Taking the prize for perhaps the worst game on the entire collection is Fight For Life, a one on one fighter that actually sucks the will to live from your body as you play. Not so fun are sub-Starfox space shooter Cybermorph, and it’s companion launch title and woeful hori shmup Trevor McFur In The Crescent Galaxy. Ruiner Pinball got slammed at the time but I am a sucker for video pinball and this is no exception – it is great fun. Tempest 2000 is terrific, and a game I think I have reviewed about ten times during my career. Atari Karts is a wonderful kart racer that in my view eclipses Street Racer as the next-best title of its ilk during the era. But if you dig deeper, as Atari have here, there were a few ace titles. At the time it felt inferior even to the SNES, and comparing their libraries the Nintendo machine would easily come out on top. I always felt sorry for a mate of mine who got a Jaguar for Christmas around the time of its release. But in execution, the excellent hybrid of martial arts and putting is a real turd. I wanted to love a game titled Ninja Golf, I really did. The 7800 selection includes likeable platformer Scrapyard Dog, which also turns up here in Lynx form. The no-nonsense, single word titled 2600 standouts are Adventure, Warlords and Combat, all well worth a look, along with the always ace Yar’s Revenge. But that isn’t to say there aren’t some scorchers for your perusal. There is also no getting over the fact that in the 1980s, the vast majority of what most aficionados would consider a “best of” for their home consoles are dominated by Activision, Parker Bros, Taito and Nintendo. There is a lot of repetition, with 800, 26 arcade conversions which are almost all inferior to the actual arcade counterparts. Much ballyhoo has been made of the brand new final instalment of the Swordquest franchise – titled AirWorld – but I found it to be a below average adventure title compared to many of the much better stuff elsewhere on the compilation. Yars Revenge Enhanced is terrific, VCTR-SCTR is a great vector-style propulsion physics affair, and Quadratank is superb in multiplayer. The Reimagined selection also has some gems. They play just as well now as they ever did due to the sheer taut simplicity of design. Asteroids, Crystal Castles, I, Robot, Gravitar, Centipede, Tempest, Breakout – you know the drill. There is no arguing about some of these absolute bangers. The vintage arcade games are frequently excellent and the emulation is bang-on. Games wise, as I alluded to, the quality control took a back seat to the completist tendencies of whoever put the list together. It is like going to a genuinely interesting, immersive, interactive museum. There are amazing, beautifully created timelines that guide you through periods of history, complete with excellent interviews with the people that were there at the time. It collects games from every era of their history, from the earliest coin ops right up to the modern reimagined efforts that we have seen on present consoles. In terms of presentation, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration collection is absolutely sublime. And that just about sums up this intriguing and mind-meltingly comprehensive collection of games and historical artefacts. To this day people remember the classic arcade titles and consoles of Atari, the good, the bad and the ugly. They may not be at the forefront of videogames these days, but the influence of Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created an indelible mark on the world. That’s why I was thrilled to dive into Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Whether that was playing Crystal Castles in the amusement parlour near where I grew up, or poring over the many adverts for consoles and games emblazoned on the latest missives from Spider-Man and House of Mystery, Atari was always there.
As someone who grew up invested not only in going to arcades, but also in the world of imported comic books, Atari was part of my childhood.
0 kommentar(er)
