Midway Arcade for iOS

Midway Arcade offers classic games from the '80s arcades and gives you touch-screen options that work pretty well, but it's not perfect. This 99-cent game features Joust, Defender, Rampage, Spy Hunter, Arch Rivals, Root Beer Tapper, and then some other more-interactive games one would usually find at classic arcades, like air hockey, basketball quick-shot games, billiards, and Roll Ball (a skee-ball clone). You have the option to buy two more 99-cent packages of games through in-app purchase. The Adventure Game Pack includes Gauntlet 1 and 2, and Wizard of Wor. The Action Game Pack comes with NARC, Total Carnage, and APB.

What's interesting is that Midway Arcade is laid out like an actual classic arcade. A two-level, open-air building features the included standup arcade games on the top level, and the air hockey, roll ball, billiards, and in-app-purchase games on the bottom level. While in the arcade, you can touch an arrow to move through the 3D virtual building to the next game, then swipe to see both sides of the cabinet. The place is decked out in '80s fluorescent lights, too, giving it that classic arcade feel. When you decide on a game, just click the Play button, and the game comes up full screen. Each game awards tickets for winning (both arcade and interactive games) and you can spend your tickets on 3D stuffed animals and other toys in the prize shop.

I was fortunate enough to visit a lot of arcades as a kid, and some of these games happened to be my favorites. My experience playing them on the iPhone was a little frustrating, but I could see myself coming back for more later. Defender plays just how I remember, but there's no substitute for tactile buttons, and I have a feeling Defender pros will get frustrated. Joust is mostly the same with some sound effect variation from the original, but it seems a hair slower. Mostly, the standup arcade classics played pretty well (which is probably why most would buy this game), but the other interactive games were kind of boring and not very complex. Part of the problem is that there are tons of air hockey, skee-ball, and billiards games already out for the iPhone that really focus on those specific gameplay experiences. On Midway Arcade, they feel a bit more thrown together.

Overall, Midway Arcade offers up a bunch of great arcade classics that play pretty well for 99 cents. The game has its control issues, but you have options in the settings for some flexibility. To be perfectly honest, I would probably buy Joust and Defender for 99 cents each if Midway had decided to offer them that way, so 99 cents for all these games seems like a steal to me. If you're fan of old arcade classics, this collection is pretty good (and cheap) with more to buy through in-app purchase if you want to continue to relive the glory days of arcade gaming.