Midway's Arcade Origins - 360/PS3 - Nov 2012

If the price, number of bundled titles and standard of emulation are all good, I'm always willing to add a new retro compilation to my ever growing collection. On the modern systems these usually come with decent front ends, and a host of extra goodies to make the purchase even more worthwhile.

This week Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment announced the forthcoming release of "Midway Arcade Origins", for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Packed with 30 titles from the Atari/Williams/Midway back catalogue, this looks only to be of interest to those who don't already have the Midway Arcade Treasures pack for the Xbox/PS2, or want a decent retro compilation for one of the current systems.

The full line-up of games due to appear on the compilation are as follows:

- 720°
- A.P.B
- Arch Rivals
- Bubbles
- Championship Sprint
- Tournament Cyberball 2072
- Defender
- Defender II
- Gauntlet
- Gauntlet II
- Joust
- Joust 2
- Marble Madness
- Pit-Fighter
- Rampage
- Rampart
- Robotron 2084
- Root Beer Tapper
- Satan’s Hollow
- Sinistar
- Smash TV
- Spy Hunter
- Spy Hunter II
- Super Off Road
- Super Sprint
- Toobin’
- Total Carnage
- Vindicators Part II
- Wizard of Wor
- Xenophobe
- Xybots

Warner have released a nice promotional trailer for the forthcoming release, which you can find over on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Opinions from the retrogaming community certainly seem mixed regarding this proposed release, and nowhere more so than over on the Retro Gamer Forums.

Forum member shiftytigger, commented:

"As I can go use any of the older compilations on my GC / PS2 Im not too fussed with this (emulation issues aside) .

What they really should be doing is compiling all the older Arcade treasures and putting in some titles they keep passsing by. Its always the same games wheeled out over and over again. Lets see some of the rarer , lesser known stuff surface - even as unlockables etc."

While fellow Retrogamer forumite PaulEMoz responded with:

"This sounds great, though, and I'll be jumping all over it if it comes out here or is region-free."

Retrogamer Magazine editor, Darran Jones followed up by posting:

"My biggest concern with this is that it sounds like a repackaged midway arcade treasures. Good games though...."

I'll let you decide if this pack is worth adding to your collection or not. One thing's for sure, if previous retro compilations are anything to go by, you'll be able to pick this up for a massively discounted price within a few months of release.

Midway Arcade Origins is due for release in the US this November, priced at $29.99. European release dates and prices have yet to be announced.