Midway Arcade Treasures 3 Review

Midway Arcade Treasures 3 highlights the many racing games Midway has released over the years rather than spreading the love across all genres like MAT 1 and 2 did. There are only 8 games featured here, which is considerably less than previous MAT titles, but quality should count more than quantity and in that area Midway Arcade Treasures 3 easily tops the first two. For $20, you are getting a lot of great racing action which makes Midway Arcade Treasures 3 definitely worth owning.

8 Racing Games in One

There are eight games included in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 which are Badlands, Hydro Thunder, Off Road Thunder, Race Drivin’, San Francisco Rush: Rush the Rock, San Francisco Rush 2049, S.T.U.N. Runner, and Super Off Road. Badlands and Super Off Road use the same gameplay mechanics as Super Sprint. Race Drivin’ is an pseudo sequel to Hard Drivin’ which appeared in MAT 2. S.T.U.N. Runner is a futuristic weapons based racer. The newer games in the compilation, however, are the real stars of this show. Hydro Thunder and Off Road Thunder play pretty similarly – one on water and one on dirt. SF Rush: Rush the Rock was an arcade expansion to the original San Francisco Rush that added a new set of tracks to the fast and furious SF Rush gameplay. Rush 2049 moved the Rush series into the future and added wings to the cars for some serious aerial acrobatics.

High Praise and a Couple of Complaints

What is most interesting about this compilation is that, at the very least, Rush 2049 (and perhaps Hydro Thunder and Off Road Thunder) is the console version rather than the arcade. We have all of the options and even cheats we had when these games were released on the Dreamcast and N64 and this fact in itself makes Midway Arcade Treasures 3 worth buying. These three games are still very fun to play to this day and, along with Rush the Rock, are the shining stars of the disc and make MAT 3 by far the best entry in the series.

There are a couple of negatives about MAT 3 to consider, though. Once again, there is no online play. Disappointing? Yes. A deal breaker? No. Another issue is that this compilation is seriously lacking in terms of bonus content compared to the first two MAT games.

Graphics and Sound

The overall presentation of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is very clean and it is easy to navigate from game to game. The games themselves vary in graphically quality, of course, but all of them are emulated as well as possible. There are a few hiccups here and there, but for the most part the games look and perform just like you remember. The sound also depends on the game you’re playing, of course, but overall the music and sound effects are good.

Bottom Line

Of the MAT games released so far, Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is easily the best. You can argue that the first two entries had more games and therefore better value, but the quality of games in MAT 3 is considerably better than the first two MAT titles. For my money, Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder alone are worth the price of admission, but you also get six other games to go along with them. For $20, Midway Arcade Treasures 3 is a solid purchase and I highly recommend it.