Normally when I play a collection game the 2 main factors are "are the games good" and "how much do they preserve manuals, design notes, etc." I recognize Activision games are the best Atari games, but they're still Atari 2600 games, completely blown out by anything NES or later. Not much in terms of dev history either. What makes this collection neat is having a licensed 80s soundtrack. Enhances the experience a fair bit. Playing Boxing? Boring. Playing Boxing with The Tide is High? Vibes. (There were lots of cut tracks though sadly https://tcrf.net/Activision_Anthology_(PlayStation_2)#Music_List)

As a collection of Atari 2600 games, the closest comparison I have is the Atari collections. Honestly? This blows most, if not all Atari collections out of the water and really makes me wish Activision would stick their head out from the Call of Duty mines for a moment to give this beaut a redo.

Why does it beat Atari though? First is the games themselves. As an average, Activision's stuff that they released for the Atari 2600 FAR outclassed a lot of the churned out Atari stuff. Here you have some games that even still manage to be pretty darn fun even today with arcadey shooters and platformers being the high points of the collection.

Now Activision could have just slung these onto a disc and called it a day like most. Oh no. Instead we get a TON of presentation. We get era-appropriate licensed pop songs, we get all manner of unlockable graphical options, artwork, commercials and more, all wrapped up in a great UI where you flick through game carts and it all just feels so inviting and cool, you just cant help but get pulled into the nostalgia.

Sure, these are Atari 2600 games and while there are some great things here, the games as a whole are still several notches below your usual NES/SNES/Megadrive and Arcade collections... But for those who really love their retro stuff, this is just grand.