Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11928 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2007-02-09
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Platform: Sony PSP

Manufacturer's Description
Gamers can be a flying ace, a race car champion, a tennis star and a space pioneer all in one afternoon. That's right. Feathered hair, one-hit wonders and the golden age of video games are back. Activision Hits Remixed lets players relive the dawn of home console gaming while on the go by delivering over 40 of the biggest Atari 2600 titles such as Pitfall, Kaboom!, Chopper Command, Stampede, Keystone Kapers to the PSP (PlayStation Portable) system. With multi-player support, WiFi functionality enables players to game together, either by alternating turns or simultaneously, and a Game Share feature allows two friends to play together using only one copy of the game. Activision Hits Remixed also features a rockin' 80's themed soundtrack, modernized front-end graphics and a host of retro unlockables.

Customer Reviews

Retrotastic!
Activision Hits Remixed contains over 40 Atari 2600 hits, including some I've never seen before.

It also has a number of great '80s songs, starting on the main menu with Quarterflash's Harden My Heart and Men Without Hats' The Safety Dance, but the songs can be changed. At first, it was just like putting the radio on in a GTA Vice City game which is fantastic, but I wish there was an option for them to stop while the game was playing though as this is only possible by turning the volume right down in the main menu. Also, there's only around 15 songs which play on a loop so they soon get repetitive.

For each game there are additional features such as being able to check out the original cartridge and the box, read the manual and access some unlockable content such as the original TV trailers.

Going through a selection of the games in turn (with the rest at dvdfever. co. uk/ reviews/ actipsp. shtml:

Atlantis: this is a straight-forward shooter from the ground up as your three turrets take shots at the planes and other things flying overhead. Occasionally, they'll shoot back and wipe out your turrets, thus rather knackering your chances of firing back.

Boxing: Oh dear, where do begin with this? Two sets of head-and-arms, one black and one white, moving round the screen from above, trying to make them look like they're in the heat of battle, but looking morelike they've got something wrong with their limb movements.

Cosmic Commuter: One of those oddities I'd not heard of before, where you land a spacecraft and then, it seems, pilot it off to take them to work, although it just looks like an average shooter where you're picking up Fuel pods or shooting bitesize Shredded Wheat that are in the way, collecting passengers who are blocks on the ground and doing that until you've got them all.

Demon Attack: A wonderful and colourful shooter that I remember enjoying playing, as the creatures come together in a swooping motion that really takes me back. This one gets quite difficult after a while, not only because they fire loads of bullets compared to your one-at-a-time, but also when you get a few levels on and shooting them just results in them splitting and then it's double trouble.

Enduro: A straight-forward into-the-screen racer that takes you back to the days of zooming along the road, attempting to avoid the cars being overtaken or you'll get slapped back down a bit. Go through several different locations (well, the background changes) and attempt to get past 200 cars. Old school!

HERO: Now, this is one of my favourites from the '80s and when I was at school I used to imagine that I wished I could pause the bobbins lesson I was in, have a blast on HERO for an hour and then, reluctantly, continue the lesson. Of course, I couldn't, but this cavern adventure where you have to avoid creepy crawlies or shoot them, blow up walls that are in your way, and avoid shooting out the lights which sort-of puts you in a blind spot, all in order to rescue someone with a jetpack thing on your back was just so addictive. It's certainly one of the main reasons to buy this UMD.

Keystone Capers: Over three floors on the one screen, you have to catch the robber. Jump over the bouncy ball that's coming towards you, collect the suitcases and other things that give off points and go up on the elevator when it lands at your floor unless you really want to run to the end of the floor to go upstairs and risk losing the baddie as he escapes to the roof. It sounds like it makes no sense but it does come together.

Laser Blast: (right) I spent many a happy hour on this one back in the day, and it took a little bit of time to get back into it here but I did in the end. Time your shots well at the three turrets below, and don't forget that when one of them does eventually strike you down, you can still manoeuvre yourself so that you can land on the one who shot you. Ha! :)

Pitfall: Easily one of the biggest classics on the Atari. I played this game until the cows came home, had been milked, gone to bed (or straw) and got up again for their next day out on the grass. Run along, jump the logs, jump across the lakes on the vines and avoid the crocodiles biting you. And all in 20 minutes to get from A to... er.. well, probably back to A again as it circles back on itself although you'll never make it.

River Raid: Ah, what can be said about this that hasn't been said already. It's one of the most fantastic shoot-up-the-screen games ever made and one I played for more hours as a kid than I can remember. Blast away at the ships and helicopters, fill up at the fuel dumps - slowing down to get maximum value out of those, blow up the bridges and avoid the low-flying planes. It never ends - well, until you run out of lives - and it's bloody wonderful.

Skiing: Looking like a man from 'Pages From Ceefax' it's downhill all the way, in more ways than one, as you slalom between the posts and get to the end of the course, the change in difficulty levels only increasing the speed of the game, and even then it's not a great challenge.

Once a mission is successful, the game ends but at least you get a happier tune (the first few bars, sort-of, of the 2001 Theme) rather than the funeral march.

So, a big selection but, overall, a number of the games do come across, sadly, as rather dated.