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REVIEW #127
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration
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Collections of classic games are often hit or miss, and Atari has occasionally been the victim of this phenomenon. My usual experience with such compilations is that they will be missing great releases that were a bit more obscure and yet still be crammed full of so many "filler" titles that I'll never touch. Thankfully, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a more thoughtfully designed experience that almost completely avoids both pitfalls. It contains the usual massive selection of arcade and Atari 2600 titles, but other systems like the Lynx and the Atari 7800 have decent showcases in this collection as well. There's even Atari PC titles to discover and play!
As one would expect, when you load up Atari 50: TAC, you can immediately dive into its sizable library of games and start playing right away. However, the main feature here is a historical showcase that's sectioned off into different subjects, and each section features a timeline that includes commercials, photos and interview videos, interesting quotes and blurbs of text, and of course, lots of games to try out. I personally found this interactive journey into Atari's history to be really interesting, especially since Atari 50 takes a more honest approach in detailing the company's rise and fall instead of sugarcoating the featured narrative and painting Atari as a perfect corporation that never made mistakes.
As mentioned above, Atari 50: TAC's library, while big, feels more hand-picked and curated instead of being shoved full of games that no one will probably play. With that said, there's a good handful of novelties from Atari's history to learn about and try out, like their handheld Touch Me game. There's even a couple of titles that were made by other companies, a rarity when it comes to compilations like this! Admittedly, some of the games here I might only play once or twice, but I didn't personally find any complete duds. However, I did find a couple of curious omissions, like the 5200 releases of Centipede and Countermeasure as well as the 7800 version of Food Fight, which I feel would've been a better representation of an arcade-to-home console adaption than the XE version that's included. Also, some of the games may take a little tweaking in their control settings before they feel "right" during play, and vector-based arcade titles will sometimes get a weird "flicker" effect that's a little distracting at times.
Overall, I can confidently declare Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration as one of the best classic game compilations that I've played. The current price tag of $40 USD is admittedly pretty steep, but there's a lot of content here that some players will undoubtedly feel outweighs the cost. It's also absolutely worth checking out when on sale if you're in the mood for some nostalgic fun.