Today in our The 12 Video Games of Christmas feature, we have Midway Arcade Origins for PS3, developed by Backbone Entertainment and released by Warner Bros. Interactive.
Warner Bros. picked up the assets of Midway when the company filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Their presentation here of 30 classic Midway arcade games is certainly a no-frills affair, where you merely quickly cycle through the cabinets to choose your game, while the murmur of a busy arcade plays in the background. A nice option though is being able to tag games as favourites, so you can use that option to quickly find the cabinets you prefer to play on. You also get access to operators switch options, letting you do things like change difficulty or add more lives. Unfortunately, there are no bonuses or history offered.
There could also be some more options given for configuring controls in the games, although most of them feel pretty good on the PS3 gamepad. It’s also great to see these classics up on the big screen, bezel art and all. A high score leaderboard system helps you keep tabs on your friends’ activities in the arcade.
I wouldn’t exactly call this collection the “origin” of Midway’s storied past in the video game world, but it certainly is a cornucopia of gaming goodness from the company.