Atari Flashback 2 - Save Your Nostalgia
Pros:
Might appeal to those starting out in video games
Cons:
Clunky, messy, all-around horrible games and hardware
The Bottom Line:
Avoid at all costs.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
NOTE - The following is actually a review of the Atari Flashback 2, a product technically not listed on Epinions.com. If the pictures are correct, though, the two products are probably not that different.
The Atari Flashback 2 is marketed as a "classic game console," and indeed contains classic games that purportedly helped define a generation, including Asteroids, Pitfall, and literally dozens of others. It is shaped after the original Atari and comes with two classic one-button joysticks. You don't even need separate cartridges to play. What appears to be a great value on the surface, however, is in truth a sad and futile attempt to revive an old-school sense of fun, no doubt concocted by those who made the Atari system the breakthrough it was in the 70's.
Playing this system instantly reminds you of how far we've come in video games today. In every game, the graphics are so bad and so low in resolution, and the music and sound effects are so clunky, that they make the Nintendo 8-bit console look like a work of genius. The joysticks are hard to control, and the buttons feel funny when you push them. Most of the games themselves are so simple in execution that they feel pointless. At least the 8-bit Nintendo was able to take concepts of American sport, mind exercise, and adventure and turn them into games that still have appeal today, such as Tetris and Metroid. So why are Asteroids and Pitfall considered classic enough to resurrect as such? Ostensibly, it's because they've had their fifteen minutes of fame at one point in our history. Now, they deserve to be buried along with the other thirty-eight corpses on this console.
If I sound bitter, it’s because I received this console as a Christmas gift. I’m 27 years old, and I love video games, a fact that my parents have caught onto only insofar as you can define “video games” to be any game that involves video. I’ve also bought myself an 8-bit Nintendo and a Playstation 1, and have gotten far more fun out of each of those. If you’re thinking about getting this Atari system for your kids, please think first about what kind of standard you’re holding them against. If it’s their first video game system, none of you have a computer, and you’re strapped for cash, it might be a good value. But if any one of these is not the case, you’ll be giving them something they may play for 10 minutes and then leave to gather dust in the corner while they surf the Internet.
