Atari Greatest Hits Volume 2 Review

While the new cartridge offers beloved titles such as such as Yar’s Revenge, Warlords, and Combat, there’s also a noticeable amount of filler. Nearly the entire catalog of diversions in the Mind and Gambling Games are woefully antiquated, containing primitive interpretations of Concentration and Mastermind. Beyond serving as a reminder of how far technology has progressed, it’s doubtful they’ll get a second playthrough from contemporary players. Even the impressionistic winding roads of Night Driver will feel prohibitively rudimentary to anyone who has played a racing game over the last four console generations.

Despite some lackluster games in the 2600 collection, the cartridge is elevated by a solid number of rare, prototype, and homebrew cartridges. From Quadrun– a title whose release was limited to Atari Club members, to Sentinel– an early lightgun game, there’s a pleasing handful of collector curios. There’s also Return to Haunted House, a well-programmed fan-sequel to the 1982 classic, and the appearance of Combat Two, which was only available on the dedicated Atari Flashback 2 console. Yet, Volume 2‘s finest inclusions are its arcade games. Gems like Black Widow, Millipede, and Major Havok are emulated impeccably, reproducing both raster and vector graphics displays admirably; Asteroids Deluxe even recreates the glowing backdrop found in the original arcade cabinet. If anyone is thinking of creating a Vectrex 3D imager compilation for the 3DS- Code Mystics should be the lone choice. Each title on Volume 2 meticulously imitates the look, speed, and aural tone of the original game.

Recycling its predecessor’s tidy interface, Volume 2 generally organizes its games and supplemental content attentively, allowing players to quickly hop into a specific game. The sole exception is the separation of 2600 games and their manuals. It would have been convenient to bring up a game’s instructions in the pause menu, rather than have to quit and jump into the extras submenu. Mirroring the first compilation’s social options, the second volume allows an effortless setup of a local competition via single or multi-card play.

Unlike the first volume, Greatest Hits 2 offers a few curious extras beyond pictures of arcade sheets, cabinets, and marquees. An interview with Nolan Bushnell is insightful, although the volume is perplexingly low. The Atari 400 BASIC language cartridge is also emulated with basic saving and loading functionality.