The very best museum I’ve ever performed.
No matter whether or not you grew up with an Atari 2600 or have been born and raised in a world the place Atari was historic historical past, the influence of the corporate on video video games, particularly within the West, is immense. Possibly you could possibly make the argument that another person would have carried the torch, but when not for Atari, video video games as we all know them wouldn’t exist. That historical past is what makes the brand new online game assortment Atari 50 fascinating. Celebrating the corporate’s fiftieth anniversary, it options greater than 80 video games, primarily from the Nineteen Eighties, that assist inform the story of Atari’s rise and fall. The video games themselves may not have aged effectively, however the bundle they’re in is fascinating, providing up attention-grabbing and related context for why these video games mattered and what their legacy is.
From the leap, Atari 50 presents its major focus as a museum exhibit or interactive documentary. You aren’t delivered to the record of playable video games; as an alternative you’re delivered to an inventory of 5 timelines that inform the story of Atari, from arcade origins to ‘90s flameout. The meat of this bundle is that story. The timelines are partaking, filled with field artwork, ads, and extra visuals. Additionally they will let you instantly play a recreation being mentioned and while you’re executed, you may return proper again to the place you have been within the timeline. The best half to me although is the number of interviews with Atari luminaries starting from Yars’ Revenge creator Howard Scott Warshaw to Swordquest creator Tod Frye. Their tales are fascinating, filled with nice anecdotes and amusing quotes. My private favourite video is the one about dispelling (or proving) the parable that every one the Atari devs did medication. However except for that bit, it’s additionally cool seeing Warshaw and Frye element the origins of their best-known works.
Atari 50 is precisely what I hoped for in that I left my expertise with this recreation having a fuller image of what Atari was and why it issues. I’ve a larger appreciation for the trailblazing nature of the corporate. If this was a recreation that simply had a port of the 1982 recreation Journey, I’d in all probability roll my eyes and never hassle. As a substitute, it gives the context for why Journey is vastly influential and allowed me to higher admire this good outdated recreation that Nintendo followers may label as a proto-Zelda.
Apart from the ‘80s ambition and the information of how groundbreaking a few of these video games have been, I don’t suppose plenty of them are all that good in 2022. In case you have nostalgia for these video games, you then’ll be in heaven as a result of that is the very best they’ve ever performed since they got here out. It’s neat taking part in Asteroids, Centipede, and Basketbrawl, however they’re extra curiosities than something I’m going to sink hours into. Even a few of the ‘90s video games on Atari’s handheld Lynx and last residence console Jaguar aren’t terribly nice. Atari Karts is a cute kart racer, Ninja Golf is an outrageous idea, and Cybermorph is a neat shooter, however total it’s a smattering of video games which can be extra attention-grabbing than they’re good.
The very best a part of the sport choice are the handful of Reimagined titles which can be newly created for this assortment. Vctr Sctr is a loving pastiche of Atari’s vector graphics video games, which incorporates the one actual reference to Battlezone. If you happen to don’t know, Battlezone is a basic Atari recreation that sadly isn’t current right here as a result of one other firm owns the rights. The licensing points truly stop a handful of notable video games from displaying up right here. One other Reimagined recreation is Haunted Homes, a voxel rendition of the early survival horror recreation that’s extremely enjoyable to fiddle with. SwordQuest: Airworld is the deliberate fourth recreation within the collection that was by no means made however the crew at Digital Eclipse used notes from 40 years in the past to make the top of the quadrilogy. Yars’ Revenge Enhanced reveals the standard of the unique as a result of all it’s is a contemporary coat of paint on the sport with out every other adjustments. On the whole, the Reimagined video games are very good at taking the very best ideas of the dated older video games and making them completely sing within the twenty first century.
As an interactive timeline and a digital exhibit, Atari 50 is unparalleled. No different historic assortment comes near how superior that is as a context-rich story (the one ones that do are additionally from the identical developer). I hope that this model of giving historic context and never simply presenting an inventory of 40-year-old video games with none rationalization is the development going ahead for packages like this. Even when I’m not chomping on the bit to play some RealSports Soccer, I’m thrilled that I now know its place within the grand historical past of Atari.
