Arcade Origins opens on a rendered introduction wherein a quarter is stuck into a slot, rolling down the coin cage past relics of video games from bygone eras. It's what you imagined happened as you put loose change into the glowing cabinets of CRT behemoths. Often primitive visual characters beckoned into action for a mere five minutes of bliss brought forth from allowances.
That is, for the most part, where the bliss ends for this collection.
Midway is no longer with us, gobbled up by Warner Bros. as Midway's arcade business tanked and their console offerings lacked an audience. Warner, in their interactive form, hasn't shown us much in the mid to low-tier software range, least of all this slapdash clunker.
Thirty one titles grace this collection, each of them earning a single Trophy in the list. Most games require less than five minutes of play to earn their slice of digital rewards. There's wasted space on the Trophy list not being taken advantage of.
The release feels like it's recouping losses. As Midway died, so did their digital offerings on PSN & Xbox Live. It wouldn't be surprising to learn most of these games were destined for one or both of those services, not including (of course) the ones that did make it. What's utterly contemptible are cases such as Smash T.V. That saw renewed life on Xbox Live as a genuinely perfect emulated port, only to be shuttered from the service in the buyout.
Here on the Origins collection, it's missing all of the music in the first stage. There's nothing there other than the booming sound effects, a Midway hallmark that doesn't connect without the spirited game show rhythms.
Wizard of Wor crashed after earning the only Trophy dedicated to it. Cyberball only works with mono audio, while the rest have no issues at least utilizing two channel effects.
Control customizations are inconsistent, Smash T.V. again a beacon for what's ill in this compilation. It's fused to a dual analog set-up, which at first glance makes sense. The issue is that Smash comes from a purely digital control era, and the eight-way firing is wholly inconsistent when modeled to an analog stick as opposed to buttons. Yet again, the Xbox Live Arcade edition handled the issue correctly. With a stick, it lacks the snap and accuracy. The same goes for Total Carnage and Robotron.
Article comments
1 - matt
Thanks for a serious review... was hoping to get this for Robotron and Smash, but oh well.