Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Reviews

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is ranked in the 96th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
8 / 10.0
Nov 9, 2022

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.

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80 / 100
Nov 10, 2022

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

9 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is an absolute masterclass in how to fashion a retro compilation, all the while providing both contemporary and older gamers with an immediately accessible and immaculately produced window into the halcyon days of one of the video game industry's most prolific pioneers. This is the preservation of video game history done right and Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is the best retro compilation ever made, bar none.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
10 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

This collection goes above and beyond any other to date. Digital Eclipse continues to outdo themselves with these classic compilations each time. This one sets a bar though that will be nigh impossible to outdo. Not sure what is next on their docket, but I cannot wait to play it. As it stands this collection is a must for anyone who calls video games their hobby. It is absolutely incredible on every level and I spent hours just absorbing all the content here. Sure I would love some DLC (Ultra Vortek anyone?) but what is here is more than worth the price of admission.

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9.5 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

As an interactive timeline and a virtual exhibit, Atari 50 is unparalleled. No other historical collection comes close to how awesome this is as a context-rich story (the only ones that do are also from the same developer). I hope that this style of giving historical context and not just presenting a list of 40-year-old games without any explanation is the trend going forward for packages like this. Even if I'm not chomping at the bit to play some RealSports Football, I'm thrilled that I now know its place in the grand history of Atari.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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8 / 10
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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85 / 100
Nov 11, 2022

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

Metro GameCentral
GameCentral
Top Critic
8 / 10
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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Cubed3
Athanasios
Top Critic
9 / 10
Nov 11, 2022

This is not a collection of fantastic games, but a fantastic history lesson about gaming's most important company. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is a journey that begins from the distant '70s, with Pong and the 2600, goes through the 7800 and Jaguar eras, and actually concludes… today, as besides all the classic titles, small documentary-like videos, and so on, this even includes reimagined titles, plus unreleased prototypes - and more. Digital Eclipse crafted a rightful tribute to a legendary pioneer.

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Unscored
Nov 11, 2022

Can you imagine a company like Nintendo being so open and honest as we see the participants in this project being? I somehow doubt it, as fascinating as a Nintendo equivalent of Atari 50 would surely be. So for now we’ll have to enjoy Atari 50 as a standout, exemplary title that shows everyone else how interactive video game history and preservation should be done. Perhaps one day some other big players in the space will be open to letting us into their archives in the same way.

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8.7 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

As a long-time gamer who's stuck in the past, I must say that Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is one of the best compilations ever produced. From its expansive museums to its wide variety of classic games and hidden gems, it really is the cat's pajamas.

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8.5 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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

8 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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8.5 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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.

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7.8 / 10.0
Nov 11, 2022

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!

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A
Nov 11, 2022

To say that the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is jam packed with content is an understatement. Atari and Digital Eclipse really did a great job with this release and you can tell a lot of work went into making it. Despite some of the odd game choices and the inclusion of terrible Atari XE games this is a fantastic collection overall and should not be missed by anyone.

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8 / 10
Nov 13, 2022

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.

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