Antstream Arcade Review: So Close, But…

There are not as many ways as there should be to play retro games legally. You can own the original hardware and purchase the original cartridges and disks, but the prices on some of them are exorbitant. On top of that, it’s not feasible or wise to get all the existing consoles for a couple of games that you will play only occasionally. Unless you’re a collector, of course. Then, you do you.

Some of the companies have released updated “mini” versions of their old platforms, but they usually only come preloaded with just a few titles, and even then, it’s not native performance but emulation. Speaking of emulation – it’s a legally gray (really, really dark gray) area that requires you to still own the physical media to dump it and play it on the emulator not to run afoul of rules and regulations.

Sometimes, the games are simply available in various storefronts, both in their original or remade/remastered forms. But again, they are few and far between. But what if there was a platform of some kind that would unite the games from several retro consoles? Enter Antstream Arcade.

Antstream Arcade is a video game streaming service that allows its users to play more than 1300 games from more than a dozen platforms. To play them, you need to subscribe to the service, which costs $39.99 annually. Compared to many other subscriptions, it’s not that expensive. Additionally, you can obviously subscribe to just one month if you want to beat a specific game.

Considering where I live, streaming games wasn’t always the best or the most available option due to regional restrictions and simple latency, so I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing. The server that Antstream Arcade defaulted me towards was Scandinavia, and upon testing several others in Europe, it was indeed the best one for me. The input lag is quite noticeable, especially in the racing and fighting games, where reaction time matters the most. But I was still able to play games like Metal Slug and Double Dragon relatively comfortably. Still, the input lag doesn’t make it a super-smooth experience for me. However, considering how far the servers are from me, I very much can see this being silky smooth for anyone closer to them.

The biggest elephant in the room, however, is the game availability. Look, 1300 is an impressive number, and the creators of Antstream Arcade are actively adding more titles weekly. But the matter of fact is that the platform representation is very lopsided. Commodore 64’s 294, Amiga’s 176, ZX Spectrum’s 291, and 295 Arcade games against 49 for SNES, 48 for Genesis, and just 12 for PS1, and some platforms aren’t there altogether. Also, by the looks of it, games by the biggest publishers simply aren’t there because of either licensing fees or simple unwillingness on their part to provide them to a semi-rival platform. I wouldn’t expect to ever see your Super Marios and Final Fantasies here.

An additional issue for me was the search and categorization. Antstream Arcade’s interface is quite streamlined, but the game discoverability is simply bad. Most titles are divided by genres and categories, but there is no mention of the platforms the games are from, and you can’t use the search terms like “playstation” either. This is something I would love the developers to eventually address.

So, the main question you should ask yourselves before subscribing to Antstream is whether or not you’re satisfied with the game and platform selection. You can always check those on the official website here: https://www.antstream.com/games

But this doesn’t mean that Antstream Arcade is not a great product overall. There’s a lot of work put into it – you can participate in weekly and daily challenges that can and will spice up your favorite games, there are huge tournaments, mini games, and even couch co-op.

None of the games I tried had any issues whatsoever, and the quality of life additions like save states and rewind make some of the more unforgiving games more accessible to modern audiences.

Overall, this review is quite a weird one. On the one hand, I didn’t have the best experience with it because of the aforementioned issues, but on the other hand, I can see how this can be exactly the product some people may want. To reiterate – check the game and platform list, take a look at the server locations, and make a decision to subscribe or not after.

Antstream Arcade is available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and many other platforms.