2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 10th, 2013, 12:39 pm

Voice your opinion about this latest set of Xbox 360 game reviews.

JWK1
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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby JWK1 » February 10th, 2013, 2:34 pm

Good reviews!  Just like you said, it doesn't matter how many Midway/Williams arcade compilations get released each generation, I'm probably going to buy it anyway.  I held off at first, but when the price dropped to $20, I jumped on it.  I got the PS3 version, just because I like the Dual Shock 3's d-pad more, but I can't imagine it's much different on either console.  I LOVE the presentation, and it does seem optimized for HD, so even the "Midway Arcade Treasures" compilations on PS2 and XBox won't look as good as this one.  A B+ seems like the perfect score.

The Kinect game also seems about right.  It doesn't matter how ambitious a project is, if the controls suck, it's a broken game.  

The only review I take issue with is SPvTW.  I think Scott Pilgrim is a great game.  If you can get past the first 30 minutes or so (when your character moves really slow), I think most retro-minded gamers will find a great beat em up reminiscent of Technos classics like Double Dragon and especially River City Ransom.  But I guess it just comes down to taste; I'd put it in the B or B- range.  I really enjoyed my time with it.  Haven't touched it in about a year, but after reading your review, I think I'll get back to leveling my character up.

Leo1
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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby Leo1 » February 10th, 2013, 3:16 pm

"There are no bonuses or history features, and that's somewhat disappointing. I would love to hear the stories behind some of these games from their original programmers."

It's no substitute for a proper bonus section with a lot of TLC invested into it, but it's not quite devoid of background material on these games. Pause your game and you will see information about various games in this collection scroll across the screen.

I thought it was clever even though I think it's disappointing that they didn't track down and produce some interesting interviews with those involved in originally producing these games, included hires scans of advertisement flyers that would've been sent to distributors and operators back in the day, etc. 

Even a short piece looking back at the history of Digital Eclipse and their classic compilations would've been interesting if done well. Particularly would've been nice since Backbone Entertainment that absorbed it and developed this very well might not be here when the 1 year anniversary of this game arrives and Digital Eclipse is not only responsible for every Midway associated compilation since day 1, but is the major pioneer of commercial game emulation and classic gaming compilations.

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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby Orion1 » February 10th, 2013, 3:42 pm

I didn't realize they were still making arcade compilations on disc.  It seems like they would have rather sold these games individually on Xbox Live so they could make more money.  I already have most of the compilations that have been released on PS2 and Xbox, so I wonder if this one is worth getting.  Hearing someone mention that they were optimized for HD might be enough to sway me.

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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby Rev1 » February 11th, 2013, 1:52 am

The original Steel Battalion is a game I have had my eye on for years, it makes an awesome collector's piece with it's unique controller and gameplay. This new game sounds rather disappointing, the idea of transferring the controller to the kinect is almost laughable. They would have had to really go above and beyond to make this work and it's sad to hear that it didn't work out.

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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby Astrosmasher1 » February 15th, 2013, 3:18 pm

with regards to the Midway collection i just do not know why they did not put Moon Patrol in it?  What no blaster?  Why do we have the atari games?  Also why is there slowdown on wizard of wor....

BorntoRun1
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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby BorntoRun1 » February 15th, 2013, 4:54 pm

Moon Patrol is not a Midway game. It was created by Irem. The Atari games were actually created by Atari Games, after they separated from the home video game division of Atari when Tramiel took over. Atari Games later became a property of Midway and was actually called Midway West, I believe. 

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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 15th, 2013, 7:50 pm

[QUOTE=Orion]I didn't realize they were still making arcade compilations on disc.  It seems like they would have rather sold these games individually on Xbox Live so they could make more money.  I already have most of the compilations that have been released on PS2 and Xbox, so I wonder if this one is worth getting.  Hearing someone mention that they were optimized for HD might be enough to sway me.[/QUOTE]

If you like the idea of compilation discs, you should support games like this by buying it  It's about $20, which is a bargain.  I would hate to see classics like these relegated to download status (although granted that's still better than nothing).

Leo1
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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby Leo1 » February 15th, 2013, 7:57 pm

Moon Patrol was licensed by Williams for distribution in North America. That's why it appeared on one of Midway's Playstation compilations when they relicensed Moon Patrol to include it due to its Williams connection (Which became part of Midway just like Atari Games, Leland, and Bally did). That's also why Burgertime, a Data East property at the time, appeared in a couple of their compilations since Midway was the North American licensee of it.

I don't think the North American Moon Patrol arcade rom even mentions Irem during the attract mode but instead just displays a Williams copyright notice. Ditto for the Atari 5200 release with no mention of Irem on the cartridge artwork that I can see. Just a Williams copyright notice. So I can hardly blame a classic gamer for connecting it with Midway since it certainly has a connection.

Wizard of Wor only slows down when the achievement criteria is reached. So it's one and done and hardly a major problem. Just a programming flaw that thankfully doesn't affect the game beyond that single instance. And it also doesn't seem to affect other games when their achievement criteria has been met. I've unlocked about 700 of the 1000 points so far and just Wizard of Wor did it. So it's thankfully a very isolated issue.

As for no Blaster, there are several possibilities. Perhaps it utilized a different emulator and they didn't think it was worthwhile porting it over to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 for this project, perhaps it wasn't bought by Warner Brothers in the wake of Midway's bankruptcy and thus wasn't available to them, or perhaps it's being held back for a future follow-up to this release.

Midway Arcade Evolved would make a nice title for a follow-up next Fall.

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2013/2/10: Xbox 360: Midway Arcade Origins, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor

Postby darkrage61 » March 6th, 2013, 3:09 pm

I have to slightly disagree on Steel Battalion, I really dug the story and the cinematics were really well done, though the Kinnect does definitely make things harder then necessary and I would've prefered if the game let you play it entirely with the normal controller.


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