Blizzard Arcade Collection

The Blizzard Arcade Collection is a product of not only slavish devotion to the original releases, but also a glow up that presents the trio of classic games with its best presentation yet. The addition of rewind and save states lets newcomers experience them without having to beat their heads against the wall. Even better, the tome of special features and developer interviews shows a devotion from Blizzard to make this collection a true historical document that too many classic game collections lack. Even for those who haven’t played the originals, this is a package I’m happy to recommend to anyone.

From restoring the soundtrack of Rock N' Roll Racing with chiptunes and CD-quality tracks, to highlighting the rare but ugly Sega 32X version of Blackthorne, to jamming the best parts of all Lost Vikings releases into one game, this is an exhaustive look at three really cool ’90s gems that goes above and beyond what you’d expect from Activision-Blizzard. Anyone who loves one of these games, or who’s a fan of modern Blizzard and wants a window into its past, will be satisfied here despite a handful of slight disappointments.

Blizzard Arcade Collection is a great collection made for early fans of the company, and it brings three great titles with their respective versions for everyone's taste. The extra material is also excellent, and for sure many players will feel gifted with them. However, many inconsistent decisions among the different versions are quite questionable, giving the impression that it's often a best choice to get into the SNES or Mega Drive/SEGA 32X versions, since these ones have the feature of save state and rewind, offering more freedom to the player. We hope that an update can fix these flaws and add the same features for all the three games.

Some people will find the price a bit steep, and they probably won't be wrong. Yet, apart from the drastic selection of this compilation, Blizzard Arcade Collection has been the subject of real care.

As a birthday gift from Blizzard to itself, Blizzard Arcade Collection has been put together with some care. Sometimes good things come in smaller packages, though, and a lot of the content here is superfluous. Two of the Definitive Edition games are worse than the SNES titles also included, while Rock 'n Roll Racing’s is so successful that including the SNES and Mega Drive versions has only really added clutter. The result is a need to start every version of every game a few times to work out which one is actually worth playing, which somewhat spoils the party. But, for all those imperfections, there’s a lot to love: it may not be exactly what we’ve always wanted, but it’s the thought that counts.