Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Own the Arcade!

NA release: 11th October 2004
EU release: N/A
JP release: N/A
Developer: Backbone Entertainment
Publisher: Midway Games
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

Another collection of arcade games form Midway, this time with quite a few fighting games and twin stick shooters. The menus are much simpler this time, but work well enough – it reminds me a lot of Backbone’s style for XBLA games, so it seems to have stuck. Plenty of games here, so let’s get stuck right in.

APB

The failed open world MMO game All Points Bulletin (which I’m just finding out actually got released at some point) is not related to this arcade game at all, just based on the same phrase. The arcade game has you driving around arresting vehicles (or blowing them up once you get a gun).

When you hold down the siren button, a block moves away form your car. You have to aim this above the cars you want to arrest or do other things such as tap the button for arresting taxis – it’s get a bit confusing and difficult to remember. Not bad, but more and more rules get added.

Arch Rivals

A very early version of a concept that ended up being NBA Jam – something Midway couldn’t include in this due to selling the license (not to mention the NBA license). It’s very simple, but an interesting start for the franchise.

Championship Sprint

A very basic top down RC racing game. Gets tedious quite quickly.

Cyberball 2072

American Football with robots. You pick plays and throw the ball. The robot you’re controlling has a different design, so the other robots morph into it when you change player. It’s very, very slow. Like a slideshow.

Gauntlet II

It plays a lot better than the first with lots of mechanics that became standard in later games like the Grim Reaper, magic potions and using keys to open doors and chests. Built for four players, but still good mindless fun on your own.

Hard Drivin’

Impressive 3D graphics for the time, and it feels a lot more substantial than games like Pole Position. While I’m pretty sure I’ve not played the arcade version, the first track of the game feels very familiar to me, so I wonder if I had the Mega Drive version. I think this is a good bit of history.

Kozmik Krooz’r

A very bizarre twin stick shooter. There’s a large UFO hovering at the top of the screen that seems to both kill you and give you points if you get close. You’re in a little flying saucer, shooting other aliens alongside with witches on broomsticks that fly across the screen.

Mortal Kombat II

The arcade version, now on consoles. Apparently this version is liked by some but hated by others because it runs faster than the original. All I know is that I couldn’t defeat a single opponent. Even on the lowest difficulty, I would get completely trounced.

Mortal Kombat 3

More of the previous. I did manage to defeat an opponent this time. I’m just not good at these. MK Trilogy was based on this, so this being on consoles wasn’t as big a thing, but still a great addiiton.

NARC

A violent and difficult arcade shooter. It’s one of those that’s insanely difficult because you can put in more money to carry on. Your score doesn’t even get reset in this one. A lot of the enemies can be quite annoying to deal with.

Pit-Fighter

I know that the SNES version of this is considered to be an atrocious fighting game. This versions seems ok for how old it is, with lots of people to beat up. Your health is carried on across multiple fights, though.

Primal Rage

Out of all the fighting games in this collection, I had the most fun with Primal Rage. Probably because it’s a bit easier to cheese, but also the models the sprites are based on look really nice. I’d be interested in seeing a version with higher resolution graphics based on the original models.

Rampage World Tour

The game where you control giant monsters attacking cities. It has nicer graphics than the N64 version, but the controls are still awkward and I’m not a fan.

Spy Hunter II

The sequel to the spy vehicle game. This one only uses half the screen per player and has quite an awkward perspective. You move left and right a bit blasting enemies. It seems more limited than the original.

Timber

This is more of a Vs games, you can play on your own but it’s not really designed for it. You run down chopping trees, with more obstacles being added over time. With another player, you’re at least competing for the trees, but it’s a bit bland on your own.

Total Carnage

An apt name for this twin stick shooter. There’s always an immense amount of enemies on screen to blast, loads of things to collect and you’ll die continuously.

Wacko

Another strange twin stick shooter featuring the main character from Kozmik Krooz’r. In this one, you’re playing Pairs with monsters – you have to shoot one monster and then the other identical one right after in order to kill them.

Wizard of Wor

A maze shooter against a rival – although the game does give you an opponent if you don’t have a friend to paly with. You go through a simple maze trying to kill the most enemies.

Xenophobe

A three player co-o game, with you each getting a thin slither of the screen. Play on your own and you just get a single tiny patch. You work together to clear a space station of enemies, having to take out all the pods before the station gets overrun. There’s also a self destruct timer, so you have to be fast.

Xybots

For a maze game like this, I was really impressed with the movement. Usually you just move one screen at a time, but here you can move freely forward/backwards and strafe left/right. Pressing the shoulder buttons will rotate you 90 degrees.

You make your way though mazes, killing enemies and finding the exit, grabbing keys to find secrets and bonuses. It’s a lot like Gauntlet (it even started out as a Gauntlet game), but I found it to be a lot more engaging. This was definitely the highlight of the collection for me.

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This is a nicely varied selection, with some simple games and some more complicated games. Not many were to my personal tastes, but there’s plenty of good games here. The collection also has a selection of developer interviews, although the quality is pretty bad.

Fun

The sequel to last year’s Midway Arcade Treasures is definitely a much more beefy and satisfying compilation of arcade games. There are far more games in this package that will appeal to the current generation of videogamers, since most of the titles in the pack offer far more depth and replay value than the original collection.
Craig Harris, IGN

Remake or remaster?

An ultimate Midway collection would be great, but extremely unlikely.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Midway Arcade Treasures 2.