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Atari Anthology (Xbox) artwork

Atari Anthology (Xbox) review


"Damn, now THIS is a collection! 18 arcade classics and 67 Atari 2600 titles for a grand total of 85 games to choose from? INSANE!! They could've stopped there, but oh no, the developers went the extra mile; you'll also get a crap load of extras like scans of all the game's instruction manuals, promotional flyers, an interview with the creator of Pong (PONG!), and much, much more. And it's all yours for the super, duper low price of $20!! "

Damn, now THIS is a collection! 18 arcade classics and 67 Atari 2600 titles for a grand total of 85 games to choose from? INSANE!! They could've stopped there, but oh no, the developers went the extra mile; you'll also get a crap load of extras like scans of all the game's instruction manuals, promotional flyers, an interview with the creator of Pong (PONG!), and much, much more. And it's all yours for the super, duper low price of $20!!

Problem: 95% of the games suck.

That 5% consists mostly of arcade games like Missile Command (that game rocks the socks off the universe), Super Breakout, and Asteroids. Most of the other arcade games suck, and almost all of the Atari 2600 games in this collection are downright awful. Fun With Numbers is not fun because it involves math; I don't even want to know how much Slot Machine originally cost; the Swordquest titles are the most confusing "adventure" games I've come into contact with; and then there's Atari Math Grand Prix. Let me say that again. ATARI MATH GRAND PRIX. What the hell? I could fill up the rest of this review listing the other crappy games, but I won't. I'm not a masochist....... at least I think I'm not.

Digital Eclipse probably knew they were putting together a collection of vomit-inducing games, so they attempted to spice things up a bit. Every title in this compilation includes a number of modes: Trippy Mode lets you play like you're hopped-up on drugs, Time Warp randomly switches the game speed, and Hot Seat lets you play a game for a few seconds only to have it switch to one of the other three games that was randomly picked for you. Yes, they sound very stupid, and yes, they don't enhance the playing experience. Hell, they end up crappifying the experience to greater heights of crappiness.

So, yeah, Atari Anthology really sucks. One reason I can imagine someone buying this is that they had $20 to waste and wanted a quick laugh. Because, well, that's why I bought it. Oh, yeah, those extras aren't too great either. I mean, who wants to look through instruction manual scans of a bunch of awful games? I sure as hell don't.

2016 note: in retrospect, I should have explained more in-depth why it's not a great compilation. This just comes off like a throwaway review. Which it was, actually...



dementedhut's avatar
Community review by dementedhut (October 09, 2005)

I actually played Rad Mobile in a Japanese arcade as a kid, and the cabinet movement actually made the game more fun than it actually was. Hence, it feeling more like an "interactive" experience than a video game.

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zippdementia posted May 12, 2012:

Wow. This is incredible Pickhut. I can only imagine some of the other crappy titles. Custer's Revenge? Beat em' and Eat em? Nah, probably not.
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dementedhut posted May 12, 2012:

Man, now that's an "old" review. Oddly enough, I think I still like it. Thanks for reading. xD

If I remember, all the games in the collection were titles made just by Atari, so there's no third-party titles, aka any of the good Activision ones. And I'm sure the compilation would be rated A if it had those titles you mentioned. >_>
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zippdementia posted May 12, 2012:

Yeah, this one's seven years old now...? I don't think I was even on the site yet. Yeah, just checked: my first review was 2008. There's a lot of good stuff I keep coming across.

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