VIDEO GAMES 'Arcade Treasures 2' is collection of favorites

Racing, sports and adventure games are included in the series.
By PHIL VILLARREAL
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Midway's series of "Arcade Treasures" discs aims at a couple of obvious ends.
One, by cramming a gaggle of old games onto a new disc, the company turns a quick, easy profit. Two, it helps nostalgic players cut down the time and cash it takes to scour used bookstores, game shops and eBay to reconstruct the video game collections their mothers sold at yard sales while they were away at college.
Everyone wins with "Midway Arcade Treasures 2." The memories and thrills to be had while revisiting old playgrounds such as "NARC," "Xenophobe" and "Rampage World Tour" are priceless, but Midway went ahead and put a price on it anyway: $19.99. That works out to about a buck a game.
The follow-up to last year's volume of treasures matches its predecessor in variety and thoroughness. The genres of racing ("Championship Sprint," "Hard Drivin'"), sports ("Cyberball 2072," "Arch Rivals") and adventure ("Gauntlet 2") are well-represented. Not only is "Arcade Treasures 2" a giggly romp through video dust memories, it's also a bevy of new discoveries. There are games in the package that even hardcore old-school quarter-flippers might not have heard of, such as "Wacko," a primitive but addictive single-screener in which the goal is to immobilize pairs of bizarre creatures through sharpshooting.
"Timber" is one of the rare titles to pay respect for the noble profession of lumberjacking. You guide your character around the trees and employ various chopping techniques to appease your boss. "Wizard of Wor," a frustrating and ancient (1981) takeoff on/rip-off of "Dungeons and Dragons," has players navigate through crude mazes and battle invisible foes.
Reason for rating
Most of the games on the disc are as innocent as a third-grade crush, but the reason "Midway Arcade Treasures 2" was stuck with an "M" rating -- meaning only those age 17 and older can buy or rent the game -- is because of its two blood-spurting one-on-one fighting games, "Mortal Kombat" II and III. Those comically grotesque games, in which heads are ripped off and fighters are impaled on metal spikes, fueled much of the outrage that led to the emergence of the prudish Entertainment Software Rating Board, which classifies games with ratings. The notion that the kids of today aren't allowed to play games that last decade's 11-year-olds grew up playing every day is laughable.
Fight-game fanatics will grunt in appreciation, since "Pit Fighter," the very basic streetfighting game that served as the inspiration for "Mortal Kombat," is also included. "Primal Rage," in which giant dinosaurs tangle with each other to vie for human worshippers and territorial domination, also gnashes its teeth.
With all the fist-clenching fighting action, it shouldn't be much of an internal battle for players to decide whether to check out "Midway Arcade Treasures 2." Best of all, it will finally let you forgive Mom for that yard sale.
X"Midway Arcade Treasures 2," by Midway for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, is rated M for mature plays and contains scenes of violence.