If you’re feeling nostalgic for ‘80s-era arcade games then you might be tempted to give Anstream Arcade a go.
The retro game streaming app boasts that it is “the world’s largest and most accessible collection of online games”, with a library of old school titles from classic arcades, the Commodore 64, and Spectrum ZX eras, right up to more ‘modern’ examples like the original Worms for PC.
But with so many of the bigger developers such as Playstation, Microsoft and Ubisoft looking to create their own on-demand video game services, is Antstream worth it?
Getting started
For the purposes of this review, the platform was tested on two devices – an Android smartphone and a PC.
Antstream Arcade is surprisingly easy to set up.
Once the app was downloaded and an account created the service could be accessed from a whole host of devices, whether it’s a console (PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch), tablet, mobile, PC and oddly even an Amazon Firestick.
Antstream’s games run on remote servers – meaning that players use a network connection to send and receive gameplay data to and from their device of choice.
This consequently means you won’t be able to play it on the tube or outside without a stable WiFi/4G connection or better. But we’ll come back to that later.
At first glance
The home screen is a bit clunky and whether intentional or not it felt a little bit dated, resembling a landing page for a plug and play mini-tv game.
This makes it a little hard to navigate the vast collection on the PC, although admittedly it is better on a phone as you side scroll the rows of games.
Helpfully, Antstream does break games up into genres so that players can distinguish between arcade adventures, beat em’ ups and text adventures.
Games can also be searched for by format using the search function, which is great if you’re looking to relive your Commadore 64 or Amiga days.
There are leaderboards should you want to track your high scores in games or compete against others and in the top right hand corner players can keep an eye on how many red gems they’ve collected.
The gems are a nice visual touch to the platform and act like in-game currency, but other than spending them on tougher challenges they don’t add a whole lot to the experience.
Challenges can range from being as simple as who can get the highest score on Pac-Man to the complex like a boss rush where you have to fight the boss of every level in the game in a row before you run out of lives.
There is also an XP-based level system which is earned from playing games and the more you play, the more your status across the service’s leaderboard increases.
Games
With more than a thousand carefully curated games, many of which have been “out of print” for decades, Antstream must be commended just for this huge technical achievement alone.
And while the service lacks more popular and recognisable titles like Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage it does have some real diamonds lurking beneath such as Fatal Fury (which gave way to King of Fighters), Speedball, Joe & Mac, Gods, Pong and more.
It’s clear Antstream Arcade is trying to ensure there’s something for everybody, which is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to selecting something from the sheer volume of what they have to offer.
However, Antstream is a streaming service through and through.
You may control the game using your controller at home, but what you’re watching on your screen is a video feed sent directly from Antstream’s servers.
This was particularly noticeable when playing on a PC, where reasonably strong internet speed is needed to avoid video distortion like tearing and smeary images, as well as more persistent blocks of pixelated details.
Oddly though, when using a 4G connection on an android phone these issues were less frequent and gameplay ran a lot smoother.
So it is worth keeping in mind that the service appears to work better on some devices than it does others.
Understandably because of the way many of these retro titles were initially programmed decades ago, the controls are predetermined for each game and can’t be remapped.
Again this posed more of an issue for the PC where it was felt a mouse and keyboard just didn’t quite seem up to the task.
If you’re planning on playing through a PC then it might be worth using a controller.
But if I’m honest, the whole experience felt better and more natural on a phone anyway.
Overall
While Antstream Arcade is an impressive package in terms of the number of retro games in its library.
It’s hard to ignore that the service is very specialised and the audience potentially very small.
The niche service will almost certainly appeal to players of a certain age as well as those looking explore the golden age of arcade games without having to turn to illegal emulators.
Yet, with a monthly subscription at £9.99, one wonders how long the novelty and nostalgia would last.
Experience on service also varies greatly depending on the connection and the device you’re using.
But these weaknesses could turn out to be one of its greatest strengths as 5G rolls out across the world and an appetite for retro games grow.
Antstream’s simplicity and remote servers could help it become more accessible and dominate in a mobile market.
You can find out more about Antstream on the official website antstream.com
No comments:
Post a Comment