Who's Antstream for? I don't know and as such, recommending it is hard for me
Antstream Arcade is a cloud-based retro gaming subscription service that streams over 1,300 classic titles from various consoles directly to devices over the internet. Its value proposition is providing convenient access to an enormous library of hard-to-find retro games spanning from arcade cabinets to systems like Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, NES, SNES, and more.
The setup is straightforward - I simply download the Antstream Arcade app from the Microsoft Store and log in. The UI is clean and easy to navigate, with games organized into categories like top played, new additions, and challenges. Finding something to play is never an issue, but I think it could be way easier with some more filter options. For example, now you can't really filter games by a specific platform in an easy way. Maybe a dedicated tab with all platforms easily visible from the get go would improve the overall experience.
Jumping into a game feels seamless. Load times are impressive considering these are streaming from the cloud, often only taking a few seconds before I am thrust into retro bliss. I am surprised by how little input lag there is as well - games control responsive most of the times. Having said that though, the streaming quality could be better as I experienced way more instances of pixelation and other issues like frame-rate dropping than I would have liked. For example, playing through the Metal Slug titles, especially during the boss fights, the actual frame-rate of the emulation dropped constantly and when you also add the pixelation from the streaming, yeah, that did not felt or looked nice at all.
Upon diving into the library, I realized most of the titles are fairly obscure games that many casual players have likely never heard of and may not be interested in playing. Of course, you have arcade classics like Pac-Man, Galaga, Metal Slug and more, but there are also deep cuts represented, like Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum titles I'd never heard of before. Some of these games like Jumpman, I couldn't even start since the controller input wouldn't register. While it's cool to see such a variety represented, I doubt you'll actually want to play anyone of those really old titles in 2024. But if you do, hey, more power to you.
In addition to simply playing, Antstream Arcade offers innovations like online leaderboards and daily challenges that provide new objectives to complete within games. Earning rewards by clearing challenges with tasks like not taking damage added extra motivation beyond just high scores. And that's cool, if you are into that sort of thing.
Should you get Antstream? Well, that's a really hard question to answer as I still don't understand who this is for. I consider myself a casual enjoyer of retro games, but I still wouldn't justify getting the yearly subscription let alone buy the Lifetime pass to play just some of the titles from my childhoood. At the same time, I also don't think that this is for the hardcore retro gaming fans out there, since if you are one of those people, you might already have all the old-school original consoles plus games IRL that you play and enjoy or you are all-in on the local emulation scene which is in every way, shape and form way better than streaming. So who's Antstream for? I don't know and as such, recommending it is hard for me. If there's a free trial, sure, go ahead and check it for yourself, but if there's not, save your money for something else. Thanks for reading!
Antstream Arcade was reviewed on a Xbox via a promo yearly subscription provided by the developers. Antstream is available on Xbox, PC, Android, iOS, Amazon, and Web.
