We live in a really cool time with video games. We are now seeing games that are so lifelike that, to the untrained eye, games can be sometimes mistaken for real-life. When you think of the fact that video games have not been technically around as a form of home entertainment for long, the number of advancements that the medium has made is nothing short of astonishing! In 1972, we were using these alien looking controllers to move two paddles up and down on a screen as a ball bounced back and forth. Here, in 2019, we have horse testicles that will expand or shrink depending on the weather!
No matter how you look at it though, we have come very far since those early days, but many older gamers and those of us that look at the retro games in respect know that we wouldn’t have the games of today if it weren’t for the games of yesteryear. The Atari systems will forever be noted as one of the Grandfathers of Gaming. Don’t worry Magnavox Odyssey, we know you were the true first home console! There have been some neat collections released for Atari games, but none have been so ambitious as the Atari Flashback Classics collection for the Nintendo Switch.
The Atari Flashback Classics Collection is out on both the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita in North American Regions at the moment. Both versions are identical, with the same roster of games and features. However, the Vita version appears to be $19.99, the same price as a single pack of 50 games on the PlayStation 4, the Switch verison is $39.99, the price of two packs (you get three packs of content in both). I’ve been advised that the game is coming to the EU region some time in 2019.
This ain’t your grandma’s Dominoes, I’ve got all day, and the skills to back it up!
Ambitious is the keyword here, as I have simply never seen a collection like the one Atari and Code Mystics have put together in the new Atari Flashback Classics. Hold on to your butts ladies and gentleman, I am about to throw some noteworthy numbers at you. The Flashback Collection contains ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY GAMES! Made up of 32 arcade cabinet games, 102 Atari 2600 games, and 16 Atari 5200 games all bundled up in one jam-packed convenient collection.
Before I get you TOO excited, I do have to take this collection down a notch. Fans buying the collection looking forward to playing some of those juicy Namco classics such as Pac-Man or Galaxian will be sorely disappointed as Namco games are nowhere to be seen. I do wish a deal could’ve been made between Atari and Bandai Namco to see these classics added to what is a great collection of games.
This menu selection is massive!
Don’t let that sway you away from not purchasing this game though! There are so many other great games that are included in the Atari Flashback Classics which you will still find yourself playing for hours in your bubble of nostalgic joy. I will include a full list of the games in the collection below; but a few of my personal favourites are the OG Pong, Asteroids, Frog Pond, Centipede, and Home Run.
1. 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe 2600
2. A Game of Concentration 2600
3. Adventure 2600
4. Adventure II 2600
5. Air Raiders ™ 2600
6. Air-Sea Battle 2600
7. Aquaventure 2600
8. Armor Ambush ™ 2600
9. Asteroids 2600
10. Asteroids Arcade
11. Asteroids 5200
12. Asteroids Deluxe Arcade
13. Astroblast ™ 2600
14. Atari Baseball Arcade
15. Atari Basketball Arcade
16. Atari Football Arcade
17. Atari Soccer Arcade
18. Atari Video Cube 2600
19. Avalanche Arcade
20. Backgammon 2600
21. Basic Math 2600
22. Basketball 2600
23. Black Widow Arcade
24. Blackjack 2600
25. Bowling 2600
26. Brain Games 2600
27. Breakout 2600
28. Canyon Bomber 2600
29. Canyon Bomber Arcade
30. Casino 2600
31. Centipede 2600
32. Centipede Arcade
33. Centipede 5200
34. Championship Soccer 2600
35. Checkers 2600
36. Chess 2600
37. Circus Atari 2600
38. Code Breaker 2600
39. Combat 2600
40. Combat 2 2600
41. Countermeasure 5200
42. Crystal Castles 2600
43. Crystal Castles Arcade
44. Dark Cavern ™ 2600
45. Demons to Diamonds 2600
46. Desert Falcon 2600
47. Destroyer Arcade
48. Dodge ‘Em 2600
49. Dominos Arcade
50. Double Dunk 2600
51. Fatal Run 2600
52. Final Legacy 5200
53. Fire Truck/Smokey Joe Arcade
54. Flag Capture 2600
55. Football 2600
56. Frog Pond 2600
57. Frogs and Flies 2600
58. Golf 2600
59. Gravitar 2600
60. Gravitar Arcade
61. Hangman 2600
62. Haunted House 2600
63. Holey Moley 2600
64. Home Run 2600
65. Human Cannonball 2600
66. International Soccer ™ 2600
67. Liberator Arcade
68. Lunar Lander Arcade
69. Major Havoc Arcade
70. Maze Craze 2600
71. Maze Invaders Arcade
72. Micro-gammon 5200
73. Millipede 5200
74. Millipede 2600
75. Millipede Arcade
76. Miniature Golf 5200
77. Miniature Golf 2600
78. Missile Command 5200
79. Missile Command 2600
80. Missile Command Arcade
81. Monte Carlo Arcade
82. MotoRodeo 2600
83. Night Driver 2600
84. Off the Wall 2600
85. Outlaw 2600
86. Pong Arcade
87. Pool Shark Arcade
88. Quadrun 2600
89. Race 2600
90. Radar Lock 2600
91. Realsports Baseball 5200
92. Realsports Baseball 2600
93. Realsports Basketball 5200
94. Realsports Basketball 2600
95. Realsports Boxing 2600
96. Realsports Football 5200
97. Realsports Football 2600
98. Realsports Soccer 2600
99. Realsports Tennis 5200
100. Realsports Tennis 2600
101. Realsports Volleyball 5200
102. Realsports Volleyball 2600
103. Red Baron Arcade
104. Return to Haunted House 2600
105. Saboteur 2600
106. Save Mary 2600
107. Sea Battle ™ 2600
108. Secret Quest 2600
109. Sentinel 2600
110. Sky Diver Arcade
111. Sky Diver 2600
112. Slot Machine 2600
113. Slot Racers 2600
114. Space Attack™ 2600
115. Space Duel Arcade
116. Spacewar 2600
117. Sprint Arcade
118. Sprint Master 2600
119. Star Raiders 5200
120. Star Raiders 2600
121. Star Strike™ 2600
122. Starship 2600
123. Steeplechase 2600
124. Stellar Track 2600
125. Street Racer 2600
126. Stunt Cycle 2600
127. Sub Commander 2600
128. Super Baseball 2600
129. Super Breakout 5200
130. Super Breakout 2600
131. Super Breakout Arcade
132. Super Bug Arcade
133. Super Challenge ™ Baseball 2600
134. Super Challenge ™ Football 2600
135. Super Football 2600
136. Surround 2600
137. Sword Fight™ 2600
138. Swordquest: Earthworld 2600
139. Swordquest: Fireworld 2600
140. Swordquest: Waterworld 2600
141. Tempest 2600
142. Tempest Arcade
143. Video Olympics 2600
144. Video Pinball 2600
145. Warlords 2600
146. Warlords Arcade
147. Wizard 2600
148. Xari Arena 5200
149. Yars’ Return 2600
150. Yars’ Revenge 2600
Having this mega collection of games is amazing on its own when you think about the fact that if you played each game for only 30 minutes, you would still be putting in 75 hours into the game! Code Mystics made the Atari Flashback Classics even more ridiculous by adding in online multiplayer as well! That’s right, purchase this collection for your parents or grandparents and watch them smoke you in their generations games! Just turn it around on them and challenge them to a bout in Tekken afterwards to put them back in their place!
Code Mystics has also added a leaderboard for High Scores that can be tracked between yourself and your friends or the whole world. Just watch out for any users named Billy Mitchell that may be on the top.
Just one of the pieces of art you can unlock.
On top of all that goodness, the devs have added 72 achievements for you thrill seekers to go after. Granted some of them are not very difficult, “Scored 100 or more in Frog Pond” was very simple! “Win a game of Pong against the AI without losing a point to it” may be a bit more challenging, the hardest achievement being “Try Every Game.” There is no tracking of which games you have played, so I can see that being specifically time-consuming. Each achievement unlocked gives you a neat piece of art.
When you’re in the main menu, that which is the list of games, you can simply hit the + button and pull up the options for each individual game. This will show you the controls for each game, some will even let you use the touchscreen to play, which is exceptionally helpful with games like Pong. Each game also has special options as well. Feel like the game is too easy? Change it to a harder difficulty! Start with bonus lives! Change the language if you want!! There are even games where you can turn down certain pieces of audio.
There are some games that you may want to play Vertically, there are options to enable this as well! I also want to note that playing on the handheld looks great, as well as going the docked route and playing on your TV. I have a 65 inch 4k tv, and the games didn’t look stretched out or distorted.
Official Trailer:
Final Conclusion:
The Atari Flashback Classics collection is, hands down, the most ambitious collection of games I’ve ever seen. It consists of a library so vast with different styles that anyone can go into it and find a game they enjoy. It may be missing one of the biggest developers and game which was ever made (Namco/Pacman), but the weight of the legacy of the other games makes this collection a must-have for retro game lovers!
A copy of the game was kindly provided for review purposes
Atari Flashback Classics
$39.99
The Good:
- - 150 games to choose from
- - Online multiplayer
- - Each game has many options to alter them
- - Fun achievements
The Bad:
- - Namco is sadly not present
