Others say...

"not much fun"
I ordered this game so there would actually be something I could play on my sons' playstation and possibly beat them. I was excited waiting for it to arrive. When it got here I was very disappointed. The graphics are bad, the games aren't much fun and I don't even play it now.

"atari anthology"
I love it!!!! It brings back a really good part of my childhood. Thank you.

"Great flashback"
This is a great collection of the old favorites we all grew up on.

"A good collection, but lots of problems"
First off, I want to note that this collection doesn't include Pac-Man, Pole Position, Space Invaders, etc., despite what some reviews might suggest. None of those games were developed by Atari (Pac-Man and Pole Position are Namco games, while Space Invaders is a Taito game). It is unclear whether Atari could have released the licensed home versions of these games (Space Invaders was very good, Pac-Man was one of the nails in the coffin for the company), but in any case, the games present have been included in a "review" (in the loosest sense of the term - really, it's just a cut-and-paste job from an Atari website) near the top of the page, so I won't repeat that.

With 85 games present, it is impossible to give in this limited space an accurate review of everything found here. I'll limit myself to some of the gems present (there are a few), and some of the bombs (of which there are many).

First off, Atari has included 18 original arcade games in this collection, which is a pretty nice number. There are some classics present (Asteroids, Missile Command, Centipede, and Crystal Castles are my favorites), some interesting titles (Tempest was one of my favorites as a kid, while Major Havoc makes about as much sense now as it did then), and some duds (Red Baron and Black Widow just don't make the grade). Most of the games show off the "vector" technology that seemed poised to dominate the market in the early 80's - but fell off the face of the earth quite soon. While these games are fun, there are serious control issues with many of the games. Centipede was originally designed with a trak-ball controller, as was Crystal Castles; the joystick doesn't quite get the feel right (particularly with Crystal Castle). The games also come equipped with special modes, such as (the aptly titled) trippy mode, where motion is blurred, a double fast mode (self-explanatory), a time mode (which alternates randomly between slow and fast), a time trial (in which the player must reach some milestone in the allotted time) and a hot seat (which is pretty difficult to describe, but basically switches games randomly). With the exception of the Double Fast mode, I found these annoying.

After this, there are 67 Atari games present. Here are many, MANY duds. Atari made a lot of bad games. I'll focus instead on some of the strongest titles. In my opinion, Atari Adventure was the best game released for the system. Despite horrendous graphics, the game was fast-paced and difficult. Haunted House is a great title as well, and Atari's version of "Centipede" is more fun than the arcade game, in my opinion (again, despite horrible graphics). Unfortunately, some games which should be good aren't, mostly due to severe control issues. Demons to Diamonds was a decent shooter game for the paddle controller. Unfortunately, the joystick is horrible for controlling your "spaceship". A more egregious example would be Circus Atari, which is almost unplayable with a joystick. There are about 10 other games on here that are decent, in my opinion, and the rest are junk.

SO, all in all, that makes about 20 or so games that I like to play, out of 85. For 15 bucks, that seems like a good deal to me. Is it overrated nostalgia, as one reviewer commented? Probably, but at this price, who's complaining? I mean, it's essentially lunch for one day. Seems reasonable to me...

Happy gaming!

"Very Disappointing"
I was so excited to get this game! I was all nostalgic about my own video games as a child and wanted to get it to share with my son but it was awful! My son was not interested at all and it was hard to maneuver the ships etc. We were both disappointed...Please get something else....