Midway Arcade Treasures 3

Fuel Your Racing fever!

NA release: 24th October 2005
EU release: N/A
JP release: N/A
Developer:Backbone, Gamestar, Midway
Publisher: Midway
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

The third and final Midway Arcade Treasures game does things a bit differently. It’s entirely focuses on a single genre – racing games – while also having much newer games than previous collections. On top of that, the collection isn’t entirely focused on the arcade versions of these games. It makes for a solid collection of racing games.

Hydro Thunder

I’ve played the N64 version of this before and it’s great. The version in Arcade Tressures is a port of the Dreamcast version of the game, with slightly nicer graphics and effects. It’s a frantic arcade racer, but the levels have a lot going on to keep you on your toes for the entirety of each race.

San Francisco Rush 2049

Another Dreamcast port of a racer that also appeared on N64. This is a sci-fi inspired sequel to San Francisco where you can deploy wings to help you with shortcuts, and was another really good game. Both of these, as they’re based on home console versions, has extra modes and secrets to unlock, so are really nice to have in a collection like this.

Offroad Thunder

A game in the same “Thunder” series as Hydro Thunder. This is a direct arcade port. It features similar features to Hydro Thunder, such as the same boost mechanic, but the levels lack the spectacle, instead just being some average circuits. Still, it’s a change of scenery and quite nice.

San Francisco Rush the Rock: Alcatraz Edition

While the first Rush game was also on N64, this is a brand new port of the latest version of the arcade game, with the Alcatraz level now fully finished. It’s a solid racer and this runs at a full 60fps, although the physics are also not quite the same as the original.

S.T.U.N. Runner

This is more like what you would expect from this kind of collection: a more retro arcade game. STUN Runner has you zoom through tubes shooting enemies, avoiding obstacles and hitting boosts. Fun, although very difficult to make it to the next checkpoint.

Badlands

A top down racer like this is very much a must for an arcade racing collection. This also lets you shoot opponents and is fine until I get levels start using a few too many bridges so you can’t see half the time.

Race Drivin’

The sequel to Stunt Drivin’, which has impressive 3D graphics for the time, but is ultimately incredibly slow. This sequel pretty much adds a couple of tracks.

Super Off Road

Another top down single screen racer. It’s simpler than badlands, but comes with a level pack so there’s a ton of levels.

While it focuses on just racing games, this is a very solid collection. A mixture of older and newer arcade games works much better, and including two Dreamcast games makes it feel more substantial – not to mention how much fun those games are.

Great

All-round, if you can pick up Midway Arcade Treasure 3 for a discount price then it’s probably worth it if you’re specifically after some of the games featured on it. But for those of you that missed out the first time around, it’s fair to say that there are much better retro compilations available – not least the first two incarnations of Midway Arcade Treasures, which both feature some all-time classics.
Kristan Reed, Eurogamer

Remake or remaster?

It would be nice to see these games again.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to buy Midway Arcade Treasures 3