Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits packs 15 arcade classics into one tiny cartridge that DS fans familiar with these games will simply love. Most of the titles in this collection are household names such as Contra, Track and Field, Rush’N Attack and Gradius. The rest of the games are a bit obscure - Scramble, Horror Maze, Pooyan, Time Pilot, Roc’N Rope, Circus Charlie, Basketball, Road Fighter, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Rainbow Bell, and Shao-Lin’s Road.
Arcade Hits takes advantage of the dual screen nicely, with the top screen acting as the game screen, and the bottom screen acting as a quick instruction manual for the current game. The developers also captured the arcade feel nicely. Pressing select simulates a coin being dropped into an arcade machine - sound effects and all. There are numerous options within the game, which I loved. You can give yourself as many credits as you want, and you can also adjust the game for vertical and horizontal play. If you finish certain games, you unlock goodies such as level selects and other options depending on which game is being played.
When these games came out in the arcades, their main purpose was to be quarter munchers, allowing multiple players to compete against each other. Arcade Hits keeps track of all players’ high scores and the offers coolest feature of all - a replay option. The game records the entire play session so you can actually prove to your friends that you didn’t cheat when setting a record... or you can watch it yourself, and bask in your own glory. Wireless capabilities allow you to send replay videos from one DS to another, as well as play certain games in co-op mode. Konami also added Jukebox and Gallery modes where you can listen to each game’s level music and sound effects, while viewing pictures of arcade models and brochures of each game.
Graphically, the games look exactly like their arcade counterparts, though some of the games look a little too dark. A "save anywhere" feature would have been nice as well - even though the original games (for obvious reasons) didn't support that kind of play due to their arcade nature.
There are other options that try to help out with the lack of a save feature, by allowing the player to set the number of lives you can start out with, coupled with an adjustable difficulty level.
Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits delivers what it promises - 15 arcade ports for around 30 bucks.
These arcade classics work well on the DS and the bonus features certainly round out the collection's overall appeal. If you are a fan of Konami's arcade games or an arcade fanatic in general, this collection is worth taking a look at.
