It's one of the great tragedies of modern gaming that retro game compilations are so carelessly thrown together. The vast majority of them seem like quick 'n dirty cash runs by the companies that own the classic properties. Seldom is much effort put into adding extras, such as relevant historical materials or tips 'n tricks info, or even perfect emulation. Midway Arcade Treasures is guilty of most of the crimes mentioned above, with terrible presentation, few extras, and even some emulation issues. However, with a value price point and no less than 24 (mostly) classic Midway and Atari games on offer, it's hard to really get mad at it. Or stay mad, anyway.

Potpourri of Classics

Variety and breadth are this collection's strongest aspects, as it offers a huge range of classic games. For $20 you get Defender, Marble Madness, Gauntlet, Smash TV, SpyHunter, Satan's Hollow, 720, RoadBlasters, Gauntlet, Paperboy, Rampart, Joust, and a lot more. If none of those games rings a bell, you couldn't possibly have been conscious during the 1980s. I was very pleased with this selection, with only a few odd omissions (where's Gauntlet II?) to reign me in a bit. (See this page for a complete list of featured games.)

Gauntlet in its pre-3D days.
The games play about as well you can expect on a standard Xbox controller. Its dual sticks lend themselves to games like Smash TV and Robotron, but feel kind of off compared to real eight-way joysticks. SpyHunter seems among the worst off, being extremely hard to get used to. I seem to have lost all my Paperboy skills, too -- pity there's no bike handlebar controller for Xbox. Still, there's really little that could have been done to avoid these issues, as it would not have been feasible for Midway to release special controllers for each and every game. Viewed in that light, the controls are, for the most part, as good as we could hope for.

Each game has an options screen that lets you configure it to your liking, sort of like playing with the dip switches of a real arcade machine. Most games give you unlimited credits, which is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your thoughts on the topic. Finally, the Xbox version alone has a special bonus in that it can upload your high scores via Xbox Live. I wouldn't be surprised if cheaters somehow manage to disrupt this and post bogus scores, but this feature is still quite appreciated and a long time in coming.

Tarnished Treasure

Despite all its good points, Arcade Treasures has its downsides as well. The Egyptian-themed FMV interface that acts as the main menu is fairly terrible, being both ugly and annoying to use. I wish it had a more fitting theme, like the teenage bedroom of Activision Anthology, or the recent Japanese Space Invaders release that lets you walk around a virtual showroom of arcade machines before deciding which to play.

Before Super Monkey Ball, we had this.
Sadly, this poor presentation extends into some of the games, with a few examples of off colors and jerky scrolling. Worst, though, is the fact that most games' graphics look heavily filtered, which adds an undesirable level of blur to the images. The games also run in a high-res screen mode, so you may notice interlacing flicker and a tell-tale lack of scanlines. Most people will not notice or care, but purists looking for pixel-perfect Robotron or Satan's Hollow should look elsewhere.

Last and probably least, there is a noticeable lack of interesting historical material. While there are a few FMV interviews and image scans, it seems like most or all of it is simply drawn from Digital Eclipse's earlier retro releases for PSOne. While it's good that this stuff is still around, many of the included games have nothing or next to nothing in the way of informative extras. It's clearly a missed opportunity.

Good Enough

My disappointment in this disc's shortcomings is tempered by the sheer amount of great, classic gaming on offer. Not all of the games still hold up, but enough do to make a purchase worthwhile for most fans of the classics. While this isn't the slickly produced, extras-laden collection I had hoped for, there are far, far worse ways to spend 20 bucks. And if you were wondering, Smash TV is still friggin' ridiculous.