Why I Think Retro Game Fans Need Antstream Arcade

What exactly is Antstream Arcade? A few years back, our writer Gary got a chance to preview the service back when it first started in 2019, check out the preview here. It’s five years later and is this still the cloud gaming service that it promised to be? I am happy to report that Antstream Arcade is something that you didn’t realise you needed. Instead of other services that require you to download and install the games you want to play, Antstream lets you play over 1300 classic games and 600 challenges without taking up space on your console's hard drive. Since this is a streaming service, it will require a decent internet speed to run smoothly. So if you are considering checking it out, keep this in mind: if your connection stinks, you will not have a fun time.

SNES, DOS, Lynx, Atari 2600, GB Colour, MSX, Commodore, NES, there are games here from 18 different consoles. These aren’t just games that you have never heard of before, but bigger titles like Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Super Star Wars, Metal Slug, and Bubble Bobble. You won’t find any Nintendo titles starring Mario here, but the sheer number of other games is surprising! Even some brand new homebrew titles are available to check out, like Flea or Yeah Yeah Beebiss II, made by John Riggs, whom I know from his retro game YouTube channel. I never ran out of games to play, and the library continues to grow with the constant release of new titles to the service.

In addition to playing these titles regularly, there are over 600 challenges in which you can participate. These range from trying to get the highest score you can using one life in Splatterhouse to defeating as many enemies as you can with Nunchucks without taking a hit in Bad Dudes. Each time you accept a challenge, you will have to use the gems that you earn from playing games and logging in each day (which gives you 160 gems) to enter. The first attempt costs 10 gems, but each time after that, the cost will double. You can get messages from other gamers daring you to take on a unique challenge. I got one from a user named Sam0209 for Strikers 1999, which is a one-life challenge where you try to get a score that beats their personal best. If you win the match, you will be rewarded with gems and XP to level up your profile. 

As you play a variety of games, you will see your level, your top three genres, how many achievements you have earned, the number of vs battles you have won, and how many games you have played out of the 1314 currently available in your profile. There is always something to play; it’s so convenient not to hook up all the different retro consoles to play one game when I can find it here! Plus, the challenges that have you competing against players from around the world are a blast to play.

Even with a decent connection, you will probably encounter some lag or stutter. However, this could be more of an issue at my house as multiple consoles, tablets, and phones are also using the internet. It is a bit annoying, but the other people playing are probably experiencing the same issues. So because of this, I never used any of the games on here for my birthday party high score challenge, as it could be very unfair if one player had to deal with lag, but if you are playing for fun, it's not too big of a deal, especially when you can save your game whenever you want. Plus, it has a variety of achievements, and supports local multiplayer, which is great for my house!

Available for Android, Amazon Fire TV, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S for £29.99 / $29.99 US, or if you are in Canada, like me, $42.99. If you opt for a lifetime membership, it will cost you about £79.99 or $79.99 US. My lifetime membership on the Xbox cost me $123.99. If you are a fan of retro games from the ‘80s, ‘90s, and ‘00s, this is a service you may want to check out. I feel like I have got my money's worth out of the sheer amount of different games I have to check out on the Antstream Arcade service, this is essentially the Spotify of videogames.