Atari 2600: 32 in 1 special

I'm not going to score this cartridge as a whole, since its technically many games in one, but I couldn't do a feature on the Atari 2600 without mentioning it, since some of the best gameplay I've had on the console has been from this cartridge. The game itself was packaged with many European 2600 systems and featured 32 previously released cartridges in 1. Its amazing to think that cartridges with just one of the games featured on here were even sold after playing this.

With other Atari cartridges of the time boasting "66 games" or "27 games" on one cartridge, but really meaning that they had a certain number of interchangeable features, you would be forgiven for thinking that this was one of those type of cartridges. I thought so too at first, booting up the first game - UFO. 16 modes featured in it, and I thought to myself that with a 2 player option maybe they'd decided that made 32 in all. Upon finishing I rebooted the Atari to check something and before me was a completely different game.

While there are some games that don't really impress such as Blackjack and 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, they're easily overlooked for the sheer amount of content on this cart. I'll run through some of the best just to give you a taste for what the 2600 had to offer outside of what I've reviewed. The first game to really impress me on the cartridge was Boxing. With a top down view, its not the most fancy or practical representation of the sport, but it plays smoothly and works well.

Surround is another simple game that plays well, it works just like Tron; you control a snake and attempt to cut your opponent off before you hit a wall or where he's been. There's a lot of fun variations of this featured which is good. Tennis plays incredibly well, with decent hit detection, easy controls and gameplay that far exceeds early tennis titles such as Super Tennis for Sega Master System. 

It's nice that a cartridge like this would even be boxed with the Atari 2600 since its almost a greatest hits featuring a lot of good games. I doubt companies today would be happy with giving away so many good games in this fashion. Overall it makes for a great collection of Atari 2600 which showcases both its talents and its flaws. In the interests of some better Atari 2600 games making it into my top games list, I'm going to score the 3 best games featured on this cartridge below;

Boxing: (1980, Activision) - 

Rating: 35/100

Grade: E

Surround: (1978, Atari)

Rating: 45/100

Grade: D

Tennis: (1981, Activision)

Rating: 51/100

Grade: D