Each of the games on the Evercade Activision Collection cartridges were first released on the Atari 2600 console. Released in 1977, the Atari 2600 (originally known as the Atari VCS) was one of the very first consoles to support interchangeable game cartridges.

Given the age of the original console and its technical specifications, games for the Atari 2600 even felt dramatically basic, at least from an audiovisual perspective, in the 80s.

If you weren’t around when these games were first released, it can be difficult to see the appeal, and as such it feels as if the Atari and Activision cartridges for the Evercade are perhaps the most divisive compilations on the console.

Personally, as someone who grew up playing these games, I’m a fan of many of them. There’s real appeal for me in their arcade-style immediacy, with little more than a single mechanic refined to a compellingly addictive degree.

Yet, a few games aside, it’s hard not to feel like this collection is scraping the bottom of the barrel after the first two cartridges contained the heaviest hitters in Activision’s Atari back catalogue.

Let’s look at the genuinely excellent stuff first: Keystone Kapers is a fantastic platformer, in which your policeman has to chase down a shoplifter through a somewhat deadly department store environment. It’s impressively slick, fast and smooth despite the obviously blocky and basic visuals.

Chopper Command is a blisteringly fast-paced, Defender-esque shoot ’em up with brilliantly smooth gameplay.

Honestly though? The rest of the games on here range from decent to barely worth bothering with.

Barnstorming is an unusual title in which you have to fly your plane through a number of barns as quickly as possible, avoiding annoying obstacles along the way. Kaboom! is another impressively fast title in which you have to collect bombs before they detonate. Laser Blast is a fun shoot ’em up with a unique control method.

Activision Decathlon does a good job of presenting a variety of sporting events in an accessible way with just the directional controls and a single button.

Ice Hockey is a stripped down but fun 2v2 version of the sport, particularly against another player.

Thwocker is a nice, music-themed platformer.

I found the ideas and presentation of both Dolphin and Dragonfire to be pretty intriguing, but both are a bit too punishingly hard to be all that enjoyable.

That said, back in the day I probably would have been masochistic enough, or at least devoid of alternative game choices, to really put the time in to master them.

Pressure Cooker and Kabobber (the latter of which was not officially released at the time it was developed) both have accessibility issues, in that it can be hard to work out what to do at first. Yet both feel pretty unique, so you may find it’s worth learning and persevering with them.

It’s incredibly hard to see any appeal in the visually boring card game adaptation, Bridge. It just doesn’t do enough, and while back in the 80s this might have been a good alternative to trying to play the game for real, it feels entirely unnecessary and far too slow to play these days.

So I think of all of the Activision Collections, this is the one I’d urge most caution over. There’s no Pitfall or H.E.R.O. to almost single handedly make the case for purchase, though I suppose Keystone Kapers is almost good enough, in that respect.

If you have nostalgia for OG Activision or the Atari 2600, you’ll probably know whether or not this is for you. If you weren’t there at the time, this cartridge probably isn’t for you.

You can buy Activision Collection 3 from Amazon.

Hi! I’m Jason, and I write for midlifegamergeek.com, every single day. If you’re interested in supporting original, regularly published, human created content (which has never been plagiarised or otherwise copied from the hard work of other writers), you can donate and help me to keep this site running.

Not only do I earn no income from my writing here (though I may earn small fees from affiliate links posted on my pages; as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from these links), but it seems that my work has, at times, been stolen and re-used by lazy, morally bankrupt idiots.

There’s no pressure of course, but I’d be truly grateful for any support that you could offer – and it’s easy to do so at either of these links: Ko-Fi.com/geekmid or PayPal.

Any donations are truly appreciated – and I also appreciate you taking the time to read my articles. Remember: this whole article was by Jason Brown, and appeared on midlifegamergeek.com. Take that, Skynet!