Antstream Arcade | Retro Subscription Service Review

I am part of the target audience for retro gaming. A child of the 80s, I was alive for the Atari 2600. My uncle had a 5200. My family had both an Atari 400 and the 800 with its upgraded keyboard. That being said, I have not given in to the desire to purchase one of the retro hardwares. I do, however, subscribe to Nintendo Online. What should arrive for our review? An answer to my retro dreams. Antstream Arcade has over 1300 games available, some rotating in and out, from multiple retro hardware systems like Atari 2600, 400/800, NES, SNES, Arcade, Genesis/Mega Drive, and Commodore 64 & Amiga. Perhaps even some others!

Tell Me About the Service 

Antstream Arcade boots up and I’m instantly blown away by the sheer number of choices. 1300 games! There’s no way I could play them all! 

The interface is very Netflix-ish (or, fill in your preferred streaming service as an example). Rows of games are organized by category such as Racing, Taito, or Atari. Keep tapping down on the d-pad and more categories are revealed. Tapping the triangle button brings up the search menu where you can search by genre, title, and sometimes even keyword! 

Antstream Arcade supports community competition by placing challenges at the top. This isn’t just a retro arcade or collection of retro games. The game developers have wisely included this community aspect and it’s for the betterment of any gamer that boots this up! Giant Slayer gives players the opportunity to prove their abilities on their best games with a public high-score! Weekly Global Tournaments are also here!

You can also find friends similar to social-media and challenge them directly for 1-on-1 bragging rights. While I was unable to test this out, it’s a truly nifty idea and has countless games available to use. 

The Mini-Game Challenges mode is pretty similar to the Nintendo World Championships way of playing. You load up a specific level/screen from their list of games and see if you can gain a certain score or defeat a boss within a certain time frame. There are other “within” options as well, but the score by time was the most common.

I have one small gripe with the interface. Perhaps you recall that cover art in the 70s through early 90s commonly included loud and clashy colors with poofy letters to grab your attention. Shrink that cover art down to a much smaller footprint and then throw 20 or so other cover boxes around it and I occasionally had a hard time reading which game it was. I’m confident that a younger gamer will not have the same experience, though.

These are Retro Games

None of these games have been improved in any way for a home on our current-gen consoles. Like many retro games, a lot of these are cool for nostalgia but when I load them in and try to play them, I found that I was ready to try something else within three minutes (I’m looking at YOU Haunted House for the Atari 2600). That being said, I was thrilled to find a few of my classic favorites! River Rescue (Commodore and, where I played, Atari 400/800) was found and I relived my childhood for a few minutes. Pac-Man is there! It’s not the sloppy blippy Atari 2600 version, either. Nope, we get the beautiful 8-bit version here! Zombies Ate My Neighbor, which I played on Genesis, is found here under the SNES banner. That one I played for an hour or so!

A separate paragraph is needed for storytime. I had a paper route when I was in 7th grade. Decent money for a 12 year old. I was able to buy my NES with that money. In addition, every time I got paid, I would take a few bucks up to the corner 7-11. They would rotate video game cabinets into their side room including Gauntlet, Cruisin’ USA, and TMNT. But the one that I packed the most quarters in was Mat Mania. A wrestling game that I got pretty good at. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found Mat Mania in the miles and miles of retro options here on Antstream Arcade! But MAN! I don’t remember the game being that difficult. The lack of instruction manual is glaring for many of these older games. However, during the load screen, it does give the layout of what each button does. 

Perhaps I am spoiled by our modern conveniences. I don’t remember these games being this hard to control. For instance, I played Burger Time and constantly had trouble getting up and down the ladders. I found that I had better luck using the control stick instead of the d-pad, but it was still a bit clumsy. Same with Pac-Man where I would command him to move down only for him to turn left instead or keep going in the same direction as if I didn’t even move the joystick. It was a bit frustrating, but I chalked it up to my experiences with current games. As I mentioned above, these games have not been improved or retouched. They are direct ports from the original version. Perhaps I just need to play more and get the hang of it, once again.

Final Verdict

Antstream Arcade offers two subscription models: $39.99 for a yearly subscription or $99.99 for a lifetime! Instead of sinking hundreds into the multitude of retro-hardwares available, I would highly recommend this option. One download to rule them all. No additional cables hooked into the shrinking number of HDMI ports on the TV. Hundreds of game options in a variety of categories that will occupy hours and hours of your time. If you happen to be in my age range, the nostalgia hits and memories will come rushing back. The joy and excitement of unwrapping the box and popping the cartridge in (brand new, you didn’t have to blow on it, yet). If you’re a retro gaming fan, then Antstream Arcade is for you!

To hear me talk more about Antstream Arcade, be sure to listen to the September 12th, 2024 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 1:30:27 time stamp.

This review is based on a PS5 subscription to Antstream Arcade provided by Renaissance PR for coverage purposes. As of this writing, the service is also available on Xbox, iOS, Android, PC/Mac (via web browser) and Amazon.