ATARI CLASSICS -EVOLVED- (a J!-ENT PSP Video Game Review)

September 4, 2008 by Dennis Amith

“Features a lot of unlockable Atari 2600 games and a good number of the top titles from back in the day in their original and evolved versions. But the question is, do you care enough to play old school Atari 2600 games all over again?”

TITLE: ATARI CLASSICS -EVOLVED-

COMPANY: ATARI

ESRB RATING: E for Everyone. Mild Violence, Simulated Gambling

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

SOME OF THE MOST ICONIC GAMES EVER CREATED…NOW IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND. Experience 11 timeless games that started teh revolution! Presented in their original and evolved designs, featuring updated graphics, gameplay and sound.

11 classic Atari games in their original and evolved designs: Asteroid, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone Centiped, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Missle Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, Warlords
Over 50 unlockable Atari 2600 titles
Battle it out via wireless multi-player available on Warlords and Batlezone

Back in the early 80’s, I was a proud owner of many Atari games. My parents would buy me and my brother the latest games, kids from school would come over to check it out and had a relative who worked at Atari and gave us these chip like device that would play on an adapter for our 2600.

I remember playing hours and hours to reach a million and them flip the game (the term used back then to reach a million points and the game’s top score would start over at 0) for Asteroid and Defender.

I remember the days of trying to find the first Easter Egg for “Adventure”, play “Warlords”, “Tempest”, “Galaga”, “Frogger”, “Breakout” and so many Atari games including stinkers such as “Superman” and “E.T.”.

So, when I saw this collection on the aisle, I was really trying to decide if I wanted to shell out $20 for a collection of Atari 2600 games. But with all these new games coming out for the next gen consoles and the portable devices, I figured, I’d wait. And sure enough, there was a sale for this collection and the price was quite low for a new game that I couldn’t resist.

Upon starting the game, you are greeted with the main 11 games: Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Lunar Lander, Millipede, Missle Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest and Warlords.

The first game I wanted to play was “Battlezone” and fortunately, it’s based on the arcade version, not the sucky Atari 2600 version. It’s the first time in so many years since I played that game and even wasted so many quarters on the game. It was the first “Virtual Reality” game with it’s green lined graphics but at the time, it was so cool at that time. So, I switched it to the evolved version and the biggest difference is that things are shaded, more colors, some 3D but nothing super drastic in terms of an update of graphics. But the concept is still the same and fun. These are fun games you can get into such as on a long commute and it’s not hard to learn how to play the game(s).

But then I started playing the other ten games and I was thinking, do I really want to play all these games for scores? Knowing there is no CG video, no major storylines. They are straight up games to play for points.

Of course, the incentive of doing well in the game is the better you do, you get awards and when you accomplish those awards, you open up the original Atari 2600 games. Obtain all awards and you open up a total of 58 Atari 2600 games.

Personally, I have no time to sit around and play a game for points like I did when I was a child. So, I ended up downloading the save from GameFaqs.com to open up all unlockable games.

And some games controls worked but I swear some were janky and some really didn’t respond well to the PSP’s nub stick.

Games like “Adventure” or “Haunted House” worked well with the nub-stick but games like “Home Run”, using the buttons not the directional pad or nub-stick (even though you’re supposed to be allowed to do) to control my characters really sucked. So, I had some control issues with some of the unlockable Atari games but even the main games such as pong, I just found it difficult to use the PSP’s controls and I was easily getting frustrated.

Because of that, I can’t see too many people beating the main games to complete the awards to unlock all the Atari 2600 games. Some of the games are not as easy to play on the PSP as I would of hoped.

A lot of games that I enjoyed back then are not on this collection. Some are understandable like Pac Man is a Namco game, Pitfall is an Activision Game and Defender is a Williams game. But I recall doing some Olympic sporting style events on the Atari 2600. But I suppose they may have been 3rd party games.

This collection is pretty much self-explanatory. Do you crave for old school Atari 2600 games? Do you crave of the days of sitting for hours trying to get the highest score on a game? Are you that patient? And do you care to even play some Atari 2600 oldies at this time?

I think those who are nostalgic for those old school years of playing the Atari 2600 will get into it, for me, I was into it but at the same time, either I was lazy or just too busy to want to play these games for scores and for long consecutive hours. It worked in my younger years but not now. I seem to have lost the patience.

But still, for the price you can find this game online these days, and the fact that you get the big hits in their original and evolved designs are very cool. And the fact that you can unlock over 50 games after you accomplish the awards for the main games is a nice touch.

So, a low price for over 70 Atari 2600 games is pretty cool! But it all depends if you care for Atari 2600 old school games or not.