Maybe it's just because I live in a Pokemon-obsessed house that the idea of Atari Classics Evolved connotes turning Pong into a Venusaur or something similar... Lucky for us there isn't any insidious plot between Atari and Nintendo, but as the Wii gains in popularity, you just never know... The actual content of Atari Classics Evolved is, not surprisingly, a bunch of old Atari games. Both the arcade and home console versions are represented here, along with the "evolved" form of several games. Instead of fooling with gameplay, the evolution in most cases relates to a facelift of each game. The controls are virtually identical, even to the point that they don't feel updated in the least from the original version. The mechanics of playing the evolved version aren't generally any different than the "classic" game. What changed between the old and new is apparently lighting and particle effects, plus game sounds and music.

Some conversions are more successful than others. Playing the classic version of Lunar Lander is a big squint-fest. It's nearly impossible to make out some of the numbers on-screen and until the perspective switches to a close-up view. The screen, like most Atari games, is nice and clean with just the information you absolutely need to make your way through the game. The evolved version is awesome, with nifty indicators on the screen that make Lunar Lander feel more like a lunar flight-sim game. The actual graphics in the game are upgraded quite a bit and things are large enough to make out from the start. Centipede as a classic game versus the upgraded version is a curious study; you'll play both and wonder why they bothered to upgrade at all. Players may not take to the new graphics because of fondness for the old vector graphics. Vector graphics, for those newer gamers, describes a distinct process for rendering computer images that is different than sprite-based graphics. The look of games like Battlezone or Asteroids came from use of vector graphics, which was derived from special hardware. As someone that was there for these games, the rendering of the Atari arcade games on the PSP hardware is good, but still makes me nostalgic for the real thing. The 2600 titles unlocked through achievements in the arcade feel much more at home and credible on PSP visually.

Yes, we had the Magnavox Odyssey when I was a kid, so I'm totally serious about "being there" from the beginning. As cool as the Odyssey was and as much as I can remember games from later in life, I do have some distinct memory of my first Atari experiences. I first remember the Asteroids arcade cabinet as being a little freaky and I remember my cousin being really, really, good at the game. He was an awesome Pac-Man player, too. I was intimidated by the controls on Asteroids because they seemed really complicated... I can remember my first encounter with an Atari 2600 when I went to a sleep-over with a bunch of kids. The hosts, twins named John and Kenny, were all excited to show off their Atari and it was definitely the hit of the party. We played Adventure until well past our bedtime and then John and Kenny's dad ran into the dark room shouting and scared us silly.

Notice how people start waxing nostalgic and telling lots of good-times stories about these Atari games? Atari Classics Evolved plays on that by presenting a host of classic titles in as close to their original glory as possible. Then we get the evolved version of these games to acknowledge that it isn't the late seventies and gaming has... evolved? The games available in both classic and evolved versions include Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Centipede, Millipede, Lunar Lander, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout, Tempest, and Warlords. If you aren't intimately familiar with every title, don't worry about it. Learning to play is as simple as checking out the controls or scanning the manual. If you have to scan the manual, I'm worried about your gaming prowess. Most of us over the age of 25 will have fired up a game of Asteroids or Centipede at one time; others may have spent more or less time on the other arcade classics depending on whether you grew up in a big city or a little town. Playing classic and evolved versions of these arcade games demonstrates why Atari ruled the world at one time.

All collections of classic titles have nostalgia value but many lack compelling reasons for modern gamers to care and stay attached after some brief initial experimentation. What Atari Classics Evolved gets most right is the competitive spark. Multiplayer, where available in specific games, can be launched easily. Facing off with another player is a large part of why the 2600 was elevated to the extent it was, but having wireless multiplayer in a portable package pushes the fun quotient a notch higher. Online multiplayer isn't available, but neither is Jesus out turning loaves to fishes. It would definitely be cool to face off against another player online, but the meat of most of these games is contained in the cart or available in wireless ad-hoc. Playing solo still offers some great challenges and you'll be humbled by how difficult these games are compared to modern fare. Unlocking the 2600 games is accomplished by achieving specific goals in each of the included titles. Forty-four achievements is no mean feat, so don't start salivating over those 2600 games just yet... Atari Classics Evolved does a great job of attaching achievements to the classic games and making them feel new. Multiplayer is a nice feature, but opening up all those Atari 2600 titles after nailing down all 44 achievements is the best part of Atari Classics Evolved.

The old games were completely unforgiving. The best example is Lunar Lander where the slightest error in speed, angle of descent, or touch-down location will result in immediate and violent destruction of your ship. Worth many megabucks, no less! For any game, mastering these games is far from impossible. The greatest irony is that what my friends found challenging but doable in grade school is the kind of stuff that kids today are still so much better at than their adult gaming counterparts. Hand-eye coordination just seems easier at 12 than 32... With some practice, it is more than possible to master these games, since the controls are simple and the action in each game is largely about timing. The goal of unlocking all 44 achievements to gain access to the 2600 library of games provides a steep challenge, but one that gamers old and new will enjoy. Those looking for a relaxing experience need not apply because there are some humdinger titles in the mix on both the arcade and the 2600 side.

Remembering the controls for the Atari 2600, you can imagine that the control schema won't take up much space on the page. A note on the controls is that it would have been nicer for each game to allow a customized control scheme. With so many spare buttons, it's a surprise that this level of flexibility wasn't included. Another area of irritation was the turn-sideways screen used for several games. It's ungainly to try and work the PSP controls with your hand all twisted up, but games like Centipede just wouldn't look right without the change in perspective. Allowing the shoulder button to be used as a trigger might have been an improvement, but the four titles that require you to turn the PSP on its side just aren't as much fun to play as the others. Simple, simple controls are the name of the game here, and trying to play the PSP at a weird angle isn't what we signed up for with an Atari title. Another neat idea that went unused is to have a USB Atari controller compatible with the PSP. This would solve the screen-angle issue since you could set the PSP down on your lap and just use the joystick to make all the magic happen.

The final analysis on Atari Classics Evolved is that there is definitely some magic at work here. The selection of games to begin with includes a lot of quality. The idea of adding achievements and creating evolved versions of these games was pretty smart, but it only works because of good execution. Any fan of the original arcade or home-console Atari titles will be very happy to play through Atari Classics Evolved. The replay value beyond the point where you unlock the 2600 titles is questionable, probably only a reality for die-hard classic gamers that need to get their Yar's Revenge fix periodically. Atari is dead, long live Atari!