Chris Inglis
Every now and then I will get hit with a pang of nostalgia of seeing a particular game or platform talked about. I will think back to those early gaming days in the 80s and 90s playing the NES and SEGA Master System at friends and cousins houses and sometimes wish I could jump back into those games. Well now I can with Antstream Arcade which launched on Xbox on July 21, and is the world’s largest official retro gaming catalog of games. It comes with a whopping library of over 1300 classic games from platforms such as Amiga, Amstrad, and Atari to NES, SNES, PS1 and more. Retro gaming heaven!
While it is available on Xbox Series X|S for a subscription fee, I had a fair bit of difficulty getting the game installed here in Australia. The amazing people at Stride PR sent me a review key which activated no worries, but the game wasn’t showing in my library of owned games. If I searched in the Microsoft Store, I could purchase the game, but I already had an annual subscription signed up. After a week of searching, I finally found a workaround where I had to change my region to the UK, restart the console, install the game, then set my region back to Australia and away I went.
This is a subscription service, so you do need to be a dedicated fan of the games/platforms on offer. You won’t actually own any of the games, but do have access to so many great titles, earn achievements, complete challenges and participate in tournaments against other players. There are two subscription options for the game – pay annually or pay for a lifetime membership. The annual fee is AU$53.95 and the lifetime pass is AU$143.95, so you’ll really want to love retro games if you don’t have access to the original consoles anymore. This is a convenient all-in-one package, very easy to use and is easy to connect and challenge other players.
At the time of writing this article, there are 1470 games available on Antstream Arcade across 19 platforms and you can see them all listed on the official website. The breakdown of platforms and numbers of games on them is as follows:
Amiga (201)
Amstrad (35)
Arcade (293)
Atari 8-Bit (28)
Atari 2600 (28)
Atari 7800 (11)
C64 (358)
DOS (5)
Game Boy (5)
Atari Lynx (5)
Genesis (57)
MSX (13)
NES (33)
PS1 (2)
SNES (42)
ZX Spectrum (351)
MSX 2 (1)
Atari 5200 (1)
As primarily a DOS gamer, I was a little disappointed to see only 5 games available, but four of them are awesome LucasArts classics of Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Sam & Max Hit the Road and The Dig, with the fifth game being Afterlife which I haven’t played. The biggest platforms supported are the C64, ZX Spectrum, Arcade and Amiga, and browsing through the games list it gave me memories of playing with the A500 Mini last year.
When you select a game, if it is available on multiple platforms, it’s as easy as clicking the console icon at the bottom of the game screen and hitting play. Most games I tested loaded up within 5 seconds, and I didn’t notice any input lag when playing them. I did have a game downloading in the background at one point and I lost input with the controller sticks – only Y and the menu button would work. All other times it played flawlessly and was responsive in the games I tested.
I dove back into memories of playing California Games, Bubble Bobble, Star Wars Arcade and many more. When playing, I felt the Xbox controller was too sensitive depending on the game, like Star Wars Arcade. I also tried games like Winter Games, Strikers 1945, Metal Slug X and more. And given we’re on the release of the new Mortal Kombat 1 game, I just had to play the original Mortal Kombat. Damn Sub Zero is tough!
Overall, there is an impressive volume of games available that will suit many retro gamers, and it’s all conveniently wrapped in a single easy-to-use package. It comes with a hefty subscription price of an annual fee of AU$53.95 or a lifetime pass for AU$143.95, but if you’re a retro game enthusiast, I think the cost is worth the many nostalgia trips to be had.
This review utilised a key provided by Stride PR and Anstream Arcade is available now on Xbox One/Series X|S with more games added regularly, and is coming soon to Steam.
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