Atari Flashback Classics

You would be hard-pressed to find a person more in support of preserving old games than me, which is why I love when companies release large and comprehensive collections of their classic titles. But simply rounding up a bunch of old games isn't always enough, which is one of the lessons I learned from Atari Flashback Classics on the Switch. On paper, this massive compilation of 150 old school 8-bit games from arcade and console sounds like a sweet deal. But a lack of proper context and frustrating control problems leave this promising Atari collection hard to recommend.

Atari Flashback Classics is a tempting compilation that digs into the early days of the video game pioneer. The collection features a handful of recognizable arcade games, a few obscure gems and a whole bunch of titles from the Atari 2600 and 5200. With 150 games to choose from, there's no way for me to cover everything, so instead I'm going to look at the package as a whole and focus in on a few of the highlights.

But before I do any of that, it's probably worth mentioning that I didn't grow up with the pre-crash Atari consoles. I started gaming with the Commodore 64 and Nintendo Entertainment System, so the Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800 were dinosaurs by the time I got to them. As a result, I don't have a lot of nostalgia for most of these games. For me, it's less about revisiting games I loved and more about appreciating the choices that were made given the limitations of the hardware.

The games that hold up the best are, without a doubt, the 32 arcade releases that kick off the compilation. I'm talking about genuine classics, like Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, Crystal Castles, Tempest, Warlords and, of course, Pong. There are also a few nice surprises, such as the black and white game Dominos from 1977, a competitive racing game that is still a blast to play some 42 years later. I was also impressed with Space Duel and Maze Invaders, two titles that build onto their respective genres.

There's really a lot to like about the way these arcade games are presented. Each cabinet is given its own artwork, some of which will light up and change as you play through the games. And since a lot of these games incorporate a vertical screen, you can turn the screen on its side when playing in handheld mode. Plus, each of the arcade games allows you to adjust the difficulty, controls and other options.

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Unfortunately, this collection isn't as good about emulating the gameplay as it is the cabinet art. The problem is that a lot of these arcade games used something other than a standard joystick. This was an era where you saw a lot of trackballs and rotary controls, neither of which translate well with the Switch's analog sticks and D-pad. Even after adjusting, it always felt like I was moving too fast and out of control most of the time, which isn't what you want when playing Crystal Castles. It's worth noting that you can also play most of these games using the Switch's touchscreen, though I didn't find that to be much better. In fact, there are times where it made the game feel broken. Your options are either a too responsive analog stick or a touchscreen that isn't responsive enough.

This isn't an issue when it comes to the console side of the compilation, but don't get too excited, because it has its own set of problems. The good news is that the collection offers a diverse selection of genres, with a nice mix of genuine classics and oddities. The bad news is that it doesn't include any of the Activision classics, so don't look for Pitfall or River Raid. Instead we get Adventure I and II, Atari Video Cube, Breakout, both Combat games, Circus Atari, Frogs and Flies, Fatal Run, Human Cannonball, Race, Missile Command, Sea Battle, Super Breakout and both Yars' Revenge and Yars' Return. And trust me, that's just scratching the surface, because I didn't mention the dozens of sports games, casino titles and other odds and ends.

The emulation also comes with a virtual control panel that lets you adjust the switches to change modes, just like the real machine. All of this will feel completely foreign to anybody born after 1990, but there's a whole generation of gamers who sharpened their teeth fiddling with the half dozen switches just to find the two-player mode. Speaking of which, a handful of the games in this package require a second player, so don't go into Atari Flashback Classics expecting to compete against the computer. What's nice is that most of the games in the collection feature online support, though I'm not sure how many random matches of Flag Capture you're going to find.

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Unlike the arcade games, most of the console titles found in this collection work well with the Switch's analog sticks and D-pad. I say most because there are a few games that originally used a number pad, which means cycling through a virtual pad attached to the side of the screen. I'm sure this is fine in handheld mode, but it's a nightmare when playing with a standard controller. There are other similar control issues in individual games, but nothing compared to what we saw in the arcade games.

The real problem most of the console games is that they aren't that much fun to play in 2019. Again, I say that as somebody who doesn't have a lot of nostalgia for these games, but I have to wonder if there are really people excited to revisit Basic Math. It doesn't help that we're given no context for any of these games. Maybe it's too much to ask for when there are 150 games, but a short paragraph explaining the importance would have added a lot to the package. It doesn't even tell us the year. Adding some historical information, instruction manuals and artwork would have gone a long way to help put all these games into the proper context.

Even if you have nostalgia for the 150 arcade and console games found in this collection, Atari Flashback Classics is bound to disappoint. It's a barebones package that lacks a lot of the games that made the Atari 2600 so dominant in the early 1980s. It also lacks any historical information to help put these titles into context. And to make matters worse, it's hard to play many of the arcade games due to frustrating control problems. I love seeing collections like this, but Atari Flashback Classics is only for die-hard fans.