Midway Arcade Treasures 3
Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder are the driving force behind this collection
Tags: Midway Arcade Treasures 3 Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 11th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Midway Arcade Treasures 3 (title page) | 1 - 4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Arcade | No | ||
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When Midway announced the third installment of their Midway Arcade Treasures series, many were surprised to see the series would be shifting gears so drastically. Not only would this compilation focus on one specific genre, but it would only have 8 games. This is quite a change of pace from the 20+ titles previous Midway Arcade Treasures collections have featured. However, this is offset by the fact that all but two of these games are from the era of 3D, with a few even being as recent as the Dreamcast era. Unfortunately, I have to question just how “classic” most of these classics are.
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Of course, the real stars here are Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder, two very high-profile games that are only a generation old, and have both aged fairly well. It seems as though these are the home versions of these titles, which makes their appropriateness in an “arcade” collection somewhat questionable, if you’re really trying to split hairs. It should also be noted that Hydro Thunder suffers from some slowdown in some areas, although mostly these ports are pretty faithful.
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Other titles hailing from the era of 3D are Off Road Thunder, Hydro Thunder’s bastard little brother (with hopelessly floaty controls), and San Francisco Rush: The Rock, the most complete version of Midway’s premier N64/PSOne-era racing game. Again, similar story: both are pretty good ports of the originals, although Off Road Thunder suffers some slowdown. Those curious about the just-released L.A. Rush’s pedigree are highly recommended to check out the series’ origin in S.F. Rush: The Rock.
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At the opposite end of the timeline, we have another classic title in the form of Super Off Road, an isometric 3D racer with a reasonably-faked 3D landscape. Midway actually has this game listed in the menu twice, with a second entry to include extra tracks, which seemed like a nice inclusion. Also here is Badlands, which takes the kind of style and play of Super Off Road and Super Sprint and adds weapons to be kinda’ a poor-man’s Rock ‘N Roll Racing. Certainly a worthy addition here, although I’m not sure how “classic” it is.
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The other two titles here, Race Drivin’ and S.T.U.N. Runner are really probably only here for historical significance (and to pad out the roster so it doesn’t look so empty). These titles from the early days of 3D look bad and play worse, and are mostly only an example of just how clueless game designers were when they first began toying around with polygons.
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And that’s it. Two Dreamcast-era hits, one PSOne-era hit, one so-so PSOne-era title, One SNES-era hit, one so-so SNES-era title, and two 3D titles that aren’t good for much other than pointing and laughing. I suppose it’s understandable why Spy Hunter, Roadblasters and Super Sprint weren’t here, given that they were in previous collections. However, I really feel like any Midway racing games compilation is drastically incomplete without the Cruis’N titles, and it couldn’t have hurt to include Arctic Thunder here, too (yeah, it’s already on the PS2, but at this point it’s not like anyone’s going to be buying it).
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There’s also the issue of the controls, and the fact that you’re generally stuck with whatever default the game gives you. While none of the games have particularly bad control, some of them are a bit awkward. Why Super Off Road makes me use L and R for gas and brake (as opposed to the face buttons as was the standard for the console version) is beyond me.
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Anyways, what we have here is a package whose overall value would be pretty low if not for Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder. And if you took out Super Off-Road and Rush: The Rock, you’d quickly see that the other half of the package really isn’t worth buying at all. So, what it comes down to is mostly how strongly you feel about those four. If you want my two cents, Rush 2049 basically pays for the collection right there, and the other three push it over the edge, but regardless, any racing fanatic who’s curious about the genre’s roots would find more than their money’s worth here.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder are good enough to hold up the rest of the collection + Super Off-Road and Rush: The Rock truly are classics |
8.3 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Race Drivin’ and S.T.U.N. Runner are pretty worthless - Off Road Thunder and Badlands aren't exactly "classics" material - Some slowdown in the "Thunder" games - No control options - No Cruis'N games? - Come on, only 8 titles? |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This package is lopsided, to be sure, but the four great games here are more than enough to carry the two so-so titles and the two stinkers | |
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Tags: Midway Arcade Treasures 3
Posted by Jake McNeill on Nov 11th, 2005 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
