Atari Flashback Classics: Volumes 1 & 2 Review (PS4)

Introduction

Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, developed by Code Mystics and published by Atari, brings old-school gaming to current-gen consoles. Each one offers 50 games; 9 arcade machines and 41 game cartridges, matched with deep settings customization, leaderboards (both local and global), as well as both couch play and online play. Full of nostalgia and a proven history of success, you can now truly dive head first into video games from another era.

You can buy the games for either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

PlayStation Store
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 1 – $19.99
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 2 – $19.99 (link will be updated when added to library)

Xbox Marketplace
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 1 – $19.99 (link will be updated when added to library)
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 2 – $19.99 (link will be updated when added to library)

A blast from the past

The games perform as perfectly as they should with only minor hiccups on rare occasions. The execution of everything on the controller was very well performed, but I did find times when I needed to lower the sensitivity in order to recreate the traditional feeling of the Atari. You can change the sensitivity, game settings (1 player, 2 player, difficulty, scoring style, and more depending on game), and a handful of display and audio settings. Each game is adjusted to its own individual settings meaning one game's sensitivity setting will have no influence on another. Another appreciated feature for the collections, is that after you begin a game, you can back out of it to the menu and immediately pick it back up at a later time by reopening it; almost like an autosave feature that never needs to be manually  reloaded. You can search online for games or simply host one yourself, so bring a friend to compete, or take on the challenge of someone online.

The games include all the original genres, from all the sports games (perhaps too many repeats), racing, horror (Haunted House and Return to Haunted House), to the small ones like Hangman and Checkers. Oh, and there's Pong and Yars' Revenge. You can find the full list of games for each volume below in the article. While my personal video game history truly began on Sega Genisis, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and GameBoy, I found an incredible amount of fun trying everything out after such a long time, or even for the first time. Each one is worth an attempt, especially when frustration for one builds quickly with death. Calling up my dad and hearing his stories as a kid playing the same games I had on my TV today made it all the more special to experience.

The music and sound effects fit just about as you would expect them to. You'll find a ton of the retro laser sounding effects, or noticeably arcade roaring of the racing titles. Nothing ever felt unmatched or poorly implemented into the game, but just as the game allows for settings customization for everything else, you'll be able to mess around with the sound effects and music if they feel unbalanced for your ears. Graphically, it's both accurate and sharp. The developers didn't do a reboot of anything, nor did they change anything from the heart and soul of the games, but everything is brought to greater life with 1080 graphics and bright colors.

Conclusion

There's a lot to love when it comes to these games, if not just for nostalgia reasons or appreciation for how far the video game lifestyle and industry has come. Everything about them has been accurately scanned into the collections, offering true original graphics and gameplay from their releases over 30 years ago (but with slight upgrades to clarity and color brightness), all the way to the scanning of the arcade machines, cartridges, and manual books that you can flip through and read (also teaches controls and objectives of the games). It has a pretty high price for what they are, especially when taken into account that they could have more than easily been put on a single floppy disk, none the less a single disc, but if it's your taste of gaming, you'll find your money goes a long way.