Review: Atari Legends, vol 1
Score:
68%
Version Reviewed: MMC
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
I’ve been looking forward to this review for a long time. Ever since Nokia and Atari announced they would be releasing N-Gage versions of the classic vector games from the Golden Age of Gaming, I’ve been a touch schizophrenic. Part of me wants to welcome this title with open arms, welcoming perfect game play and mechanics; while the other part of me wants to take it outside and shoot it as an abomination against that self same golden age.
Why such contrasting emotions? Well, I love games, and I especially love the classic arcade games. That’s why I have an Arcade Cabinet in my office. So this entire review basically boils down as to how faithful Nokia have made the games, while ensuring they still have enough bells and whistles to cut it in the mobile world. And that means a head to head test: N-Gage versus Cabinet.
Asteroids was the game to measure. I consider myself to be a pretty good Asteroids player, and many years of playing has acquainted me with the physics. I know how much spin to spin, how much thrust to move, and how much spin and thrust combined to pirouette around an oncoming rock. And you know what?
Atari Legends feels right.
The games in Atari Legends were never designed to have huge complicated plots. The game had to be easy to understand, described in about three sentences, and get you on that learning curve during the very first game. Based around split second reactions, adrenaline and pixel perfect collision detection, these games are going to come as a shock to people who are used to your normal console games, the depth of Nokia plot lines, and games where you’re eased into the action. That’s not the case on any of the Atari Legends games. They are brutal in both their simplicity and unforgiving game play.
On the flip side, it doesn’t take very long to understand what’s gong on with these games, and you can rattle through a game in a few minutes – unless of course you can reach the fabled “zone” and just play and play and play. But that’s not what this title is all about – it’s about getting a quick hit of gaming action when you’re out and about. And in that respect it serves up its requisite course more than adequately.
The big problem is that it’s all too close to the arcade experience. Yes I was praising the game play earlier as being super close, so why complain now? The first thing is that these games were specifically designed for a large, landscape vector monitor, and not the small, portrait design of the N-Gage. Secondly, the pixel depth on the N-Gage means that a lot of these icons are incredibly tiny – the UFO and the small rock in Asteroids are very difficult to make out, so you’re relying on an audio clue that the UFO has appeared.
Asteroids is just one of the games featured. When you first play Atari Legends Vol1, you’ll also have access to Battlezone, Black Widow, Millipede, Missile Command, Red Baron, Super Breakout and Lunar Lander. This isn’t the full range of games, as when you score over a certain level in some of these games, you can unlock other games ported from the Atari 2600 VCS home console, namely Adventure, Surround, Video Chess and the classic Yar’s Revenge.
Everyone has their favourite game from this period, and they’re all pretty well known, so a blow by blow review of each individual game is going to be even more biased than normal. It’s obvious that I’m a big Asteroids fan, having used that to compare the MMC games to the originals, and I’m sure that fans of the other titles are going to find them just as attractive. The developers have done a sterling job.
I’d love to know just how much of the original arcade machine code (if any) is in each game. You still have references to putting coins in and pressing start (which you do as a combined action on the 1 or 2 key depending on the number of players). There’s no standard S60 UI interaction in the game, hitting the soft keys brings you simply to a splash screen. It’s a touch jarring, but the developers are focusing on making sure the arcade experience is as accurate as possible and it largely succeeds.
The controls in the games themselves are a mixed bunch. Nokia made the correct decision to make them the same over every game on the MMC, but that leaves out the fact that each game was originally designed with radically different controls. For example, Missile Command came with a trackball to move your targeting cursor gracefully around the screen. A honking great big d-pad just doesn’t give you enough finesse in a few of the games
As always, the Nokia Arena features in the game, and while a simple ‘upload your high score’ feature may seem a bit weak compared to playing over the air in Worms and Pathway to Glory, it fits in with the style of these games. When you finish a game, you’re offered the chance to upload your score to the Arena High Score Table. But this is the only time that you have this option – I’ve not been able to work out how to upload a high score that you’ve scored when out of coverage, because if you decline the option at the time, that’s it.
Finally, as an extra, there’s an interview video with Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. It’s a nice bonus documentary, but it’s not going to win any prizes for presentation. It’s a static head shot for the length of the documentary, and there’s no fast forwarding or rewinding. Worth watching, but not something you’ll keep coming back to.
Atari Legends isn’t the greatest of N-Gage MMC games when you hold it up against titles like System Rush or Rifts, but for gaming on the go, it’s a perfect mix. The games themselves are time-honoured classics, and play as well as can be expected on the N-Gage. And as the MMC is in the lower price bracket of £15 (much as Catan is) it’s worth looking out for it to buy alongside a full price MMC.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at