OK, a bit of backstory. I love classic arcade games. Williams put out my favorite stuff, but Atari, Konami, Atari Games etc. put out many games core to my understanding of gaming. I have every non-Namco US-released arcade compilation for the PSX, picked up Midway Arcade Treasures 1 the day it came out, and have not gone without a playable version of Joust for... about 21 years 
It's not just nostalgia, either: I didn't play Time Pilot until 1998, but it's one of my favorite games now. The same with many more slightly obscure titles. So, what with MAT2 hitting $10 at Amazon, I figured I'd pick it up and see if anything stuck. What I got was a fairly convincing lesson in why arcades died.
The gamelist:
Midway
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat III
NARC
Cyberball 2072
Timber
Total Carnage
Wizard of Wor
Arch Rivals
Rampage World Tour
Kozmik Krooz'r
Wacko
Atari Games
Gauntlet II
Spy Hunter II
Xybots
APB
Pit Fighter
Xenophobe
Primal Rage
Championship Sprint
Hard Drivin'
Of course, the reason to own this kompilation is Mortal Kombat II and II. These are the arcade versions, near as I remember them, and they've never looked better on a home console. Which is why it was maddeningly stupid of them to leave off the original game! But, yeah. A great multiplayer game (once you remember the moves :lol) and a great conversion/emulation.
(The catch is that I hardly played the arcade versions. Everyone at my school was addicted to the Genesis version of MKII. That's the canonical version to me. Also I am far too weaksauce to play the arcade version. Also the Gamecube controller is shit for fighters. These are hardly fair to hold against it, though. Mortal Kombat is the reason to own this title.)
10 credits
I credit-fed through NARC. I only played this a few times in the arcade. At the default difficulty setting, anyway, this game allows for very little skill on the part of the player and more or less overwhelms with enemies. Maybe somewhere there's someone who can make it through on one credit, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Compared with golden-age arcade games, which were often very artful and geometric (think Robotron or Joust), the badly done digital graphics and bizarre voices -- and the ludicrous gibs -- make this almost the stereotypical videogame as perceived by the media. Its rancid character designs, ugly levels, and innumerable grotesqueries, although funny, made me want to shower afterward. (It's also the trippiest game ever to claim to be anti-drug.)
5 credits
I did not play Cyberball 2072. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't expect anything as good as Speedball 2, that's for sure.
Total Carnage, the psuedo-sequel to Smash TV and by extension Robotron, shares many characteristics with NARC, but it's gameplay feels more pure. Merging the classic kill'em'all gameplay with Ikari Warriors/Bionic Commando/Contra-type scrolling action and an interesting warp/key system, it seems like it should have everything it needs to succeed. But it doesn't. I think it's kind of like Joust 2: they threw too much complexity on a structure that just couldn't support it.
5 credits
Wizard of Wor sure might have been cool at some point. Wait, no. It's like Berzerk's retarded cousin. Blech.
2 credits
Arch Rivals is to NBA Jam as Pit Fighter is to Mortal Kombat. That's not fair to Arch Rivals, which, unlike Pit Fighter, is actually fun. NBA Jam was arguably the best of Midway's arcade games of that era, though, and this feels wrong: close enough to the NBA Jam gameplay and graphics that you expect a lot, primitive enough that you don't get it. I grieve for NBA Jam. I wish they'd hacked all fake people into that (or Tournament Edition) and released it on this compilation.
6 credits for good behavior.
Rampage World Tour is one I'd never played before and was much better than I expected. Oh, the gameplay is still crap, but monsters! Buildings! Tanks! Great fun for multiple players, and very visually entertaining. The improved graphics make me feel much guiltier about all the destruction, though. Also Betty Veronica... yeah.
6 credits but every minute you play turns more of your brain to goo.
Kozmik Krooz'r is most notable for Digital Eclipse's brilliant simulation of the reflected "mothership" model. Otherwise the gameplay is very (VERY) banal, the sound is worthless, and, well, yeah. Not a bad game, but not a game I'd pay a quarter to play. I can watch the mothership spin in the attract mode, thanks.
3 credits
Wacko. What the hell is this. It's a puzzle shooter with a four-way firing stick. A kid's game for dull kids. Why they included this is beyond me.
1 credit
Well, Timber isn't offensively bad, like Wacko, but it's boring and pointless, two things an arcade game must never be. I'm working against a deadline and trying to keep my boss happy? Wow, there's an experience I want to live in free time I'm spending in an arcade!
3 credits
On the Atari Games side...
Gauntlet II does not appear significantly different from Gauntlet. OK, there are the new relics that confer invulnerability, additional combat power, invisibility, warping, etc, but it feels much the same (though maybe a bit harder). Gauntlet always did seem a bit too repetitive and quarter-greedy to me, but it's great multi-player fun.
7 credits
I don't know what happened to Spy Hunter II. They had a good thing going in the original, overrated as it was. But then they put it into an ugly Mode 7-ish world that would make Yu Suzuki cry and generally made it even harder to anticipate and avoid crashes. Boo. I wonder where things went wrong.
4 credits
Can someone tell me what the difference is between Super Sprint and Championship Sprint? 'Cause I'm not seeing it.
6 credits
Ah, APB. The game that made the estimable Dave Theurer quit the gaming industry. It's a fun game even today, and probably was one of the first games to be set in a living city, but it suffers somewhat from the lack of the arcade setup. Nevertheless, this supplants the Atari Lynx version as the best home version.
8 credits
Xenophobe was more fun on the Lynx (and looked nearly as good). (Incidentally, this compilation and its two siblings contain (nearly) every Atari Games release that was ported to the Lynx. Blue Lightning, Hydra, and Steel Talons, if I recall correctly, are the missing arcade ports. Play and compare!) The default difficulty level here seems to be designed for three players. It's still a pretty good game, but it suffers from too much ambition and too little gameplay.
6 credits
Primal Rage. Big dinosaurs make fight. Bash in head your friend's with spiked tail. Ug. Play caveman volleyball when you get bored. One of the few fighting games that allows you to urinate on a downed foe.
7 credits
Pit Fighter is shit, has always been shit, and will always be shit. That's just the way it is. I creditfed through the whole game. It still is shit (though it would probably be riotously funny iff you were drunk).
2 credits
Hey, kids, it's innovation alley! :
Xybots is a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter, with a neat upgrade system. In reality, though, its roots as Gauntlet 3D are very obvious. I had more fun with it on the Lynx, but my tastes wrt the Lynx are somewhat questionable.
5 credits
Hard Drivin' was the Gran Turismo of its time. But then again, the Ridge Racer of its time was Outrun. This is streets ahead of the Lynx version, no pun intended, but it's really a museum piece and nothing more.
5 credits
-- WARNING WARNING WARNING --
-- theoretical babbling ahead --
-- WARNING WARNING WARNING --
My pet theory is that the classic games that survive aging do so because they're evolutionary dead-ends to gaming. Joust could never really be further developed or improved upon. Sinistar doesn't lend well to enhancement (though Namco certainly tried with Bosconian).
To my way, classic "realistic" racing games like Pole Position do not survive very well because the experience they're seeking to convey could be enhanced and developed -- Ridge Racers is further proof of that. I like Virtua Racing still, mostly due to the music and control, but I wouldn't take it over a modern racer. But look at the platformer -- Mario 3 probably did everything that could be done with it in 2D, and yet we still salivate over Sonic Rush and Super Mario Brothers 4 because the 3D "platformer" is not the same animal.
I've run out of steam on this topic, but those naysayers who attack classic games and gamers as being purely nostalgia-driven are missing a rather important point. In the case of MAT2, though, they're right: the best thing on offer here is nostalgia, followed by brainless button-hammering. And that's that.
It's not just nostalgia, either: I didn't play Time Pilot until 1998, but it's one of my favorite games now. The same with many more slightly obscure titles. So, what with MAT2 hitting $10 at Amazon, I figured I'd pick it up and see if anything stuck. What I got was a fairly convincing lesson in why arcades died.
The gamelist:
Midway
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat III
NARC
Cyberball 2072
Timber
Total Carnage
Wizard of Wor
Arch Rivals
Rampage World Tour
Kozmik Krooz'r
Wacko
Atari Games
Gauntlet II
Spy Hunter II
Xybots
APB
Pit Fighter
Xenophobe
Primal Rage
Championship Sprint
Hard Drivin'
Of course, the reason to own this kompilation is Mortal Kombat II and II. These are the arcade versions, near as I remember them, and they've never looked better on a home console. Which is why it was maddeningly stupid of them to leave off the original game! But, yeah. A great multiplayer game (once you remember the moves :lol) and a great conversion/emulation.
(The catch is that I hardly played the arcade versions. Everyone at my school was addicted to the Genesis version of MKII. That's the canonical version to me. Also I am far too weaksauce to play the arcade version. Also the Gamecube controller is shit for fighters. These are hardly fair to hold against it, though. Mortal Kombat is the reason to own this title.)
10 credits
I credit-fed through NARC. I only played this a few times in the arcade. At the default difficulty setting, anyway, this game allows for very little skill on the part of the player and more or less overwhelms with enemies. Maybe somewhere there's someone who can make it through on one credit, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Compared with golden-age arcade games, which were often very artful and geometric (think Robotron or Joust), the badly done digital graphics and bizarre voices -- and the ludicrous gibs -- make this almost the stereotypical videogame as perceived by the media. Its rancid character designs, ugly levels, and innumerable grotesqueries, although funny, made me want to shower afterward. (It's also the trippiest game ever to claim to be anti-drug.)
5 credits
I did not play Cyberball 2072. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I don't expect anything as good as Speedball 2, that's for sure.
Total Carnage, the psuedo-sequel to Smash TV and by extension Robotron, shares many characteristics with NARC, but it's gameplay feels more pure. Merging the classic kill'em'all gameplay with Ikari Warriors/Bionic Commando/Contra-type scrolling action and an interesting warp/key system, it seems like it should have everything it needs to succeed. But it doesn't. I think it's kind of like Joust 2: they threw too much complexity on a structure that just couldn't support it.
5 credits
Wizard of Wor sure might have been cool at some point. Wait, no. It's like Berzerk's retarded cousin. Blech.
2 credits
Arch Rivals is to NBA Jam as Pit Fighter is to Mortal Kombat. That's not fair to Arch Rivals, which, unlike Pit Fighter, is actually fun. NBA Jam was arguably the best of Midway's arcade games of that era, though, and this feels wrong: close enough to the NBA Jam gameplay and graphics that you expect a lot, primitive enough that you don't get it. I grieve for NBA Jam. I wish they'd hacked all fake people into that (or Tournament Edition) and released it on this compilation.
6 credits for good behavior.
Rampage World Tour is one I'd never played before and was much better than I expected. Oh, the gameplay is still crap, but monsters! Buildings! Tanks! Great fun for multiple players, and very visually entertaining. The improved graphics make me feel much guiltier about all the destruction, though. Also Betty Veronica... yeah.
6 credits but every minute you play turns more of your brain to goo.
Kozmik Krooz'r is most notable for Digital Eclipse's brilliant simulation of the reflected "mothership" model. Otherwise the gameplay is very (VERY) banal, the sound is worthless, and, well, yeah. Not a bad game, but not a game I'd pay a quarter to play. I can watch the mothership spin in the attract mode, thanks.
3 credits
Wacko. What the hell is this. It's a puzzle shooter with a four-way firing stick. A kid's game for dull kids. Why they included this is beyond me.
1 credit
Well, Timber isn't offensively bad, like Wacko, but it's boring and pointless, two things an arcade game must never be. I'm working against a deadline and trying to keep my boss happy? Wow, there's an experience I want to live in free time I'm spending in an arcade!
3 credits
On the Atari Games side...
Gauntlet II does not appear significantly different from Gauntlet. OK, there are the new relics that confer invulnerability, additional combat power, invisibility, warping, etc, but it feels much the same (though maybe a bit harder). Gauntlet always did seem a bit too repetitive and quarter-greedy to me, but it's great multi-player fun.
7 credits
I don't know what happened to Spy Hunter II. They had a good thing going in the original, overrated as it was. But then they put it into an ugly Mode 7-ish world that would make Yu Suzuki cry and generally made it even harder to anticipate and avoid crashes. Boo. I wonder where things went wrong.
4 credits
Can someone tell me what the difference is between Super Sprint and Championship Sprint? 'Cause I'm not seeing it.
6 credits
Ah, APB. The game that made the estimable Dave Theurer quit the gaming industry. It's a fun game even today, and probably was one of the first games to be set in a living city, but it suffers somewhat from the lack of the arcade setup. Nevertheless, this supplants the Atari Lynx version as the best home version.
8 credits
Xenophobe was more fun on the Lynx (and looked nearly as good). (Incidentally, this compilation and its two siblings contain (nearly) every Atari Games release that was ported to the Lynx. Blue Lightning, Hydra, and Steel Talons, if I recall correctly, are the missing arcade ports. Play and compare!) The default difficulty level here seems to be designed for three players. It's still a pretty good game, but it suffers from too much ambition and too little gameplay.
6 credits
Primal Rage. Big dinosaurs make fight. Bash in head your friend's with spiked tail. Ug. Play caveman volleyball when you get bored. One of the few fighting games that allows you to urinate on a downed foe.
7 credits
Pit Fighter is shit, has always been shit, and will always be shit. That's just the way it is. I creditfed through the whole game. It still is shit (though it would probably be riotously funny iff you were drunk).
2 credits
Hey, kids, it's innovation alley! :
Xybots is a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter, with a neat upgrade system. In reality, though, its roots as Gauntlet 3D are very obvious. I had more fun with it on the Lynx, but my tastes wrt the Lynx are somewhat questionable.
5 credits
Hard Drivin' was the Gran Turismo of its time. But then again, the Ridge Racer of its time was Outrun. This is streets ahead of the Lynx version, no pun intended, but it's really a museum piece and nothing more.
5 credits
-- WARNING WARNING WARNING --
-- theoretical babbling ahead --
-- WARNING WARNING WARNING --
My pet theory is that the classic games that survive aging do so because they're evolutionary dead-ends to gaming. Joust could never really be further developed or improved upon. Sinistar doesn't lend well to enhancement (though Namco certainly tried with Bosconian).
To my way, classic "realistic" racing games like Pole Position do not survive very well because the experience they're seeking to convey could be enhanced and developed -- Ridge Racers is further proof of that. I like Virtua Racing still, mostly due to the music and control, but I wouldn't take it over a modern racer. But look at the platformer -- Mario 3 probably did everything that could be done with it in 2D, and yet we still salivate over Sonic Rush and Super Mario Brothers 4 because the 3D "platformer" is not the same animal.
I've run out of steam on this topic, but those naysayers who attack classic games and gamers as being purely nostalgia-driven are missing a rather important point. In the case of MAT2, though, they're right: the best thing on offer here is nostalgia, followed by brainless button-hammering. And that's that.
