Atari has done it again! They bundled 50 games into one package of awesomeness. With their previous iterations being well received, you can imagine these 50 new timeless classics will be well received, right? Or are they… Well, time to find out. Grab the keys to the DeLorean, and let’s take a blast back into to the past in this newest installment, Volume 3!
The 50 games that come in this package are as follows: Adventure II, Air Raiders, Aquaventure Armor Ambush,Asteroids, Astroblast, Atari Baseball, Atari Basketball, Atari Football, Atari Soccer, Avalanche, Canyon Bomber, Centipede, Countermeasure, Dark Cavern,Destroyer, Dominos, Final Legacy, Fire Truck, Frog Pond, Frogs and Flies, HoleyMoley, International Soccer, Maze Invaders, Micro-gammon, Millipede, Miniature Golf, Missile Command, Monte Carlo, MotoRodeo, Pool Shark, Realsports Baseball,Realsports Basketball, Realsports Football, Realsports Tennis, Realsports Volleyball, Saboteur, Sea Battle, Sky Diver, Space Attack, Star Raiders, StarStrike, Super Breakout, Super Bug, Super Challenge Baseball, Super Challenge Football, Sword Fight, Wizard, Xari Arena, Yars’ Return.
What is Good?
- Classics: yes, I know, it is in the title, but I do have to emphasize this part. There are a few timeless classics in here, for instance Centipede, Asteroids, … It’s these kinds of games that bring us back to our childhood, because yes kiddo’s, these games came out when mommy and daddy were around your age.
- UI: How the games are ordered, is just a joy to browse through. No clunky UI, no menus into more sub-menus. No, you stroll through the different games that it contains, select the one you want to play and press start. That’s about it. Some will give you a quick rundown of the controls but that really is about it.
- Leaderboards: Just as the previous 2 collections, this one aswell sports the fun entertainment of a leaderboard. So, get out those 80’sbandana’s, mousse up your hair and break out your best classic language, and go bananas!
Mixed Feelings
- Buggy: For what I experienced, there were a few issues with the game itself. The console overlay would sometimes pop up out of nowhere, without any prompt on the controller. Some would start clipping, making a reboot of the game necessary. Others just wouldn’t play at all. I got into the game and that was it, blank screen. Had this with 2 games out of the 50, this could have been on my end maybe but still, it quite sucked.
- Age: All these classics, do have a flipside. Some of them did not age well, and it shows in how they play. Some were created to be used by that age-old Atari controller, and (for me at least) controlling those are quite a rough ride to play. For instance, the Fire Truck game had me bumping and crashing into almost everything… Damn you fire truck! So, keep this in mind that some of these might not play as you remember them.
What is Bad?
2 Players needed: I didn’t have the chance of playing Volume 1 and 2 (Jim did those, read the review here), but this game consists of a lot of 2 players needed games. If you were planning to play a lot of these on your own, you might want to think about getting that +1 to add to your playing environment because this’ll be needed if you want to get the fullest out of this Volume.
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 3 [Score: 72/100] This collection consists of 3 kind of games, the awesome kind, the meh kind and the why did they even add this to the collection kind. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll have a lot of fun with this collection, truly, but just keep in mind, especially those of the younger generations, that these were the kind of games your dad/mom, or even granddad/mom used to play. So, don’t go expecting to much out of them. The ones that DID play these back in the day will be in for a real treat! So, is this volume worth it? Heck yes, especially with a 2nd player! Now, Doc! Power the reactor to 1.21 gigawatts! Because baby, where we’re going?! We don’t need roads…