Atari Classics Evolved (PSP)

The phrase "you had to be there" is an appropriate remark when talking about the good old days of arcade gaming. Big-haired teens would crowd around game cabinets and plunk quarter after quarter into them, spending hours reaching for those elusive high scores and the chance to plaster their initials at the top of the screen. If you're looking to relive the past--or simply wondering what all the fuss was about--Atari Classics Evolved isn't the best time-traveling portal at your disposal. In some cases, classic gameplay has been hampered by mediocre controls, while few of the visually updated "evolved" versions are worth the space they take up on the disc.

You might be taken in by the box's promise to let you unlock more than 50 Atari 2600 games in addition to the 11 arcade ports included, which makes this $19 collection sound like a fantastic deal. However, unless you're a power gamer who intends to master every graphically enhanced game in the collection, you will be sorely disappointed. Each game comes with four different awards to unlock, such as gaining a bonus life without losing a life in Battlezone, or winning a game of Pong without allowing your opponent to score. You have to unlock every single one of these awards to gain access to the Atari 2600 extras. Considering the inherent difficulty in achieving them (Asteroids Deluxe, we're looking squarely at you)--and the fact that you have to suffer through the usually inferior version to do so--most casual players will never gain access to many of these landmark titles. It's too bad Atari didn't take the less punishing and more logical approach of letting players gradually unlock these extras; after all, shouldn't everyone play Yar's Revenge at least once in their lifetime?

Too. Many. Particles!