Though it’s fantastic to be able to use original Atari cartridges on the new Atari+ consoles, there’s some genuine gems among the contemporary selection of cartridges that have been brought to the platform.

The Atari 2600+ itself is bundled with a 10-in-1 cartridge that makes the console a near-essential purpose for retro gaming fans, and it’s great to see more multi-game cartridges making an appearance alongside the release of the Atari 7800+.

One of these new cartridges is the RealSports Collection, which features a great selection of seven Atari 2600 games. Facing competition from Mattel’s Intellivision back in the early 80s, which had a fantastic range of very impressive looking sports titles, Atari upped their game and released new versions of their aging sports games, under the RealSports banner.

They’re all pretty good too; though the computer opponents are very challenging indeed in almost every title on the cartridge, you can improve against them, but the standout feature is being able to play each game in 2 player mode against a human opponent.

This is where the RealSports Collection really shines; these games are all absolutely perfect, pick up and play multiplayer titles. As they’re Atari 2600 titles, there’s just one button to worry about, so any concern about complex controls or learning button layouts are immediately dispelled.

Though the games aren’t exactly pretty by any modern standard, they’re decent for the humble Atari 2600, and they are generally great fun to play too.

There’s even a bonus to picking up this cartridge; though it features seven games, only six (Baseball, Boxing, Football, Soccer, Tennis and Volleyball) were previously released on cartridge back in the day, with Basketball developed but never released (though it did see the light of day on the Atari Flashback 3 console in 2011, and on every subsequent version of the Flashback console). It’s oddly satisfying and tactile to click switches into place to change games as well!

It’s been a very Atari Christmas for me, and I’ve played my RealSports Collection and Frenzy more than anything else, even modern games, over the festive period. Given that there’s seven worthwhile titles on this cartridge, and all are excellent for 2 players, I can highly recommend it. I’m not even a fan of sports in general, but the arcade immediacy and fast paced gameplay in all of these titles make them well suited for Atari fans regardless.

You can buy the RealSports Collection from Amazon. It’s compatible with original Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 consoles, as well as the new Atari 2600+ and Atari 7800+ consoles too.

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