Most kids would cry if you told them to play with this...
Empty your mind and let's go back to the 80's, this is gonna be a retro-trip to the "Stone Age" of gaming since the game we're gonna review it's no other than Activision Anthology.
As weird as it sounds, your present day console will take the role of the good old' Atari 2600.
As its name implies, this game features the games made by Activision on the days of the Atari 2600, such as Pitfall, Chopper Command, Keystone Capers, Barnstorming, River Raid, Freeway, along with rare and unreleased titles like Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space, Dan Kitchen's Tomcat: The F-14 Simulator, and Thwocker.
However there's titles that didn't make it to appear on the list: Double Dragon, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Kung Fu Master, Rampage and Commando. The reason behind this was the licenses, the only lucky one was Commando which appeared on the PS2 due to Capcom's authorization. The game Pete Rose Baseball was renamed as Baseball due to the expire of Pete Rose's license deal.
The controls of each game vary depending on which game you have selected: from a simple basic shooting on River Raid to the complex control of Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space (which turned the whole Atari 2600 console into the shuttle controls back then).
You might be thinking there's no replay value on the games, but there's some unlockable features like badges after accomplishing certain tasks like 1,000,000 points (Easier to do in Laser Blast), the Megamaniac badge 45,000 points in Megamania. There's a story behind this badges, back then when you reached those requirements in your 2600 console, you had to take a photo of your TV screen and send it to Activision to win your badge.
Back to Activision Anthology's unlockables. You can also include game commercials and additional "game modes" like starfield effect, rotating cube, distorted "disco mode" colors to enhance the retro gaming.
Graphically there's not too much to say about Atari 2600's, if we see this games from a veteran gamer perspective i will only say criticize the Atari 2600's graphics is like trying criticize the invention of the wheel, the first invention which lead to a future progress, just like with mankind's first invention, it happens the same with the Atari, the angular stone of what will became the evolution of gaming. Present day gamers and kids will think of them as "prehistoric" or "older than their grandma", you might think "Most kids would cry if you told them to play with this", if you're of those with that line of toughts, you should reconsider it because when you were a child YOU PLAYED with this, and you didn't cry or thought it was prehistoric, you loved those games and you're happy as you sat next to the TV and the Atari for hours.
On the sound department don't ask high quality sound either, since we're talking about the Atari 2600's standards. So you know what to expect: Bloops and "Prrr-rrr-rrr-rr-rr-rrrrr!!" (Pitfall's Tarzan scream), but in a twist of fate, the game includes a few licensed song's from the 80's such as Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It", "Take on Me" by A-Ha, "Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)" by Squeeze, "Mexican Radio" by Wall of Voodoo, among other songs which gives you something more to hear as you play the games. But the licensed music is only on the PS2, PSP and PC versions.
In conclusion, this trip down to "Memory Lane" is only recommended for the retro gamers. Nuff said, "dude".