It is a great collection as a form of preservation, it acts as a digital museum of not just atari but the story of videogames as a whole, as a museum, it is the best collection of retrogaming ever, it features interviews, documentals and a lot of extras.. but as a playable collection it is... mediocre, it doesnt havea rewinds feature, only one saveslot per game, and many arcade games dont have savestates also it is missing most of the best games on the system as their werte not made by atari.

I had been holding out on this to go on a super sale, but then they announced the Bandai-Namco DLC, & I had to go all in. I'm glad I did. I like the "museum"/documentary aspect of the collection, for sure, and though there is some trash (does anyone genuinely enjoy playing Spring 8, or Basic Math?), there's also a LOT to love! My favs are the arcade version of Crystal Castles, & Missile Command, the console classics Miner 2049er, Caverns of Mars (what a GREAT GAME!), Berzerd, Frenzy & Yars Revenge, & the new/enhanced games. I hope they continue working out publishing deals for more future DLCs because I'd love to have the Atari 800 port of Zaxxon, or the Jaguar port of Aliens vs. Predator! That said, it's a fun collection containing ours of retro gameplay! UPDATE: A year after first purchasing the game, I updated my score to 10/10... I am flabbergasted by the replayability found in this collection. My favorites from the original collection and the various DLCs continually shifts, but no matter what I find myself turning this on at least twice a week, and spending no less than 45 minutes playing it whenever I do. It sure is a good time to be an Atari fan!

The retrospectives are fun and may be almost worth the price of admission, especially as somebody who has played a lot of these games when I was about ten our so. As for the games themselves... well, I really wanted to like them better, but there are a number of issues. * Conspicuous omissions. I now realize why some of the usual suspects (Space Invaders, Defender, Pac Man) aren't included... they weren't originally Atari products, so I guess they can't be bundled here. Still wish I'd realized that ahead of time. * A good portion of the games were originally released for the paddle controller. I'm thinking Super Breakout, Demons to Diamonds, etc; also I believe that Tempest 2000 also had a potentiometer. In any case, the joycon stick is too sensitive. Gradual pressure should gently move the onscreen paddle in Super Breakout. But if I do more than think about the joystick on the switch, the paddle jumps straight across the room. I can see there is a way to change the responsiveness of controls, but it's not immediately clear which (if any) would help here. * Even if the original had a joystick control, I'm walking on eggshells with the joycon stick. The original Atari 2600 joystick was all-or-nothing for each direction. Maybe I just need to get used to it, or maybe I was born too early, but I don't expect the sprite to move unless I have the joycon stick all the way to the N/S/E/W/NE/SE/SW/NW. Otherwise I'm again clear across town when I'm only expecting to go a block or two. I'll pick it up again when I'm bored... meanwhile I welcome any suggestions on how to calibrate the controls, in which case I may change my rating.