Arcade Classics: Volume One - PlayStation 2 Gameplay
0System 3 is no stranger to budget gaming in the PS2 era. While they are an icon to many C64 and Amiga owners, they aren't exactly well known on consoles. In the 2000s, System 3 made the "Play It" budget label, allowing them to publish smaller titles (and sometimes localise them) for the PAL market.
For the most part, a lot of their releases are pretty damn good, like Cel Damage: Overdrive, Gottlieb Pinball Classics, Intellivision Lives! and even Motorsiege: Warriors of Primetime. Heck, the Play It label still exists to this day, as in recent years they published physical releases of PS4 and Nintendo Switch titles, like Stern Pinball Arcade, Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon Party Edition, Stick it to the Man! and Table Top Racing: World Tour - Nitro Edition. And of course, System 3 re-released the PS2 games on the European PlayStation Store for PS3 under as part of the "PS2 Classics" line-up, which included games from Disney, Midas Interactive, Oxygen Interactive, SEGA, THQ and Natsume. (The line-up is VERY different from the one in the US PS Store quality-wise, obviously.)
However, there were a couple of stinkers in the Play It library. Underworld: The Eternal War (based on a movie of the same name) is pretty lackluster, Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror (known in PAL regions as America's 10 Most Wanted) is a laughably bad military shooter and Trigger Man is pathetic attempt at ripping off the Syphon Filter series.
But of all the games under the Play It label, this is perhaps the most... unique, to say the least. Released in 2006, this was developed by System 3 themselves and it contains games. Obviously they are clones of popular titles from Atari, Namco, Taito and Midway. They visually look good, but the weirdest thing is that the clones feature sound effects ripped straight from the original arcade games! Don't believe me? Listen to the audio on Bugs or Alien Rangers. Though the Asteroids and Missile Command clones actually use their own original SFX.
Was this supposed to be a series of remakes of real arcade games, but System 3 couldn't afford the licensing from the said companies? Did System 3 sneak the actual sounds in, thinking that due to being in Europe meant that nobody would notice in Japan or the USA? If the latter is true, then it's quite a shock that Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe actually let that slip through the QA testing. Even more so as they allowed System 3 to bring the game to the EU PlayStation Store on PS3, and it's STILL BEING SOLD TODAY! I'm serious, it was sold separately or as part of a bundle!
While they are still clones of popular arcade games, it's still amazing how lax are the laws in PAL regions regarding quality assurance for PlayStation 2 games. At least the game's actually good, unlike Trigger Man or America's 10 Most Wanted. If you still own a PS3 and are curious, it should still be available to download off the EU PlayStation Store like I said earlier. It's £3.99 on its own, but I definitely recommend the bundle, which includes Intellivison Lives!, Cel Damage: Overdrive (despite the existence of the HD remaster), GrooveRider, MX World Tour, Gungrave: Overdose and more. If you want the CIB copy of the PS2 game, it should go for around 10 euro or £8* in today's money at best at the time of this video's upload date.
Arcade Classics: Volume One (C) System 3
PAL Exclusive (Both on PS2 and PS3)
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