Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Reviews
Your outlook on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is going to depend on your perspective. As a historical document, it chronicles Atari as a company but still seems focused on the 2600 and old arcade stuff above all else. As a game compilation, it still feels lacking in the latter half of the company's game history, as some of the more interesting titles from the 7800 era onward aren't here; one can argue that the company's output at the time doesn't make the job any easier, though. There are certainly enough curios to keep existing owners of Atari Vault interested thanks to the presence of new titles here, but it could've used more curation to make it an item that's worth celebrating.
Atari 50 is... an anniversary celebration of the Atari brand and... is a must-own for retro enthusiasts, gaming historians, and anyone interested in learning about the video game industry’s infancy stages!
Due to the fact some classic and amazing arcade games are missing from Atari 50 I can only award it the Thumb Culture Gold Award. Hopefully, some future deals can be achieved to help bring them to this title and make it the ultimate Atari compendium!
An interactive history lesson, packaged with a multi-system retro collection, which makes for an interestingly nostalgic celebration.
The team at Digital Eclipse has done some of their finest work with Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration. Creating a collection that could quite easily be translated into a museum exhibit, they’ve set a new standard for the presentation of retro collections, one I hope future collections will follow. While ultimately held back from being the ultimate Atari package, it could have been by holes in the game lineup, Atari 50 is still a fantastic experience. It’s just one that all but the most die-hard Atari faithful will enjoy for a few afternoons before moving on. Still, even those who have never held an Atari joystick could benefit from those few afternoon sessions as they take a crash course through a fascinating history.
As an archival effort, Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is, indeed, a joyous effort. In fact, it's arguable that this is the best that Atari has put out in recent years. The historical timeline alone is a pristine and impressive feature, as only developer Digital Eclipse can make it. And while the game selection has plenty of pitfalls, pun intended, there is enough to go around, both for classics as well as rare items.
As an interactive museum exhibit, Atari 50 is quite successful. As a labor of love, it’s filled to the brim. Whether it transcends “well-crafted curiosity” status? That’ll depend on your nostalgia.
Like any retro game collection, how much you get out of Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is largely limited by your appreciation of its games. There are a lot here, and it’s safe to say that the majority of them didn’t really hold our interest. There are some classics that remain very playable though, and some were worth returning to just for a hit of nostalgia. The real reason to pick this up, though, is its wealth of museum-like content, as well as its new, reimagined takes on some popular titles. They make this a retro collection like no other.
Final Thoughts: Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a monument to the gaming industry, and with new titles is an easy recommend for Atari and Video Game history fans.
More than a compilation, this is better described as a virtual museum with more than 90 games to play with. An ode to the history of Atari and a game collectors must have in their libraries.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
That it's called 'The Anniversary Celebration' rather than 'collection' is a substitution of phrases that couldn't be more apt. With its smooth, fast, and perfectly-pitched interface, and rich, thoughtfully created content, Atari 50 really is an honouring of the company that founded the industry. It's true that its content is going to have a greater appeal to an older generation of gamers, to today's parents (and grandparents) who grew up in the whirlwind of the '70s and '80s arcade scene. For them, reliving moments and experiences that used to cost a pocketful of coins will be joyful. For others, understanding the appeal of a lot of these games will take work, and few of the titles outside of the Lynx and Jaguar catalogues are easy to pick up and play for the uninitiated. At the same time, Atari 50 is so thorough and engrossing a retro gaming tunnel, akin to exploring a virtual museum, that it transcends its target audience somewhat. For those interested in video gaming's history, the unearthing of the past, and for gamers not afraid of what today is considered rudimentary, there's a great deal of enjoyment to be had in this trip down memory lane.
While many of the included games may border on unplayable from a modern perspective, the painstaking attention to detail in Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is extremely easy to appreciate. The museum-like carousel of content, from interviews through to original artwork, is presented so handsomely that you can't not get swept up in Atari's dramatic story. And the fact that there over 100 of the company's most famous titles, emulated excellently with their original instruction manuals available to pore over, adds playable context to a lot of the content. This is just an impressive overall experience that will appeal to those who lived through the rise (and fall) of Atari, as well as younger players eager to learn a little more about one of the industry's true pioneers.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration offers a lot, but the shadow of a legendary brand like Atari pushes to demand even more. The absence of Atari Games' historic coin-ops along with many of the more distinctive home machine games weighs heavily, but the new games created by Digital Eclipse somehow manage to save the party. As a work of preservation and divulgation, however, it plays in a league of its own that is really hard to approach.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Fifty years is a long old time to remain even slightly relevant in the games industry, and whilst this package probably wont win too many new fans, it gives retro fans a great walk down memory lane.
More than just a retro compilation, this is a fascinating attempt to create an interactive history of Atari, that goes above and beyond in terms of trawling the archives and creating new remakes.
I know I’ve said time and time again that “game x” is a love letter to “franchise y”, to a nearly exhaustive degree, but Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is just something else. It’s a worthy celebration of one of the most important companies not in gaming’s history, but technology history in general. Hell, maybe even the 20th century as a whole. The sheer amount of games included in it, both old and new, would already make this collection worth checking out for a retro enthusiast, but the tons of extras, namely footage from the 70s and modern interviews with Atari alumni and celebrity fans, result in this almost becoming a playable documentary.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is not a simple collection, which takes advantage of a commemorative brand to earn a few bucks with old and reheated titles. What we have here is an exhibition that is nothing short of a real museum: we have classic works, testimonials from the creators, curiosities and openings for new interpretations. This is the model of how every celebratory work should be.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, manages to transcend the aura of a mere compilation, becoming a great "playable documentary". It is a historical test, recommended for everyone who wants to know what the world of games was like in the distant past.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a compilation that lives up to the Atari legend. 103 games from up to 7 different platforms -plus a few surprises from the developers- that cover the history of the legendary company from its origins to the present, and all with an incredible presentation.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A wonderful way to celebrate Atari's history, with plenty of information and lots of games to play and re-discover.
Review in Italian | Read full review