Posts tagged iPad

It’s hard to imagine how far technology has come in the space of a generation, even IT journalists in their late 20′s (yo) can remember back to when games were more about the gameplay than the actual graphics or storyline.

I never owned an Atari, we were a Commodore64 household, but I can appreciate the simplicity involved with games of this era.  Game manufacturers didn’t have GHz of processing power or even Megabytes of memory to work with, the games had to be simple and imagination was key to getting the best from your gaming experience.

These days things are a lot different, we’ve got ultra-realistic graphics based upon motion capture models, Hollywood voice actors and teams of writers coming up with characters and back stories.  But does all this make for good gameplay?  Atari think that there’s a place for classic games such as Missile Command in todays society, and after playing their Greatest Hits app on the iPad, I tend to agree.

Free or not Free?

I’m going to kick off this review by addressing the biggest complaint that people seem to have with this app (at least according to the iTunes reviews); price.

The app itself is free to download, and with the download you get access to one playable game, Pong.  Above and beyond that, all other games (all 99 of them) are in app purchases, you can buy them in packs for small amounts, or shell out £8.99 for the whole lot.

A lot of people seem to be unhappy with this decision, I’m not sure that they’d mind paying for the app (though maybe £8.99 is a little steep) but they seem to object to the idea of downloading the app and then paying for additional content.  It’s not a decision by Atari that I agree with, I’d have much rather seen the app appear as a “paid for” game with all 100 games present and correct, clearly this is a marketing decision on Atari’s part, but I’m not sure it’s going to get them the result they’re after.

Perhaps if the whole lot was available for, say, £4.99 then people would know where they stand and the reviews on iTunes would be more positive, and actually relevant.

Anyway, enough about price, lets take a look at the app itself.

App Interface

Upon loading the app you’re greeted to a carousel menu screen with 18 classic Atari arcade machines, these feature games such as Missile Command, Super Breakout, Asteroids and Centipede.  Touch the joystick icon at the bottom and you’ll switch to a different carousel showing the included Atari 2600 games, all 82 of them if our maths is right.  The interface itself is fluid and perfectly fine, it’s a great decision to include the original box artwork for the games rather than screenshots or icons, it really adds to the nostalgic feel of the app.

You also have a settings menu available via a button in the bottom right, which is good because the music playing on the main menu is annoying after a while.  As well as that there’s a list menu available for when you just can’t find a game via the carousels.

The only problem we had was with the in app purchase system which kept failing to download the whole set at once.  The purchase had registered though and we had no problems downloading game packs individually.

Gameplay.

It would be impossible for us to review every single title here (well, not really, but we’re not going to) so we’ll just give an overview of our gaming experience.

Atari have stuck ruthlessly to the originals in every sense possible, the 18 game cabinets brought back a whole ton of memories and each and every game is just as the original was.  Right down to the control systems which replicate the original controls of the arcade machines.  That being said, some of the controls (such as with Missile Command, which had a trackball) don’t transfer so well and took a little getting used to.  We were flying after a few goes though and were blasting away like there was no tomorrow.

As well as this, where appropriate Atari have included 2-player modes, with either both users working on one iPad, or via Bluetooth where there isn’t enough screen space.  We only had one iPad to work with, so we couldn’t test the latter, but two players on one iPad works well for games such as Pong.

The fun doesn’t stop there either, we’ve spent the last few days casually playing along with Asteroids, Super Breakout, Centipede, Gravitar, Lunar Lander – and that’s just the arcade machines.  We’ve also got over 80 classic Atari 2600 games to play around with.

I must admit, the 2600 games aren’t really my cup of tea.  There’s nothing wrong with them, it’s just I never had an Atari at home, so I guess I’m missing that link to my childhood that so many purchasers of this app must be experiencing.  If I look at it completely objectively then the games were less enjoyable for me than the cabinet based ones.  Obviously the graphics were of a lower level still, and I did find some of the games a little tedious.  But is that just down to this generation being spoilt when it comes to video games?

Each of the 2600 titles comes with the original manual, accessible via the game menu, which was essential for me as, with some of the games at least, I had no basis for knowing what the heck I was meant to be doing.  The only downside was that the app menu only operates in portrait mode, which meant that reading the manuals was a bit of a pain.  It would have been easier if Atari had allowed the menu to operate in landscape mode as well so that the manuals made better use of the screen space.

It’s a nice touch that the manuals seem to be scans of the originals, it adds to the nostalgic feel which echoes throughout this whole app.  Every single thing about it is designed to bring gaming experiences from the 80′s into the 21st century and onto your iPad.  It does this well and, control issues aside, this is a fantastic representation of the originals in almost every way.

Conclusions.

We legitimately had fun playing these games, especially the arcade versions, and even more so the ones that were two player.  Atari have got the look and feel of the app, and the gameplay, spot on.  It’s hard to imagine anything that could have been done differently (except for the landscape menu system mentioned above).

The only downside to this whole package is the pricing structure.  It is clearly marked on the App Store that the free version includes only one game, and the in-app purchase prices are also clearly labelled, but perhaps it would have been a better decision to sell the app to start with for, say, a fiver.  Not only would this have simplified things no end, but it would have likely given the app some more positive reviews on the App Store.

That being said, not everyone will want to purchase the 2600 games, we probably wouldn’t, so perhaps the pricing strategy that Atari have gone with is the correct one.  We’re certainly in agreement that we would happily shell out a couple of quid for a version which included only the arcade machines, whether we would purchase the other 80-something games we’re not so sure about.

Overall, if you’re a fan of retro gaming, buy the whole lot; you’ll love it.  In the end, it’s  up to you though, the pricing structure allows for you to purchase only the specific games that you’re interested in, which is probably what Atari were aiming for in the first place.

Final Score: 7/10