Publisher
Midway

Developer
Digital Eclipse

Released: November 17, 2003
Genre: Arcade
Players: 4
ESRB: Teen

7
7
7
8
8.0

Supported Features:

You know a game is cool, or at least terribly addictive, when every time you go to play it a bit and write the review you forget all about writing the review. I’ve probably logged more hours playing Joust and Defender than I did completing Vice City, and don’t even get me started about my addiction with the original Gauntlet.

There is so much here to love. Just check out this amazing compilation with more than 20 great arcade games including:

Having grown up in an arcade – yes I was abandoned at the mall and raised by the token attendant at Aladdin’s Castle – I played most of these games when they were “state-of-the-art”. While today’s youth will likely scoff at the primitive graphics and simplistic game design anyone in their 30’s or older can’t help but smile when the familiar tunes of Satan’s Hollow or SpyHunter start to play.

First of all, Digital Eclipse, the developer assigned to port these titles to Sony’s next-gen system, did a flawless job of bringing over every last sound effect, synthesized musical note, and pixel-perfect graphics. These games look and sound just like their original coin-op counterparts.

Surprisingly enough, almost all of the games play just as well as they did 10-20 years ago with only a few exceptions. Some of the games featured in Arcade Treasures had some proprietary controls like wheels, trackballs, and in the case of Tapper, an actual tap handle. Obviously sacrifices had to be made when making these games work with the Dual Shock, but unless you have been playing these games continuously for the past decade there shouldn’t be too much culture shock. Games like Robotron 2084 play wonderfully with the dual sticks while games like Marble Madness and Rampart scream for a trackball.

Playing these games is just as fun as it was back in the arcade but navigating the convoluted menus to pick and load those games is more like work. All of the games are presented in a menu format that capitalizes on the word “treasures” by adopting an Egyptian pyramid menu with hieroglyphics. You basically move around highlighting the cryptic icons that really having nothing to do with the game you are choosing. A video of the chosen game appears in the middle of the menu and you can choose to play the game, read some background info, and when available, watch some behind-the-scenes interviews.

If you are old enough to enjoy these games then you are probably curious enough to enjoy these interviews. I found almost all of them extremely interesting even if a few are a bit dated. This is the Encarta of 80’s console gaming, a truly interactive encyclopedia where you not only play the game but learn about them.

There are a few negatives starting with the aforementioned interface, and while the PS2 is more than adequate to recreate all the gameplay in acceptable framerates Smash TV gets a bit jumpy, obviously a design decision to keep the gameplay consistent with the arcade version.

The only thing left is the bonus material. The font is just plain bad, hard to read, even with an S-Video hook-up, and the movies are highly compressed MPEG’s. I supposed you could say it gives the entire package a retro-like feel but most will say it’s just cheap. Thankfully, the game shines with the game graphics, which is where you will be spending countless hours of the rest of your life.

We were lucky to get a single-track midi theme and a few dozen synthesized effects. When games started introducing speech the gamers became speechless. “Warrior needs food” should bring a smile to any gamer over 35.

The day this game arrived I played Joust for almost four straight hours. When another GCM reviewer joined in for some Gauntlet another two hours vanished before we had to force ourselves to stop.

Bottom line here is that you have 20+ highly addictive games and even if you only like half of them you are guaranteed to get your money’s worth out of Arcade Treasures. It’s only $20 so don’t even insult yourself or Midway by renting this game. Pry that twenty out of your wallet and start thinking up excuses for calling in sick to work.

These are first-rate emulations of all the original games, perfect recreations that will put a smile on your face and provide countless hours of gaming enjoyment. Arcade Treasures is a must-have for retro gamers and a great way to preserve one of the most influential decades of gaming history.