from, including truly enjoyable games such as Arch Rivals, Cyberball 2072, Total Carnage and Xybots.
Midway seem to have gone for quantity over quality with this selection, despite including some very good titles. Because of this, the entire collection comes across as hit and miss, rather than a true selection of forgotten gems. The information and promotional materials for each game included are nice touches, as is being able to redefine the controls for each game. On the whole this collection is worth checking out, despite there being games to avoid on it.
Rating: 62/100
Grade: C
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