Much like any kid who grew up in an era where arcades were prevalent (and relevant), I always dreamt of being in control of one. To have the power to change the options of a game with the flip of a switch; to open up the quarter panel and press the credit button to play for free; to walk around with a giant ring of keys for each machine, jiggling as I strutted between poorly lit rows of cabinets. Konami heard my silent cries and fifteen years later they've brought forth Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits. Though it might not seem different from Konami Arcade Classics for the PlayStation and Konami's Collector Series: Arcade Advanced for the Game Boy Advance, Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits is different not in game selection, but in options. Giving you access to many of the options and materials from the original arcade titles as well as adding a wealth of multiplayer options, high score boards and the ability to record entire play sessions for a piece of living proof of your accomplishments, this compilation is not 'just another collection'. Does that make this the perfect immortalization of the games within it? Almost - but there's no Frogger!

Arcade Hits starts as any other compilation does - with a big pile of classic titles. Konami has done an excellent job of balancing the well known with the obscure, mixing the likes of Contra with Pooyan, Gradius with Roc'n Rope, and Track and Field with Road Fighter. Filling in the rest of the roster are Rush'n Attack, Scramble, Time Pilot, Circus Charlie, Basketball, Horror Maze, Yie Air Kung-Fu, Rainbowbell and Shao-Lin's Road. As many of you have surely noticed, quite a few hits are missing from Konami's back catalog - Frogger, Gyruss, Super Cobra and Blades of Steel, to mention a few. While you cannot expect Konami to pack this game with every arcade game they released in the Eighties, it would have been nice to see some rhyme or reason to the selection, like picking games such as the most popular or in chronological order. Still, it's probably a safe bet that they're holding plenty of classics back for future compilations - at least I hope they are!

But I digress from what matters - the games that are here. The classics don't need an introduction, as gamers around the world known the tales of Contra, Gradius, Time Pilot and Rush'n Attack. With Contra, Gradius and Rush'n Attack that familiarity may have come from their NES versions rather than the arcade ports found here, but that should serve as just a momentary mark of confusion before the nostalgia blends both versions into sweet bliss. The sports side of Konami receives some attention with the button-mashing extravaganza known as Track and Field and the snorefest known simply as Basketball, which could have - and rightfully should have - been benched for its vastly superior sequel, Double Dribble, before being knocked off the roster entirely by Blades of Steel and/or Bottom of the Ninth.

Pooyan, Scramble, Circus Charlie and Shao-Lin's Road - four games unfamiliar to me - proved to be pleasant surprises. Pooyan's mix of twitch gameplay and careful planning won me over quickly, leaving me to shoot down foxes with glee. Scramble has lost much of its luster over the years, especially when compared to the game it became - Gradius - but there is still fun to be with its mix of ground and air combat. Circus Charlie may not have much depth, as the entire game revolves around jumping, but the clever level designs and enemy placement had me hopping with frustrated joy as the stupid purple monkeys killed me time and time again. Unlike the stiff, robotic and without fun fighting game Yie Air Kung-Fu, Shao-Lin's Road is a kung-fu side-scroller with odd power-ups, such as fire and spike balls. The fast-paced action and near perfect enemy placement, which keeps you challenged without being overwhelming or cheap, prove to be a convincing argument in Shao-Lin's Road's favor.

This leaves us at the bottom of the Arcade Hits barrel. While I don't mind the racing experience that Road Fighter gives at first, once you have a grasp of the gameplay, the game boils down to the equivalent of driving through a barren countryside in real life - a meager source of entertainment. Rainbow Bell is a decent shooter, sharing more than a passing similarity with Namco's Xevious, but it doesn't produce any lasting impressions. Horror Maze's cramped quarters don't compliment its controls, which have disabled the ability to shoot up or down. That concept worked without a hitch in games with large environments, such as Berserk and Robotron: 2084, but here it puts the 'Horror' into the game's title. Lastly, Yie Air Kung-Fu is one of the fighting games that went on to mold the genre into what we know it as today, but it has aged horribly, as the speed and fluidity we have come to expect in any 2-D fighter is nowhere to be found.

Each of these games appears here as an emulated version of the original arcade games, meaning that no NES ports, presentation touch-ups or upgraded versions are to be found. I welcome that, as the classic presentations for all the games are part of their appeal, hearkening back to times of yore. Thankfully, the DS has no problem replicating these games, with nothing missing, cut, scaled down or removed to improve the transition. All the original sounds, songs and graphics are here and intact - for better or worse, depending on the game. The DS screens are a different matter altogether though. Some of the titles, such as Contra, Pooyan and Time Pilot, had monitors that were not wide, but tall. This means that forcing games into a different box results in visual problems, such as smaller text and loss of detail. What's a developer to do? Put in an option to change how the picture is displayed! You can change between different settings for screen size, including one that puts the game back in its original, vertically inclined form. This means you must hold your DS like a book, which can be initially uncomfortable but is easily adapted to.

With altering the original code unnecessary, the developers were able to focus on other things. Every game comes with background information, gameplay tips, advertisement leaflets - in both English and Japanese - and the original arcade motherboard. The tips are written out decently, but what's with the lifeless, repetitive background information? This could have been one of the better extra features, but there is just no creativity put into it; sometimes there isn't even any information. Instead of leaving the bottom screen blank, every game displays its original instruction cards for easy access to rules, point values and controls. All of those are dwarfed by the customizable gameplay options that are normally reserved for owners of the actual arcade cabinets. You can change things such as the amount of lives each credit earns, difficulty, and on some games, rapid fire either with a press of an icon or by switching the actual switches on the digital motherboard!

The extras don't end there, as multiplayer receives a hefty dose of options as well. Up to two players can play any game - be it simultaneous or alternating - with game sharing available to you only need one copy. High score challenges are back; you can exchange scores wirelessly and match your friends without even playing with them. Ever land a high score but your friends called shenanigans on you? Not any more! Record any game session with the Replay feature then send it to your friends and watch their faces turn green with envy. And if for some unknown, probably invalid reason someone you know just isn't sure Arcade Hits is for them, send over any of the 15 games for them to try out until they turn their DS off. The only thing missing is a WiFi high score leaderboard - maybe that'll be there in Arcade Hits 2.

With a well-balanced roster that shows variety between genres, notability and enjoyment level, there is plenty of fun to be had with Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits. Normally with a classics compilation that has no real technical deficiencies, my complaints would be focused on the handful of lackluster titles that drag the overall package down. However, the sheer amount of effort that's gone into the extras and multiplayer has distracted me from any negative feelings. The new king of DS burst gaming has arrived!

Reviewed by Tony Peters for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).