The point is clear. Besides Atari fans, just a few ones will like it. Let me tell you why.
- The good stuff:
The emulation of each game is perfect (not a programming miracle), and the conversion will give you a real Atari 2600 feeling. It features the ordinary options: adjust the screen size, choose the difficult and –sometimes- pick up the starting level. The best feature is resuming a game after you've played another one.
The catalogue of games is big -not complete- showing the most successful titles released by Activision back in the 80's. You can also watch the instruction sheet (some kind of txt file) and a poor-quality box for each game.
AHR make efforts in keeping you playing by offering rewards –in some games- for high scores and other goals, such as commercial ads and other stuff waiting to be unlocked.
The OST is a small one, just a few tracks to get the feel of the 80's. You can jump from one song to another, and it can be played while you're in the game. Some of the songs are easily to recognize, but others – if you're not +25- will be something new to your ears.
- The bad stuff (if you're not an Atari fan):
The difficult to unlock the rewards is very high, and sometimes extreme. If you're not a very good player (like me), and don't have a lot of free time to spend practicing (like me), you won't be able to discover all of the secrets (only a few are easy to accomplish). Things don't get better when you realize that sometimes your game skills won't do the trick without luck. Besides, unlocking the commercial ads is senseless considering that all of the video clips are available on internet.
Old games had simple objectives, and this is not the exception. That's why most of these games will entertain you for a short time, and then you may find them boring. Also, two or three games requires a good explanation in order to play it right, and if you want a quick play of something easy the list get a bit smaller. In my personal opinion, only half of the games are really fun. Another thing: using the analog stick in games that requires fast moves may be a little frustrating.
AHR doesn't have an automatic save feature, it's 100% manually. If you exit the game, shut down the console or run out of battery, you will loss your current progress. And it's irritating to have the fortune of unlock something and forget to save the data. Getting an auto-save feature each time you return to the main menu would be very handy. If you're looking to beat records or unlock things, you must load your current progress, so you won't jump on the action instantly (like I said before).
So,
- If you're an Atari fan: Score 9.5, you must buy it.
- If you're not an Atari fan: Score 6.0, rent it first.
By the way, I'm an Atari 2600 die-hard fan. Thanks for reading.