 | Release: | May 31, 2007 - PlayStation 3 (US) June 29, 2007 - PlayStation 3 (EU) |
| Delisting (approx.): | July 1, 2010 (Available For: 3y 1m) |
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| Developer: | Midway | |
| Publisher: | Sony Online Entertainment | |
| Available On: | Retail (See Below) | |
| Links: | US PlayStation Blog Post |
Delisting
In January of 2007 Midway Games and Sony Online Entertainment announced a collaboration to bring six downloadable Midway titles to the PlayStation 3. In the wake of Midway’s bankruptcy and closure in 2009 all six titles were delisted after their Xbox 360 counterparts. The games were put on sale one final time through the last week of June 2010 and were likely delisted shortly thereafter. The six games include:
- Championship Sprint
- Gauntlet II
- Joust
- Mortal Kombat II
- Rampage World Tour
- Rampart
On February 17th, 2010 Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb announced on Twitter that nine Midway Games had been removed from Xbox Live “due to publisher evolving rights and permissions”. The nine games include:
- Cyberball 2072
- Defender
- Gauntlet
- Joust
- Paperboy
- Robotron: 2084
- Root Beer Tapper
- Smash TV
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
These “evolving rights” related to Midway’s bankruptcy and financial woes as the company shut down operations through 2010. After filing for bankruptcy in February of 2009, Midway received a bid of more than $33 million from Warner Bros. for the majority of the company’s assets. With the sale completed by July 10th the remaining studios were either closed or sold off (namely to SouthPeak Games and to THQ who would themselves file for bankruptcy in 2012).
Warner Bros. Consolidation
While these original releases are currently delisted almost all of them are available in new digital bundles or on physical discs. Midway Arcade Origins contains 30 titles and was released to retail by Warner Bros. on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is currently available to download on Xbox 360 as well.
Warner Bros. has also re-released Mortal Kombat II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Paperboy is available in the downloadable version of Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play, published digitally in 2010 for the PlayStation Portable. This leaves only Rampage: World Tour that cannot currently be downloaded.
Before all of this Midway released dozens of arcade compilations on numerous platforms as far back as the Sega Genesis and Game Boy Color.
About the Game
“Championship Sprint is an updated version of the old Atari Sprint series with the ability to upgrade your vehicle as the game progresses. Upgrades are won by collecting wrenches that appear once per track. After you have managed to collect four wrenches, you will be presented with an upgrade screen which gives you a chance to choose better traction, top speed, acceleration, or a faster helicopter. You can upgrade every time you collect four wrenches.
If you crash head-on into a barricade, it’s likely that your vehicle will be destroyed. If this happens, a helicopter will automatically airlift a replacement to the track. Naturally, this takes time and at the beginning of the game, it seems like an eternity. You can improve this time by upgrading the helicopter as mentioned previously. The replacement will have all of the vehicle upgrades that your previous car had.
The tracks are all circular in nature and they vary from the simple oval to contorted tracks with many twists, turns, and bridges. There are also ramps and shortcuts that allow you to circumvent parts of the track. It’s great fun with two players.“