Sega Arcade Gallery GBA Review

Remember when a coin-op arcade machine seemed like the most powerful piece of computing architecture you'd ever seen? Remember imagining that those beasts must have oodles of memory, processor and storage to run those great games and keep track of all those high scores? Ok, maybe to you they didn't seem all that impressive, but they sure as heck intimidated me. So when SEGA and THQ launched SEGA Arcade Gallery for the Game Boy Advance, I was stunned to realize that those amazingly powerful arcade consoles were what we'd consider glorified calculators by today's standards.

My childhood illusions were smashed when I realized that SEGA Arcade Gallery contained not just one complete port of a stand-up arcade title, but four-of them, all in glorious color. And while I'm impressed that they managed to make near-perfect copies of After Burner, Outrun, Space Harrier and Super Hang On, I'm not as impressed by the choices, which don't translate so well to the GBA's limited controls. As you'll read in the following paragraphs, while some games look great on the GBA, they don't always play so great.

After Burner
The high-flying jet-powered fun of After Burner seems like a logical choice for a GBA port, but it just doesn't work. While the graphics are bright and colorful, and the sounds are as good as you can expect from the GBA's limited audio system, the action is just too fast and the D-pad too limiting to make After Burner enjoyable for more than a few minutes. Due to the high number of enemy targets on screen, the overall speed of the action and the itty-bitty GBA screen, you can't see the targets well enough to get a missile lock. Forget about hitting them with the chain guns; the targets are too small and too fast for you to draw a bead on them. What this leads to is you trying desperately to use the D-pad to move in arcs across the screen while spraying fire in every direction. Not much fun, to say the least. If THQ slowed down the game, reduced the enemy count and made for more precise D-pad movement, it might be a better game, but with all those changes, it wouldn't resemble its arcade sibling any more.

Space Harrier
Space Harrier is a game that holds a special place in every old-school arcade gamer's heart. You've got a guy basically strapped to a missile that flies around at mach speed blasting dragons and other enemies out of the sky. A simple concept, but insanely fun in the arcade. Yet it fails as a GBA title. You'd think that with the great graphics and good sound, the game would play just fine; however, it suffers from the same problems as After Burner. The action is just too fast for the small screen, leaving you squinting and trying to make out the details of each enemy as it blasts at you at lightning speed. Sometimes it's so hard to make out the details that you end up crashing into a flurry of enemy attacks. And, just like After Burner, that dogged D-pad is too imprecise and too stiff to make a viable controller for the game. Space Harrier requires you be able to slide around smoothly in every direction of the compass, yet the GBA D-pad just isn't built to handle that type of movement.

Outrun
Now that I've mentioned the two games that don't work when ported to the Game Boy Advance, it's time to get down to those that do, starting with Outrun. This game puts you behind the wheel of a sports car as you race across 15 tracks trying to beat the clock. Tracks are broken into segments (checkpoints), which you must complete in the allotted time or the game immediately ends. Since this is a racing game, you need to stay on the track; should you fail to do so, there are plenty of roadside hazards to make scrap out of your pretty red roadster.

The graphics in Outrun stay pretty true to the original, with varied scenery and roadside hazards. THQ even took the time to ensure girlfriend's blonde hair blows in the wind as you race through the countryside. Sound is equally solid, with THQ maintaining the original soundtrack from the arcade version. If you like old-school arcade sound effects, you'll enjoy those found in Outrun.

As I've said, Outrun is one of the titles on this game cartridge that actually does translate well to the GBA. The action is paced just right for the handheld console, meaning you'll never suffer from "what the heck did I just hit?" syndrome. The D-pad, while certainly no steering wheel, works fine with Outrun because, really, you just need to sway left and right with the car.

Super Hang On
With Super Hang On, we have the second and last game in this collection that translates well to the GBA. Super Hang On, for those who've never played it, is your basic motorcycle racing title. Jump on a bike, pick a track and get racing. That's all there is to it. There are four regions across the world you can race through, each split into a number of checkpoints you must clear in the given time. Make it through a checkpoint, and you get more time to hit the next one. Just like the arcade version of the game, there's no bike customization, you just keep racing with whatever rocket you've chosen to ride.

Super Hang On looks and sounds like its arcade sibling, right down to the hum of the bike engines and that sad 8-bit attempt at squealing tires.

As with Outrun, the GBA D-pad in Super Hang On works pretty well since you just need to slide left and right on your bike. There's no need for the up, down or diagonals, so there's really no steering issue. You'll find that Super Hang On is probably the best-playing game of this whole collection.

Wrapping it up
In the end, if you're looking for an inexpensive ($19.99USD) trip down memory lane, you can't go wrong with SEGA Arcade Gallery. You will probably get frustrated with Space Harrier and After Burner, but Super Hang On and Outrun will more than make up for it. It's a definite buy for fans of retro-gaming, but anyone looking for some in-depth GBA thrills probably won't stay interested for long.

Overall: 6.9

Short term retro-gaming enjoyment.

-- Ted Brockwood

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