Sega Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

When I interviewed Bit?s Studios some years ago they did hint that they were working on a title that would please Arcade Freaks throughout the world and here it is. For anyone too young to remember, after the likes of Space Invaders and Asteroids, these four games arguably started the modern Arcade age as we know it. This was, after all, the mid 1980s when kids of all ages would flock to Arcade units in cafes, seaside resorts and just about everywhere else to watch and play. It's hard to gauge just how much money we pumped into those things and it?s more than a little mind-blowing that we are now getting the equivalent of four huge teak boxes in the palm of our hand. The questions to be asked of course are firstly 'is it any good' and just where were Bit?s Studios and THQ all those years ago when we wasted so much money on these things?

Gameplay

Each of the four games can be chosen from a front menu, which can be revisited at any time by simply quitting your current game. First up is ?Space Harrier?, the oldest game of the bunch, which is set in a world known as the Fantasy Zone where you play a lone soldier armed only with a jet pack and a rather powerful blaster rifle. The object is simple: mow down everything that approaches in a kind of 'if it moves, kill it' mode of thinking. You have other hazards such as trees and rocks to negotiate but as these are at fixed points they can generally be avoided, at least until it all gets a little faster and the end of level boss decides to launch fire balls in your general direction.

Next is my personal favorite, ?Out Run?. This was a driving game like no other and I have to say it still looks reasonably impressive now. The biggest difference to other racers, is that rather than simply getting from 'A' to 'B', Out Run allows you to choose the route you want to take with around 15 unique courses available. The terrain can also change dramatically as soon as you select a path taking you from a sweltering desert up into the snowy mountains. There are no real opponents to speak of. Your main dangers are slow moving traffic or roadside objects, which can cause you to enter a dramatic spinning collision on contact and your main objective is to reach checkpoints. These are evenly spaced but when the clock?s ticking down the pressure is on. Increase your speed however and the car is slightly more difficult to control safely and therein lies the challenge.

Like ?Out Run?, ?Super Hang On? is a high-speed driving game; only here the action takes place on motorbikes. There's no choice as to what route you take and each course has one simple objective of coming in first place. There are four tracks to choose from and though in my opinion it isn't nearly as enjoyable as Out Run I'm sure motorbike enthusiasts will disagree.

Finally we have ?After Burner? which was a dream come true for every gamer who ever watched Top Gun and fantasized of becoming a flying ace. This though, unfortunately, is the weakest of the bunch for a number of reasons. The first is the gameplay omissions; people who've enjoyed the arcade version will discover that there's no ability to attack ground targets during the bonus stages. Other tactical aspects such as escaping chase planes using the on-screen radar have also been omitted. It's still reasonably enjoyable but unlike the other titles in this compilation it doesn't quite deserve the title of a true arcade conversion.

Controls

Each title has very simple arcade controls and as with some of the more advanced units of the time you can change the layout to suit your fingers and thumbs. After Burner is probably the most complicated employing the shoulder buttons in addition to the standard layout but it always was in the arcades too. It's probably the most difficult to handle too and your plane?s response can be a little sluggish at times. Overall however, the controls are tight and responsive allowing you to enjoy the full arcade experience.

Graphics

Visually it's hard to fault any of the games though with the absence of the original arcade cabinets in my office it's hard to say just how authentic they actually are. From memory however these four titles successfully bring back everything that was exciting about the originals with a standard of visuals we could only dream about on a home console. Each of the four is clean and well designed using some of the best visual tricks available at the time in order to convey a real sense of speed on land or in the air.

Sound

One thing the likes of Out Run was famous for then was the ability to choose the soundtrack to accompany your trip by tuning an in-car stereo. Thankfully this feature has been retained and the music for this classic driving games sounds as good today as it did then. The rest of the titles follow a similar pattern with some well above average arcade tunes. One welcome feature the developers have added is the ability to select sound and SFX tests from the options menu allowing you to customize most of the games for your listening pleasure.

Final comments

Apart from the absence of a save feature of any description it's hard to criticize this cart and Bit's Studios have done an outstanding job with this set of four conversions. There'll undoubtedly be a personal favorite here which will beam you back to the days when arcades were one of the most exciting places to be with friends and you?d comment on just how fantastic the sound and visuals were. That's not so much the case here but the charm of these games, and the fact that most modern classics use all four as inspiration, cannot be ignored. If you?re getting a little tired of the latest movie/TV tie-in platform fodder I really can't recommend this enough. Simple, engaging, rewarding and most of all fun.

Pro: Four Games For The Price Of One.
Con: No Hi-Score Tables.
Final score: 7.9

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