E3 2018: Hands On with Atari Flashback Collection for Switch
The first two volumes have already been released onto other
platforms, with the third coming later in the year, with each containing 50
games, for the Atari Flashback Collection on Switch, it contains all 150 games.
The collection is a mix of titles from the arcade, the 2600 and 5200, but while
some games are only from one source, some games were remade for all, so
something like Centipede will be on there three times, one from each platform.
The collection will also include some games that were never released before,
like Holy Moley, which is a whack-a-mole type game and the classic sports games
as well.
The well-known games, like Missile Command are here, but
some M-Network games are also here, with Atari making a deal with Mattel to
bring those games to the collection, like Astroblast. The collection also
includes all three released Swordquest games, Earthworld, Fireworld and
Waterworld, the latter of which has no relation to the movie or stuntshow.
Perhaps one of the coolest unreleased games that is coming to the collection is
Sword Fight, which when you start to play it, you can see why it was unreleased,
not because it was bad, but was clearly a lightsabre battle game.
When playing any of the Arcade titles, you will notice that
the boarder of the game is that of the original arcade cabinet, but that is not
all. Some games support touch screen, so any arcade game that used a trackball,
you can use the touch screen to simulate it, but if you don’t you can just use
the thumbstick or even the d-pad. Any arcade game that was released in portrait
mode, will also support the same visual layout here, so if you wanted to play
it that way, you can do it as well. A small touch that most people won’t worry
about at all, is that each of the Arcade games, comes with a picture of the
machine, so you can see if it was standing cabinet or a tabletop cabinet. All
of the home console games also come included with a digital copy of their instruction
booklet, so fans who enjoy reading those, will be happy.
The collection comes with 150 titles, only 36 of them are single
player based, the remaining games all contain some form of multiplayer, be it
one at a time or all at once, some games even have online multiplayer. Games
that have scores, you can post them to online leaderboards, to boast that you
scored the best score in that particular game, helping you relive that arcade
bragging moment. Looking through the menu at all the games, was quite daunting,
150 titles will make anyone stop and think, but the game does not have, at
least right now, the ability to show only a single platform. They are sorted
that you get all Arcade first, then the rest are just shown alphabetically, but
it is not known if there will be an option to show only a single platform.
The games look just as they did back in the day and they
sound just as they did as well, the strangest part is that hearing the chiptune
sound effects, coming from the Switch, it was something that made me chuckle. The
collection supports save states, so no need to worry if you need to quit out of
the game, it will just save your progress, so when you go back to it, you can
pick up where you left off.
If there was a single thing that I could feel was a bit
pointless in the collection, it would be the addition of the basic math games,
yes, there are games included that teach you how to add and subtract and such.
It is nice to include them yes, but I don’t think people would have rioted if
they were not included in the collection.
The collection will give a massive amount of nostalgia for
Atari fans and those who want it, only need to wait until October to add it to
their collection.
Luke Henderson
