The Atari 2600 is one of those consoles that I don’t have a strong love for. Being a young boy in the 21st century, the Atari 2600 was certainly not going to be a console for me to look back on. I was always more attracted to systems like the Sega Genesis, Gameboy, and Playstation 2. However, when I was in a local Cracker Barrel, looking through the gift shop after having dinner, I saw the World’s Smallest Atari 2600 sitting there for $22.99. This unit is produced under The Tiny Arcade line from The World’s Smallest toy range by Super Impulse. The Tiny Arcade toy line usually consists of tiny arcade machines that are actually functional. They are key chains, so you can attach these to your key rings, and play them while you're out, and about. These devices never really interested me, mainly because there are bigger desktop toys like the My Arcade replica cabinets that are more appealing to me. However, this specific unit is not an arcade machine, it’s a miniature wood-grained Atari 2600 console, with a joystick, and a 70s-style TV. When I saw this on the shelf, it automatically caught my eye, and I had to have it. Today, I'll be looking at this unit, and seeing if it’s a good buy or a piece of trash.
Let’s start with the packaging. It’s a big box for the small unit, but considering how they display the unit in the box, it does need that big box. The box proclaims this unit has 9 built-in games, with a special 10th game. This special 10th game is Pac-Man, the 2600 version. This is probably the first time in history where the term “special” was used to describe this version of Pac-Man in a non-insulting way. The packaging does not exclaim anything about the playing experience being good, it’s just “fully functioning,” which definitely places faith in the product. I do have one minor issue with the packaging, and that deals with the unboxing experience. There’s a nice diorama piece that the unit sits on, which gives it the feel of the console being in a tiny living room from the 70s. This piece was so nice, that I wanted to use it as a backdrop when displaying the unit. However, the unit was secured by so much tape that I had to rip up the diorama to get the thing out. This was a disappointment, I wish more thought went to securing the unit so that the background didn’t have to be destroyed.
Now let’s talk about the unit itself, starting with its design, and build quality. The box TV is the biggest part of the unit, so let's start with that. The TV is nicely designed. The metallic antennas stood out to me and were what immediately caught my eye on the unit. The TV has all the knobs a real one would have, in this era, but they don’t actually function. The exterior is brown plastic with wood carvings in it, to give it a semi-wood look. The back has no detail, which would've been nice, but the unit will obviously be displayed in the front. Moving on to the tiny Atari 2600, I can say that the console has amazing detail. It looks exactly like the woodgrain 2600. It even has all the knobs, and each knob is clearly labeled correctly. The only thing I don’t like is that there’s a big red reset button where the cartridge slot would be. This button obviously resets the unit, to take you back to the game select screen. I would’ve preferred this button to be somewhere else on the TV, it just doesn’t look good on the console. It would’ve been much better to leave the cartridge slot empty or have a specific game in it as a reference. Finally, there’s the joystick, which is an exact replica of the original one, just shrunken down. The joystick actually moves around well, and the button is very clicky. I can say that the entire unit is built well, and feels like a quality product to display, but how does it play?
The power switch is on the bottom of the TV. Turning it on boots the unit to a title screen. I have to state that the screen looks alright, it’s not groundbreaking, but it’s good for what it is at the price point. Pressing the red button will take you to the game selection menu. Select a game, and have a terrible experience. Every game is unplayable, because of the controller. The controller is too small, and my thumbs often collide together, because of the lack of separation between the stick, and the button. The controller also has no weight to it and doesn't stick to surfaces. Now it does sound like I’m complaining about a thing that was marketed as the World’s Smallest Atari 2600 is too small to actually enjoy playing on it, and you would be right, but there’s more to it than that. Yes, this unit is too small to have an enjoyable experience with it, but I feel something could've been done without making the unit bigger. If more weight could be added to the controller, it would probably make the controller a tiny bit better, because it wouldn’t flop around as much. I also think miniature rubber feet or some slide-resistant bottom surface would make the controller better since it could be played on a surface without the controller sliding around.
The games themselves also have issues. Let’s talk about Centipede for a minute. Centipede is an Atari game that was initially released in the arcades and was later ported to the 2600. Now, since this is a tiny 2600, you would probably want it to be the 2600 version. However, it’s not the 2600 version, it’s the arcade version, but it’s somewhat modified. I noticed that the little spider bug doesn’t spawn at all, and I think I know why, but I need more evidence to prove it. Let’s look at another game, Breakouts, also known as Breakout. Yes, they mislabeled Breakout, this is a very professional product. Selecting Breakout pulls up a title screen that has an options menu. The options menu has options to change the paddle size and the speed of the ball. I didn’t change any options, and the game ran very slowly. The paddle was slow, the ball moved slowly, and it was boring. I then went to Pong, and it was also very slow. Even Pac-Man was slow, and that had no options menu. I came to two conclusions. Either this unit can’t play these Atari 2600 games correctly, or all of these games have been modified to play better on the unit. I’m willing to go with the latter since I refuse to believe something released this decade can’t play 2600 games. These games have been altered for this unit, and I don’t think anyone would want that. Even if this unit was fun to play, I would be annoyed with this. This thing is marketed as an Atari 2600, but it emulates the experience very poorly. To slow games, bad controls, to even one of the worst games included as a special addition. The World’s Smallest Atari 2600 is the World’s Smallest disappointment.
I do think this unit is a neat shelf piece, and even staring at it on my desk right now, I like it. This thing is cosmetically designed well, and I think any 2600 fan would love how it looks. But the games and functionality are terrible, and really sheds a bad light on not only the unit but on the 2600 itself. If you want a nice collectible to put on the shelf, feel free to buy it. However, DO NOT buy this unit if you want to play 2600 games. Buying an At Games Atari Flashback will bring you much more joy than this thing if you're looking for something to play.
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