ATARI ANTHOLOGY
(Atari/Blue Shift/Digital Eclipse, November 16, 2004)
Way back in the early 1980's (remember the big hair and one hit wonders?) the Atari Corporation was one of the fastest growing companies in the world. Their arcade games were eating billions of quarters around the world and the Atari 2600 used to keep me in front of the TV for hours on end as a kid. I never cared that I was playing blocks for characters or listening to beeps for sound effects, many of the games were just so incredibly addictive! Now Xbox players have the chance to play 85 of these legends from the golden age of gaming all on one disc. The games may be old but if you don't care about their age and you have a need to play some legends, see why Atari Anthology is a great deal.
What is a good compilation without a few good games, eh? AA has 18 notable arcade translations like Asteroids, Missile Command, Battle Zone, Pong, and several others. That's not a bad list of game there but AA also includes 65 legendary (and not so legendary) Atari 2600 titles like Adventure, Combat, Slot Racers, Yar's Revenge, and many more. There are tons of classics here but you won't be seeing older games like Star Wars Arcade, Space Invaders, Defender, Pac Man, or anything with a license; AA only has first party Atari games only.
Here is the full list of the 18 classic arcade games on the collection:
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Battle Zone
Black Widow
Centipede
Crystal Castles
Gravitar
Liberator
Lunar Lander
Major Havoc
Millipede
Missile Command
Pong
Red Baron
Space Duel
Super Breakout
Tempest
Warlords
If that wasn't enough, here is the massive list of 60+ game from the Atari 2600 (or VCS) era:
3D Tic-Tac-Toe
A game of Concentration
Adventure
Air Sea Battle
Asteroids
Basic Programming
Battle Zone
Blackjack
Bowling
Breakout
Canyon Bomber
Casino
Centipede
Circus Atari
Codebreaker
Combat
Crystal Castles
Demons to Diamonds
Desert Falcon
Dodge Em
Double Dunk
Flag Capture
Football
Fun with Numbers
Golf
Gravitar
Haunted House
Home Run
Human Cannonball
Math Grand Prix
Maze Craze
Millipede
Miniature Golf
Missile Command
Night Driver
Off The Wall
Outlaw
Quadrun
Radar Lock
Real Sports Baseball
Real Sports Football
Real Sports Tennis
Real Sports Volleyball
Sky Diver
Slot Machine
Slot Racers
Space War
Sprintmaster
Star Raiders
Star Ship
Steeplechase
Stellar Track
Street Racer
Submarine Commander
Super Baseball
Super Breakout
Super Football
Surround
Swordquest: Earthworld
Swordquest: Fireworld
Swordquest: Waterworld
Video Checkers
Video Chess
Video Pinball
Video Olympics
Warlords
Yar's Revenge
Although 85 games seem great, you still have to put up with very early 1980's graphics. There are a few vector games like Tempest and Major Havoc still look decent with their unique stylist line designs and 3D effects, but most of the other games look downright ugly. Some games even come with their original flickers and slowdown that show signs of the original system's weak 8-bit hardware.
Things don't get much better for sound either. Most of the games consist of the most basic beeps you ever heard in your life and if that wasn't bad enough you'll be hard pressed to find any music either. There just isn't much in sound department. Both the graphics and sounds remain faithful to their originals but since that was decades ago, they pretty much suck now lets get that off the bat.
It doesn't sound like I'm giving AA a glowing review so far but with so many titles here it is hard to not to find something that you like. For example: it's always fun going for that high score in the fast action packed games like Centipede and Tempest while other games like Adventure and Combat still play well too. I also loved how the programmers edited games like Star Raiders and Super Break Out so it was easy to play with the standard Xbox controller. All the games still play as fast as their originals and you can still do the game variations with a touch of a button (on the old Atari 2600 you had to select these selections from the system). This version even lets you post your top arcade scores online with Xbox Live.
Digital Eclipse was even kind enough to include a great list of extras. If you are not sure how to play any of the titles, AA has a full list of manuals built right into the game for easy reference. If any of the games ever get boring, it is possible to do a few edits like double the speed, play under a time limit, and you can even play the games in Trippy mode so it looks like you had a few too many. These features are great for novelty effects but they are not really necessary.
This game even has video footage of an interview from Nolan Bushnell; the founder of Atari! I loved seeing all these informative videos: when I saw them in THREE YEARS AGO! OK, so it was nothing new to me but it was cool to see these videos clearly on the Xbox (it was really grainy when I originally saw them on the Dreamcast) plus if you haven't seen the interview, he gives a lot of great insight on the evolution and creation of the video game industry.
Great game play never gets old. AA is one of those titles that isn't getting a lot of hype and this compilation of oldies can easily get lost in this busy 2004 holiday season especially with heavy hitters like Halo 2 and Metroid Prime 2 out there. That's a real shame because if you love retro throw backs, is one of the best collections I ever played. Atari Anthology is cheap, it is loaded with bonus features, and it comes packed with some of the biggest video games of all time! That a real steal in my opinion!
Choose from 18 great arcade hits Take out the bugs in Centipede, clear out the giant space rock in Asteroids or play other stand-up machine classics A...More at Amazon Marketplace
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