Midway Arcade Treasures 2

Description

Midway Arcade Treasures 2 saw the return of several high-profile arcade staples, serving as a comprehensive preservation of Midway’s golden-age hits. The title captures the brutal and fast-paced nature of late-80s and early-90s arcade culture, moving away from the simplistic 2D classics of the first volume in favour of more technically advanced titles like Mortal Kombat II and Hard Drivin’. It reflects a design direction that prioritised historical accuracy and bonus archival content, offering a nostalgic “digital museum” experience during the peak of the sixth generation’s retro-compilation trend.

The gameplay experience is built around a collection of 20 arcade-perfect (or near-perfect) ports, spanning multiple genres from fighting and racing to sports and shooters. This compilation features of the following 20 classic arcade titles:

• A.P.B. (1987)
• Arch Rivals (1989)
• Championship Sprint (1986)
• Cyberball 2072 (1988)
• Gauntlet II (1986)
• Hard Drivin’ (1989)
• Kozmik Krooz’r (1982)
• Mortal Kombat II (1993)
• Mortal Kombat 3 (1995)
• NARC (1988)
• Pit-Fighter (1990)
• Primal Rage (1994)
• Rampage World Tour (1997)
• Spy Hunter II (1987)
• Timber (1984)
• Total Carnage (1992)
• Wacko (1983)
• Wizard of Wor (1981)
• Xenophobe (1987)
• Xybots (1987)

The compilation also features a wealth of “Behind the Scenes” content, including developer interviews, concept art, and original promotional materials for each game.

On a technical level, there was great emulation accuracy for the 2D titles; games like NARC and Total Carnage, running at their native frame rates with minimal input lag, preserving the “twitch-reflex” difficulty of the originals. However, the PlayStation 2 version faced notable technical negatives, particularly with the emulation of 3D and digitised titles; Hard Drivin’ suffers from a choppy frame rate that can impact playability, and some sound effects in Mortal Kombat II are known to trigger with slight delays or incorrect pitch. Arcade monitors often ran at non-standard resolutions, resulting in a poor fitting onto a standard 480i television without anti-aliasing to prevent shimmering or pixel-crawling. Neither version supported 240p, but the Xbox version would run at 480p, making it by far the superior version.

Upon release, Midway Arcade Treasures 2 received a generally positive reception, with many praising the high value-to-cost ratio and the inclusion of the Mortal Kombat series. Curiously these inclusions saw this be one of the few arcade collections to attract a more mature rating.  Magazine reviewers lauded the comprehensive nature of the extras and the rock-solid multiplayer performance of titles like Rampage World Tour, though some critics noted that the extreme difficulty of the original arcade settings remained unchanged, which could be frustrating for casual players. Reception was particularly strong among fighting game enthusiasts who welcomed a convenient way to play the classic Mortal Kombat entries on modern hardware. Retrospectively, it is viewed as one of the standout compilations of the era, remembered for its respectful treatment of the source material and for preserving several titles that would otherwise have been lost to failing arcade hardware.