Let's be honest here. More often than not Atari collections are a hard sell, usually bloated with primitive Atari 2600 games and a smattering of inferior arcade ports for Atari 5200. The only highlights are usually the typical selection of Atari arcade titles that still hold up today, like Tempest, Black Widow, Millipede, etc. Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration does little to shake up this usual game line-up, but it does recontextualize their inclusion. Instead of putting the games front and center, they're placed in a historical timeline of Atari that spans from its humble beginnings to its hubristic demise and beyond. Also included are instruction manuals, arcade flyers, interviews with former Atari employees and video game industry veterans, and more. Putting these games into their proper historical context elevates even the most primitive 2600 game from outdated junk to historical curio. A lot of praise needs to be given to Digital Eclipse for their flawless emulation as well. It's clear a lot of attention was given to the finer details of this collection. I especially appreciate the decision to give a more modern control scheme to Star Raiders for Atari 5200, the big standout for that system. Other system standouts include the ambitious Solaris for Atari 2600 and Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar. All this is to say that Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is far and away the best Atari game collection to date. Never has a collection shown more respect for the history of its game library. "Collection" may be underselling it. Here the term "Celebration" is indeed more apt.
