Growing up in the late 90s and 2000s meant a lot of weird things were happening in video games. Yes, consoles were all the rage, but you could play games on your TV in other ways too. A popular one in my house was the plug-and-play system that would go into your TV and allow you to play retro games. Our favorite growing up was the Atari system, which offered a great collection of titles. Plenty of Atari game collections have been compiled but Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is the best for the company, and possibly of all game anthologies to date.

Digital Eclipse, the team who put together the incredible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cowabunga Collection earlier this year, is back at it again for Atari 50. The studio delivers an experience that should be the standard moving forward for game collections. Atari 50 takes players on an interactive journey through 50 years of video games, including a specially-curated list of more than 100 playable classics and six entirely new titles. Rather than just give you a selection screen, however, Atari 50 does something really dynamic with their presentation of these titles.

You can explore the games by scrolling through a standard timeline, or you can explore the Interactive Timelines. These combine trivia, all-new interviews with the original developers and industry leaders, and playable games into one singular experience. With titles across the Atari Jaguar and Lynx platforms, 8-bit computers, and 7800, 5200, and 2600 consoles. It’s like an interactive documentary with so much to explore for diehard Atari fans and newcomers who are curious about a key company in gaming history.

Exploring these games uncovers some real gems and even a few titles I’ll never play again. For any title in this collection, I’m grateful to have access to it in a way that makes it so accessible and inventive to explore decades of gaming history. If you consider yourself a fan of these retro titles that came before you, it’s hard to imagine a better way of experiencing them coming along. There’s so much value in the preservation of these titles in a nice little package – at $40 USD nonetheless.

While some of the limitations of the collection come down to the game library and popular Atari console games not actually being made by Atari, it’s a small criticism for a great collection. The immersive way that Atari invites players back into its vaults is something I can’t imagine many other companies doing. Not to mention, the rich history is presented so passionately that you feel inspired all over again by games we know like the back of our hands.

For the price point, the presentation, and the sheer precision with which Digital Eclipse delivered such a player-friendly collection, this game cannot be passed up by retro game lovers. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is available now on Windows PC via Steam and GOG, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4|5, and Xbox One, Series X|S, and will launch soon on Atari VCS. Let us know down below if you get a chance to check it out!

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