Review: Activision Anthology for Windows Mobile

Recreating old classics may be keeping most handheld formats alive but there’s still something about seeing the originals recreated down to the last pixel. Activision Anthology takes 3 of them (H.E.R.O, PitFall and River Raid) and crams them onto the V1.0 smartphone.

In fairness, only Pitfall is a genuine classic, featuring 255 screen of vine-swinging jungle hunting action but the others are worth a look too.

Hero is a tunnel rescue game featuring a little man with a jetpack and playing like a combination of Thurst and Scramble, albeit without either’s finesse or longevity. River Raid is a curious pseudo 3D arial shoot-em-up and the least effective of the bunch.

Yes, the graphics and gameplay are truly archaic but that works in its favour, as they can all be played using only two or 3 keys. It’s a shame a few more titles couldn’t have been squeezed in as the Activision catalogue has plenty of contenders, but hopefully there’ll be more collections to look forward to.

In the meantime, nostalgia freaks will still get a thrill out of seeing these one more time.

Verdict: 7/10

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