Retro is modern life's bitch. Everywhere from Notting Hill's trendy '70s clothing boutiques to Brighton''s painfully expensive '60s furniture stores, things are being sold for cash on merit of old age. It's hard to be distinct in today's world of ubiquitous identikit Ikea wall hangings and Topman T-shirts, so retro offers a way to find a unique identity while empathising with a lost past.

Video games are no stranger to this retrospective revolution, with dedicated shops and magazines springing up to offer people ease with which to relive their formative arcade memories. Here Midway brings together 24 of some of the fondest-remembered arcade smashes from the '80s and throws in Xbox Live score tables to settle decade-old disputes between school friends over who owns who at Robotron or Defender.

This is a great package for the retro fan who was there the first time round, but any young whippersnappers whose first foray into the world of electronic entertainment was holding Master Chief's hand in Halo will take one look and wonder what all the fuss is about. But actually pick up a pad and this game might just convince you that we're not all mad. Every title here is stuffed with a breed of pure gameplay it's hard to find in such distilled form nowadays.

Whether it's the expansive world of hip '80s street skateboarding in 720, the puzzling genius of block-stacking Klax, the elegance of sideways shooter Defender or the hyperactive and bloody Smash TV, there is something here for every gameplay taste. If you've never played these titles before, this is a collection you should own, not least because it represents the pioneers that brought us to our current state of gaming. Titles like Gauntlet soundly trump recent games still clearly influenced by its mechanics, such as Dungeons & Dragons Heroes and Hunter The Reckoning Redeemer.

Updates and remakes of the classic titles are notoriously rubbish, so it's wonderful to be able to play them in their purest form. What is also surprising is how many of the games are AAA. In many retro collections there are inevitably titles that are there for filler, but here every game is recognisable and probably has its own dedicated fan site. Sure, there are titles here that surpass others. Satan's Hollow was never going to be able to compete with the classic Robotron, but all the games are deserving of your time.

You probably already knew when you turned to this page whether you'd be buying this game or not. Retro gaming is just one of those things you either do or don't do but, if you are sitting on the fence, can we persuade you to slide down onto retro gaming's side? Not least because retro collections ironically seem to fetch a pretty penny on eBay a few years down the line. Money for old code? Who cares when it's this good?

1. Poignant if you remember them
2. Classic gaming in more than one sense

1. Old-skool visuals some won't "get"
2. They're never as ace as you remember!

Power
This uses less power than that found in Xbox's pinkie, but that's to be expected.

Style
This compilation represents retro chic to the nth degree. This is as faithful as it gets.

Immersion
The hours seep by as you wrestle with the scoreboards an entire generation longs to dominate

Lifespan
Some of these games are being released a full 20 years after birth. That's replay value.

Summary
A great selection of Midway's formative classics. Live scoring makes it an essential purchase for old-skoolers everywhere.