I'd highly recommend Activision Anthology to any serious gamer.
Activision Anthology is a compilation of over 45 Atari 2600 games. Most of which were made by Activision, but a few were made by Imagic, which Activision got the rights to. Imagic was the second-largest 3rd party developer back in the Atari days (behind Activision of course). They went out of business during the crash of 1983. But they produced some very unique games back then, both in terms of visuals and gameplay, and the Imagic games are some of the most unique games in this collection, so they're a really nice addition.
The games are all perfectly emulated, and play very well with the PS2 controller. The left analog stick acts as the joystick. The X button represents the single button on the original Atari controller. The shoulder buttons change the game mode, select is reset (which starts most games). Triangle changes the video mode from color to black & white, which is pretty worthless but it was a feature in the originals.
Quality-wise, the games are a bit of a mixed bag. A surprisingly large number of these games are still fun to play. They're simple, using only the analog stick and one button, but many of them are still tons of fun, and some of them are surprisingly complex for their time. However, a lot of the games are also either too easy, too hard, too confusing or just plain boring in my opinion. But the good games definitely are worth checking out. Here's my personal Top 10 favorite games in the collection, in order, and with a quick review of each game.
10: Plaque Attack: Not just the best name in the collection, but one of the best games. It's a shooter, kinda like Space Invaders, except you can move up and down as well as side to side, and you can shoot both up and down. It takes place inside a human mouth, and you play as a tube of toothpaste, shooting at food. You have to protect the teeth, because they give you more points.
9: Boxing: A straightforward boxing game, but it's actually surprisingly fun. It's a top down view. You move with the joystick, and punch with the button. It's based on timing and positioning. Your goal is to hit as many punches as possible on your opponent, while avoiding your opponent's punches. It's actually pretty addictive.
8: Stampede: You play as a cowboy, in a stampede of cattle. Your goal is to rope the cattle, without letting any cattle get behind you. This means that the faster the cattle is running, the easier they actually are to catch. There are four kinds of cattle. Fast, medium, slow, and dead. The dead cattle are the hardest to rope because you run past them so fast, but they give you the most points. The game ends when you let three cows pass you. It's simple, but fun and challenging.
7: KABOOM!: You control a stack of three buckets. At the top of the screen is a mean criminal that throws bombs down the screen. You have to catch the bombs in the bucket. If you catch a bunch of them in a row, the bombs fall faster. If you miss one bomb, they all explode and you lose a bucket, and you get smaller because one of your buckets disappears, making it even harder. Lose all three buckets and it's game over. This game usually lasts just a few seconds, so it's good for playing when you're in a hurry. A definite classic.
6: Chopper Command: Basically a clone of Defender. You play as a helicopter in a desert-like setting, with trucks on the bottom of the screen and enemy planes and choppers trying to destroy the trucks. You get points by shooting the enemies, and when you finish off a "wave" of enemies, you get points based on how many trucks are still alive. Defender was a classic, and this is great too.
5: Seaquest: As first glance, Seaquest looks like a very basic game, but it's actually more complex than you think. You play as a submarine, and your goal is to shoot enemies and collect swimmers underwater. Once you collect 6 swimmers and go to the surface, you collect points and go on to the next level, where the enemies are faster and more plentiful. There are fish which kill you and also make the swimmers go faster, making them harder to catch. There are also enemy submarines that shoot, they're difficult to avoid. All this is going on while you have an oxygen meter that constantly depletes. You have to replenish it by going to the surface, but when you do that, you lose one of your swimmers. If you try to surface when you aren't holding any swimmers, you'll die instantly. There's also another submarine that just goes along the surface, and if you're on the surface when it goes by, it'll kill you, so there's a lot of stuff that keeps you on your toes. It's fun, and pretty addictive.
4: Pitfall!: Probably the most well-known game in this collection, and rightfully so. One of the first platformers ever made, Pitfall was the precursor to Super Mario Bros. It's still a fun game today. You basically move to the right, collecting points and jumping over obstacles. There's a good variety of obstacles to avoid. It's a pretty deep game for Atari, and it has a level of charm that was rare for its day.
3: River Raid: River Raid is a vertical scrolling shooter. You play as a plane, flying over a river. There are enemy planes, helicopters, and aircraft carriers which you have to shoot. Your fuel also runs out, so you have to fly onto fuel tanks to replenish it. When your fuel is full, you can also shoot the fuel tanks for points. There are also bridges you have to shoot out. If you touch an enemy, obviously you'll die, as well as if you touch the sides of the river terrain. There are some tight spots in the terrain that force you to squeeze through small parts of river, that's probably the most challenging part of the game. This is such a fun game. I love it. It's so fun blasting enemies.
2: Megamania: The gameplay is pure Space Invaders but with a twist. You move to the left and right along the bottom of the screen, and shoot up at the enemy. What sets Megamania apart though, is the variety of enemies and the downright weird attack patterns they use. Sometimes they fly to the left and right, sometimes they fall straight down Astrosmash-style, sometimes they move both down and to the side in weird patterns. If you touch an enemy or one of their bullets, you'll lose a life. It's basically that simple, but it's just so much fun. If you ask me, this is the best game ever to use the Space Invaders gameplay. There are a lot of those in this collection because Space Invaders was really the big game back then, but this one is the best in my opinion. It's so fun, yet weird and addictive at the same time.
1: H.E.R.O.: My vote for the best game in this collection goes to H.E.R.O. It's an action game where you control a military-type person who can shoot lasers out of his eyes, drop bombs, and fly with a helicopter pack. The controls work really well. Left and right moves you, holding up lets you use your helicopter pack, hover for a second, then fly up. Pressing down drops a bomb, be sure to get out of the way before it goes off. The button shoots lasers. Your goal is to get to the end of the level and save the humans, who are being held hostage by strange creatures. Then you move on to the next level, which is longer, harder and more confusing. There appears to be a lot of paths you can take through the level, but there are a lot of dead ends which you have to navigate. There are also walls which you have to blow away using your bombs. There's a lot of obstacles you have to navigate, and they get very challenging very quickly. H.E.R.O. is addictive, it's fun, it's easy to pick up and deep at the same time. By Atari 2600 standards, it's an amazing action game, and it even holds up pretty well today.
So those are my favorite games in the collection, but they aren't the only good ones. There are others worth checking out as well. So there's more than enough good games here to make it worthwhile. But this isn't just a collection of games. Activision thought of a lot of great things to add. For example, the menus are basically an '80s bedroom, which is really cool. You can view the box art and manuals for every single game, and most of the games have unlockables including high score patches, viewing modes which are pretty much worthless, except for the motion blur which actually lends a nice sense of speed to some games. The best unlockables by far are the original TV commercials, which are great.
As far as the graphics go, obviously it's Atari, so these games look extremely primitive. But anyone who would care about that doesn't really like video games in my opinion. Most of them are still fun to play, and that's what matters. Plus, for what it's worth, a lot of these games looked very impressive for their time. The sound is definitely a big source of nostalgia. While some of the games have little or no sound, most of them actually have pretty good sounds for such old games. They also included some '80s tunes which add to the atmosphere. Although some of the songs annoy me, a lot of them are quite catchy. I just wish you could change songs during gameplay without having to exit your game and go to the menu. Of course, if the songs aren't your thing, you can disable them and just listen to the games. Either way, it's a nice inclusion.
Overall, Activision Anthology is a great compilation. While not all of the games have withstood the test of time, a large number of them have, and are still fun to play today. Activision was the undisputed king of 3rd party developers back then for a reason. They made kickass games. The games here emulated perfectly. They also added so much extra content that it really immerses you in the whole experience, making it a real trip down memory lane, rather than just a collection of games. In the end, I'd highly recommend Activision Anthology to any serious gamer. If you have any interest in this game whatsoever, don't hesitate any longer. Track down this game and play it. It's definitely worth it.
Scoring:
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Sound: 8
Value: 10
Tilt: 10
Overall Score: 8.6