GameCube

Midway Arcade Treasures 3

An occasional bug and the clunky menu system are each real issues with this collection, but the games are a blast worth remembering. Old racing is the new hotness.

Hey, I understand a title like this has limited appeal. But if there was ever a definitive collection of arcade racers, this is it. Come for the Rush and Hydro Thunder, stay for the other great games you can play when you need a break from those.

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 does a fine job of continuing the legacy of the series and bringing classic games to the nostalgic, old school fans who grew up on them as well as the younger audience that never experienced them in the first place. However, this entry is a little on the slim side, with only eight titles and a general lack of the original feel.

So there you have it. Another collection of arcade games from the Midway/Atari vault. And so the question is, how many of these games will you actually play? Of all three Midway Arcade Treasures games, this is the one that probably has the most amount of games you won't want to play for any length of time. It's not like Gauntlet or Joust 2 where the gameplay is timeless. Some of these racing games because of their lack of polygon pushing ability are never going to be played. It's not the game's fault, but it simply is what it is. But there are 4 games on here which I think more than pay for the price of the compilation; Hydro Thunder, Offroad Thunder, Rush 2049, and Super Off-Road. It's worth the rental to see if you agree with me. And now, here are some quick game videos to give you a look at Rush the Rock, Hydro Thunder, and S.T.U.N. Runner.

Scoring this game is hard, because while the excellent ports are truly excellent, there are also some hideous clunkers in the mix. All told, it results in a game that's worth it if you're interested in playing specific titles included on the disc - particularly Super Off-Road, Hydro Thunder, Offroad Thunder, and Rush 2049. If you aren't particularly interested in any of these games, then you can safely give this volume a pass. Racing games are one genre that has really only advanced along with console hardware, and you don't gain much by going back to older titles. Some EB stores have been giving copies of Arcade Treasures 3 away when you purchase other titles, and that's almost the best way to acquire this disc.

It's like clockwork: another year, another Midway collection. This time, though, the company's working a theme into its value pack: for the third addition of Midway Arcade Treasures, Midway is reintroducing eight racing games from the company's intellectual property collection. On the surface, it may seem like a let down that this third edition of the compilation series cuts the usual dozen-plus quantity down to a mere eight. But in reality, many of the eight games within this pack can stand on their own, even in this generation of console gaming. Rush 2049, San Francisco Rush: The Rock and Hydro Thunder are the highpoints to Midway's most worthwhile compilation, but the GameCube version features some conversion issues in these three games that bring down the enjoyment of the compilation.

The GameCube version of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is hitting shelves a good month after the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, but don't expect much in the way of improved performance or extra features. The GameCube seems to struggle just a little bit more with frame rates in S.T.U.N. Runner and Off Road Thunder, but it's a difference that's hardly detectable, and it's really the only difference. Choosing to highlight a specific genre within a classic games compilation is a fine idea, but the folly of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is its choice of genres. So many of the games included here relied so heavily on custom arcade hardware that they lose much of their appeal in the translation.

For Midway and other publishers who might consider imitating the single-genre format of Treasures 3, it's worth noting that "genre" shares a common root with "generic." And it's hard to think of a more generic compilation than this. The venerability of these selections combined with the substandard interface (exiting out of a given game is performed inconsistently and tends to be very confusing) and paltry selection of titles makes this one you can skip over without losing any sleep.