Since I love classic arcade collections, here’s a quick rundown of the games in Atari Classics Evolved for PSP. Since most people here know (or can easily find out) about the old classic arcade titles on this package, we’ll just go over the Evolved versions of these games.

Battlezone
The neat thing about the evolved versions of these arcade classics is that, while they are updated graphically, they didn’t mess with the gameplay at all. All the classic controls and gameplay are very much intact. It’s a good way to ‘play it safe’ but it’s also a testament to how good these old games were. Plus it’s great to be able to pick up and play the new versions without having to figure out any new (and maybe unnecessary) features.

Not much has changed in the evolved form of Battlezone. While the background scenery is a bit more detailed, tanks and obstacles are still polygon outlines. And the graphics are still very, very green in color. I’m not much into 3-D shooters, but I’ll play Battlezone since it’s so simple. Anyone play the 3-D update to Combat that they released on PC a few years back? Or even older, the Activision remake of Battlezone?

Centipede and Millipede
Since these two are so similar, I decided to combine them here. A lot of the evolved versions of the classics on this PSP game are exactly like the ones found on the Xbox Live versions. Except for Centipede and Millipede. The updated ones here are less colorful than the ones on Live. The Live ones have a Geometry Wars vibe to them graphically, and everything changes color after every level, which was one of my favorite things about the old Centipede game. The PSP versions don’t do this. I like the Xbox Live Centipede and Millipede games. I’m almost tempted to buy them. I do like how bug juice splats on the PSP screen when you shoot the critters, though. Speaking of the PSP screen, you have to tilt it on its side to play Centipede and Millipede. But it works fine. And yes I am well aware of the differences in Centipede and Millipede. Millipede’s harder and has more bugs, but otherwise it’s the same. When I was little and we’d go to an arcade or Chuck E. Cheese as a family, my mom would hop straight to the Frogger machine, I’d gravitate towards Pac-Man (of course), and my dad would make a beeline for Centipede. He loved that game!

Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe
While I can tell the differences between Centipede and Millipede, I have a harder time seperating Asteroids and Deluxe. The evolved version of Deluxe just looks like it has a different background. And from what I can tell, these look exactly like the Xbox Live versions. I’d rather play Blasteroids, a late 80’s Asteroids update that was really fun. Anyone ever play it in arcades?

Missile Command
This one I KNOW is like the Xbox Live version, because I’ve played the demo. Anyone ever play the Missile Command update that Hasbro put on the PSOne a long time ago? I thought it was pretty creative even though some of the extra things they added to it made it harder.

Pong
The evolved version of Pong has four tables you can choose from. Ping Pong looks like you’re playing table tennis, but it’s hard because the, well, paddle shaped paddles seem narrower. There’s another that looks and sounds like a pinball table, and it’s easier because the paddles are wider. Next is Air Hockey. You flip the PSP on its side for this one, and it looks like you’re playing one of those modern looking air hockey tables from a first person view. This one’s the easiest to win simply because the CPU misses serves a lot. Last is Neo-Classic, which takes the classic graphics and gives them more background color. Kind of reminds me of what they did with Pac-Man Championship Edition. I’m not too good at Pong. Too bad there’s no paddle controller on the PSP. Anyone ever play the PSOne remake of Pong? I thought that was funny because they gave the paddles personality and character. And some of the modes were pretty creative, like playing Pong to herd sheep, for instance.

Lunar Lander
I’m not as familiar with this game. Didn’t seem too big in arcades when I was little. But then, it doesn’t seem like a very thrilling game either. Just carefully use your limited thrusters to land your craft on the ground without falling too fast and crashing. The evolved version has better graphics that zoom in the closer you get to the ground. And you have HUD meters that tell you how fast you’re going and how close you are to the ground. And that’s pretty much it.

Super Breakout
I was the least impressed with the evolved version of this. You flip the PSP screen to play, but the graphics didn’t look all that much better than the original game. Plus it’s really hard because the paddles are so small. To be honest, I’d rather just play Arkanoid. Just like Pong, there was also a PSOne BreakOut update game, and I thought it was pretty fun and creative, too. It’s also one of the first games that little brother Jeff actually beat and mastered!

Tempest
I was also not very impressed with the evolved version of this. They colored in the ‘holes’ you shoot around, so it’s harder to see the enemies. And graphically and gameplay-wise, I think Tempest 2000 on the Jaguar and Tempest X on the PSOne were better. Heck, I even think Xbox Live’s Space Giraffe is better. The trippy graphics just fit better in those games, while visual effects are strangely absent in the PSP game. I haven’t played the Xbox Live version of Tempest, though.

Warlords
I really like this one! It’s basically four player competitive BreakOut. Each player gets a corner with a breakable wall with a ‘king’ behind it, and a paddle to protect your wall. You lose if a ball hits your king. I like how you can catch the ball and send it out really fast, and it gets really hectic when more than one ball is in play. I wonder how popular this one really was in arcades. The PSP update has a futuristic vibe and look, but I think it would’ve been better with a medieval makeover. Just to give the PSP collection some variety since all the other games look futuristic. I have a PC update of Warlords that Infogrames released a few years ago, and I think it had a medieval theme. Bottom line is, Warlords is fun and I’d probably buy an online Xbox Live version of it if they ever made one.

Atari 2600 Games
In the PSP game, you can get ‘awards’ for the different games that are like Achievements on Xbox 360 games. Some of these are really easy to get, like the ones in Warlords and Pong (‘return a double speed ball’). But some of them are really hard to get. But if you get all awards in all of the games, you get the ultimate unlockable: around 50 or so Atari 2600 games to play on your PSP! Unfortunately, since some of the awards are so hard, I doubt I’ll be getting those games to play anytime soon. But that’s okay because I didn’t really like a lot of Atari’s 2600 games. I mostly preferred Activision’s 2600 titles because they were lots more fun. If you can find Activision Anthology for the PSP or PS2, I highly recommend it. Aside from the PSOne Namco Museums, Activision Anthology is one of the best classic game collections I’ve ever played because of the sheer number of good games and extras.

And that’s pretty much all there is to Atari Classics Evolved. Not the best in the world, but still not too shabby since I got it for less than 20 bucks. And it’s a heck of a lot better than the Atari collection they had on the DS a few years back. If you ever see the DS Atari collection, stay away from it! It’s horrible. There’s another PSP game I want to try when the price goes down called Hot PXL. It’s a collection of mini-games, most with a ‘street urban art’ theme, but some of the mini-games are based on old classic Atari titles.

Even though I have a lot of respect for Atari’s arcade classics, I really don’t have as many fond memories of them as a kid. Sure I was old enough to remember them, but back then I mostly preferred playing Namco’s arcade titles (though most of Namco’s arcade games WERE published in the US by Atari back then). That’s one of the reasons why I’m such a big Namco fan now is because their arcade games pretty much owned my quarters back then. Most of my favorite Atari arcade classics came later in the mid to late 80’s and 90’s. Like Gauntlet, Food Fight, Marble Madness, Blasteroids, Road Blasters, etc. What are YOUR favorite Atari classics?

Tags: Game Reviews