There was a time when Activision was known for creating innovating and original titles.  I know, isn’t that a riot to think about when you see them today, squeezing the blood out of their Guitar Hero milk cow and litigating lawsuits over games they decided not to publish!?  Isn’t just god damned hilarious to see a revolutionary pioneer in game development turn into the very beast they were fighting before the great video game crash of the 1980’s?!  I’m laughing the more I see Bobby Kotick get his panties in a bunch and throwing temper tantrums at the moneyhungry crazies at Sony, knowing that this was the company that created Pitfall!

Or at least the shell of a corpse that was the original third party video game publisher that created some of the first video games I ever touched.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad video games have evolved over the years.  Nostalgia is overrated.  But at the same time, there were a few damn good games that are worth playing at least once in your life.  The Activision Anthology for PS2 shows us both sides of the coin.  This collection of 46, plus two unreleased, Atari 2600 titles will let you relive the 80’s, and at some point, be thankful you don’t have to anymore.

When you’re diving into any used games bin, you know deep down that you’re probably not going to find some gem that you spend more time playing than you would a recent release that garnered high scores from all the major video game critics, or some classic title from a console era or two ago that’s earned a devoted (and often obsessive and deranged) following.  But there are exceptions to the rule.  After all, that's a reason I made this site.