Midway Classics Hands-On

January 11th, 2007, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster

via ign

Sony Online Entertainment and Midway recently announced an agreement to bring classic Midway games to the PlayStation Store. We took a trip down memory lane at CES this week and played all six titles: Championship Sprint, Mortal Kombat II, Rampart, Gauntlet II, Joust, and Rampage World Tour.

With the exception of Joust, which is already out on Xbox Live, all of these titles will be exclusive to the PlayStation Store. They all feature offline and online multiplayer, private and public games, and leaderboards. Pricing hasn't been set, yet, but Sony confirmed they would not be offered as a bundle. The first game should arrive in March, with more releases staggered after that. Sony and Midway have only been working on these ports for a week, so many details have yet to be worked out and some of the titles weren't at 100 percent functionality.

Rampage World Tour

Rampage World Tour: Of the six games we played, we had the most fun with this one. Originally released back in 1997, World Tour updates the classic Rampage game with slicker graphics, more detail, and more stuff to smash and eat. Pick your favorite giant monster and get to destroying some of the world's most famous locations. The game supports up to three players at a time, and the PS3 version will save your progress automatically so you can return to it later.

Rampart

Rampart: Released in arcades in 1990, Rampart is that game that puts you in charge of defending your castle from invaders. Place cannons within your castle walls, send a volley to the enemy, then rebuild before time runs out. The original game used a trackball to move the curser around, and although Rampart has been ported to many different platforms the controls always suffer a bit in the translation.

Championship Sprint

Championship Sprint: This is another game which used a non-traditional control scheme in the arcades (a steering wheel and pedal) and now feels a little strange mapped to the Sixaxis. But the support for four players goes a ways towards making up for the controls. The main problem may be that there just isn't much to the game. Race to the finish line on a track that's only as big as the screen, avoid oil slicks, and don't crash into the walls too often. That's about it. We did notice that some of the colors were different from the original game. For instance, in the winner's circle screen shown after a race, the background was purple, whereas the original game showed the cars sitting on the track. This may be because they've only been working on these ports for a week, though.

Mortal Kombat II

Mortal Kombat II: MKII is one of the highlights of the six Midway games coming to the PlayStation Store. Although not as ideal as an arcade joystick, the PlayStation 3 d-pad works well with Mortal Kombat II. Pounding out the classic moves took as long as it took to dust off the MK section of our brains and remember how to do them. The game looks and plays just the same way as it did in the arcade, straight down to the huge spouts of blood that only a well placed upper cut can deliver. The one new addition to the game is an online multiplayer mode and leader boards. It wasn't up and running yet though, so we weren't able to give it a try. The matchmaking will be a simple affair of just looking for a quick match and being put into a game with another player or creating a private and password protected match. The only real downside to this port of Mortal Kombat II is that Stryker, the most hilarious MK fighter, wasn't put into the series yet.

Joust

Joust: This is the one game in the initial group of Midway games that can also be found on the competing Xbox Live Arcade. The PlayStation version, though, is a direct port of one of the most bizarre games of all time. What kind of drugs were the designers on when they thought a knight on a flying ostrich fighting vulture knights and flying lizards was the next big thing? Oddity aside, Joust is a classic game in every sense and it handles well with the PlayStation analog stick. The only problem we found with the game is that we couldn't stop killing each other long enough to focus on the enemies. It's Joust just as you remember it.


Gauntlet II

Gauntlet 2: The classic multiplayer arcade game returns, though this time it won't eat every last one of your quarters and then leave you wondering how you were going to pay the bus fare home. Curse you Gauntlet 2! Unlike the other Guantlet game to come out in a digital distribution form, this one won't have a button to add quarters and increase your health. You can still continue when you die, but getting a high score becomes a difficult task. Those who are pros at finding keys, gold, and food to stay alive will sit at the top of the online leader boards with pride. The controls are simple here and so they work fine with the PS3 configuration.

There are 0 comments - Join In and Discuss Here