Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Written by John Scalzo  on September 24, 2004

Final Glimpse: "You made me bleed my own blood!"

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The arcade scene in the early nineties was all about fighting games. Ten people crowded around a Street Fighter II cabinet all waiting to get next with the day's champion. Six other people were crowded around X-Men, the ultimate beat 'em up, and it's double screens so they could all play at the same time. Everyone else was gathered around Midway's offering to the fighting world: Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat was everywhere in the early 90s. Except when it's extreme violence relegated the cabinet behind closed doors, away from the eyes of impressionable youth. The arcades may be gone now, but thanks to Midway Arcade Treasures 2, the fighting doesn't have to stop.

But unfortunately, it appears that those looking to hunker down with the original Mortal Kombat will have to look elsewhere (to the Limited Edition of Mortal Kombat: Deception to be precise) because according to Midway, Mortal Kombat has been cut from Treasures 2. I don't know why, and looking back over the Midway news archive doesn't appear to give any reason. But if I had to guess, I'd say that it was forced out to make the Limited Edition of Deception that much more desirable. Personally I preferred Mortal Kombat II and after it was released I always looked at the first MK as a training run for the great ideas Boon and Tobias had for the sequel. Thankfully, Mortal Kombat II (and 3) are still on the game roster. Two other games, Steel Talons and STUN Runner, also received the boot.

To compensate for those losses, Midway has added two games that were not part of the original list: Kozmik Krooz'r and it's sequel, Wacko. Both games follow the space faring adventures of Captain Kozmik Krooz'r in a game that looks very similar to Asteroids, except with colorful and crazy looking aliens. They were two of Midway's earliest games, so it may not be much consolation for someone looking for the original Mortal Kombat.

As true Midway fans know, Mortal Kombat was not the only fighter they put out. Three other big Midway fighting titles will be found on Treasures 2. Digitized fighters were first used in 1990's Pit Fighter and blood and guts fans got another dose of it with the fighting dinos of Primal Rage. Both were sucked into Mortal Kombat's shadow, but both have their devotees. I found a good round of Primal Rage in between bouts of MK was pretty fun. Rounding out the list is the return of everyone's favorite city destroying mutants. No not the Power Rangers, but Rampage! Rampage World Tour resurrected Lizzy, George and Ralph in a huge, new city busting adventure that was just as much fun as the first.

Action fans will have a lot to look forward to as Treasures 2 will feature the original NARC, Spy Hunter II and the two-player split-screen classic Xenophobe (which I had no idea even came from Midway). Total Carnage, the pseudo-sequel to Smash TV (my favorite game from the first set) is here too. I never played much Total Carnage, and even then it was on the awful Super NES version, so I'm actually looking forward to see what the original arcade design was like. And while it's not a true action game, Arch Rivals, NBA Jam's granddaddy, will also appear on this disc.

Did I miss one of your favorites? If so, here's the full games roster Midway has planned for Treasures 2:

A.P.B.
Arch Rivals
Championship Sprint
Cyberball 2072
Gauntlet 2
Hard Drivin'
Kozmik Krooz'r
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat III
NARC
Pit Fighter
Primal Rage
Rampage World Tour
SpyHunter 2
Timber
Total Carnage
Wacko
Wizard of Wor
Xenophobe
Xybots

Digital Eclipse, the developers behind the first Treasures package, was off doing Atari Anthology so Midway handed the reins to Digital Eclipse's Cellular games arm, Backbone Entertainment. So while they don't have the track record of successful arcade emulation on consoles that Digital Eclipse has, I have hope that the emulation this time around will be as close to perfect as the first game was.