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The latest nostalgia trip to hit Xbox invites us to look back at what started all this videogames malarkey off. This anthology packages together arcade and adventure games from the old Atari 2600, with puzzle, sport and action categories totalling 85 challenges.

Atari is often synonymous with Space Invaders and the gameplay style it pioneered: baddies at the top of the screen, a small moving gun at the bottom. While a few games here play this way, the adventure section offers more intuitive challenges. In the SwordQuest series, for example, the original comics feature in the game, and you can peruse them to find clues to progress through rooms.

The Bonus mode contains scans of old instruction booklets as well as the adverts that accompanied many of the games when they came out. It's a nice idea but the small print in the rulebooks isn't always clear, so if you're not sure how a game plays, consulting the in-game scans won't help much. Neither do the snazzy interface and well-presented options menu distract from the actual game graphics: it all looks very 1983.

Struggling with such primitive challenges when you're a Halo 2 guru means you'll keep going until you fall in love with the simplicity or smash your pad. Don't expect a learning curve either - there isn't one. The joysticks differ in sensitivity in each game, so you can't even get a 'feel' for things. And while there are Live leaderboards, it'll be tough to match the Atari fanatics scores.

It's worth remembering that however much you cram in, it's quality that counts. Cash isn't even necessary to get hold of half of these babies - a mobile phone or even a pen and paper will suffice (Hangman, anyone?). At £20, Xbox has plenty more pixels per pound to offer.

Can't compete with today's gaming beasties, even at a budget price. One for old-skool Atari addicts only.