Handheld
(PSP) Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play
By George Damidas
Feb 16, 2006, 5 :45 am

These days, compilations seem to be about 25% of what Midway puts out. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, given their healthy back catalogue of titles, but it is when considering that they’ve yet to release a title with fully emulated titles free of anomalies and defects. Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play is no different, and although it’s a solid release, it suffers from recurring problems that cause some great packages like the collection of Mortal Kombat 1-3 to suffer.

The complete collection is broken down into single player and multiplayer. The single player titles are Spy Hunter, Sinister, Defender, Paperboy, 720o. The multiplayer titles, the bulk of the collection, consist of Klax, Joust, Marble Madness, Toobin’, Rampage, Wizards of Wor, Xybots, Championship Sprint, Arch Rivals, Cyberball 2072, Xenophobe, Mortal Kombat 1, Mortal Kombat 2, and Mortal Kombat 3 (why no Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 as well?). Not every title has flaws, but most have something that keeps it from playing like the emulated titles those unsavory PC sorts have enjoyed for years - fussy controls in Rampart here, distorted music in Mortal Kombat there.

The age of the games actually works in their favor. Since many of these titles are from the ‘80s - the newest game being from 1995 (MK3), I believe - many of the foibles will most likely be thought of as products of years passed. The archaic nature of many titles will cause many to happily excuse what will surely grate on others. Also, while Namco worked around the PSP’s widescreen, Midway opted to fill up that bad boy, the results of which are that some games have fuzzy graphics. Some titles are crisp while others like SpyHunter look like they need another coat of polish.

The lack of PSP games means that just about any new release will be seriously considered by gamers on the go. Compilations are great in the sense that they provide more bang for your buck and all that. Given that Midway has already released three console compilations, Extended Play ends up as a great way to catch up if you’ve missed out and a bit of a rehash if you’ve already spent some time with the older releases. On the upside, this is an easy way to sum up the past few years of compilation releases from Midway.  Additionally, it’s the only release to have the first three Mortal Kombat titles; Arcade Treasures 2 has parts 2 and 3, and the special edition of MK6 had MK1. Sure, the MK titles might not have held up all that well over time, but I can still have fun with Baraka and company, not to mention that the compilation itself is a nice summation of Midway’s years. Although if you’re representing your titles for a new generation, and in this case a market eager for something new to play, you should really go all out and put in the time and effort needed to make the games be as good as they can possibly be. This would seem to be common sense, but it’s something Sega and others haven’t learned.

Overall: 6/10

I can rant and rave all day about how developers fail to give their proper due to compilations by riddling them with inconsistencies, but at the end of the day I’ll still be pounding away, trying to catch that egg before it hits the ground. Many of these games are classics, and even those that aren’t are still memorable and offer some enjoyment. With the PSP being seen (or wanting to be seen) as the more adult of the handhelds, this will do well for those who grew up in the arcades in the late ‘70s and ‘80s and wouldn’t mind killing some time in Defender or Sinistar on the train.