Antstream Arcade Review - Screenshot 1 of 4

Retro gaming is big business these days. Products like the Evercade have proven there’s a market for a curated collection of physical cartridge-based compilations, while various Chinese manufacturers are making a fortune on Android-powered emulation portables. Even Sony has acknowledged there’s value in its back catalogue, offering handpicked emulated experiences as part of its pricey PS Plus Premium subscription tier.

Antstream Arcade is aware of all this, and it has a relatively compelling pitch: expand your PS5 or PS4 library with over 1,300 classics on-demand right now. The service offers two subscription tiers: 12 months for £32.99/$39.99 or a lifetime membership for £79.99/$99.99. It should be stressed that the lifetime membership will only last as long as the company itself, and while that’s a somewhat cynical observation, it needs to be taken into account.

Antstream Arcade Review - Screenshot 2 of 4

That’s because the service relies on cloud streaming, so you don’t download any of these titles natively. The benefits to this are as follows: every game can be accessed immediately, and your progress can be stored on servers. The negatives are well-documented: you’ll need a decent Internet connection, and even then, you’re still going to encounter latency which wouldn’t exist if the software was running locally on your system.

Indeed, your mileage will absolutely vary depending on the speed of your connection, the quality of your router, and whether you have your console hooked up wirelessly or with an Ethernet cable. While there are a number of options to pick from, it’ll also depend on your proximity from the servers; we have a very average connection here in the middle of the UK, and found the latency to be manageable wirelessly, but we did encounter some macroblocking and visual glitches.

In our opinion, all of the games we tested were fully playable, including those which demand quick reflexes, like bullet hell shooters. But there’s simply no question these titles would look and perform better running locally, and with emulation platforms like RetroArch making it relatively easy to construct your own libraries, we’d argue that’s a better option. Of course, legally assembling a large collection of retro games can be a costly endeavour – certainly much more than the price of an Antstream Arcade subscription.

Antstream Arcade Review - Screenshot 3 of 4

That’s assuming there are games within the library you want to play. The selection is enormous, with new titles being added weekly, although the lack of major publisher support means you’ll generally be sifting through a fair amount of filler. Classic computers like the Amiga, Amstrad, C64, and ZX Spectrum make up almost half the collection, and while these provide interesting time capsules, we’d argue these systems haven’t exactly aged gracefully. That’s completely subjective, of course, and you may think differently.

That’s not to say there aren’t any gems at all, though: Pinball Dreams, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Maniac Mansion all put in an appearance. We spent a good few hours with the DOS version of Day of the Tentacle, a personal favourite of ours, and we were also really happy to find an extensive selection of arcade games, including 10-Yard Fight, R-Type, and Operation Wolf. There’s a lot of games on offer here, and we’re confident you’ll find at least a dozen you like. You can view the full list through here.

With the likes of Nintendo and SEGA understandably absent, the list of software is perhaps lacking in big names. But you’ll still find the likes of Pac-Man, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Art of Fighting, and Fatal Fury. There are even a handful of 32-bit PS1 games, including 3D platformer 40 Winks, violent shooter Re-Loaded, and the ridiculous tactics title Hogs of War. The maker says new games will be added weekly, with Worms Armageddon one of this week’s additions.

Antstream Arcade Review - Screenshot 4 of 4

While the titles appear to be well emulated, they lack quality of life upgrades, so there’s no rewind like you find in modern emulators. We also found the overall user interface to be unwieldy and slow to navigate, with thumbnails and artwork popping in slowly and the controls never particularly clear. On a couple of occasions, we found we had to close the entire client and reboot it just to take back control of our cursor, which isn’t the best experience.

We like how the library has been gamified, however. Many of the titles feature unique challenges, which will see you completing very specific feats, like beating a boss as quickly as possible or seeing how far you can progress in a level without attacking. These gimmicks make for entertaining challenges, and are even utilised to create in-game tournaments where you need to work alongside the community to take down “giants” of a particular release – it’s a lot of fun.

You can also duel with friends and family by sending challenges, and, yes, where relevant there’s local multiplayer support. All of this makes it easy to imagine there are some players who could comfortably spend thousands of hours in Antstream Arcade, and that gives it inherent value. If the library continues to expand and the interface gets cleaner and quicker, there’s clearly great potential here – even if the limitations of cloud streaming will always be a bottleneck.

Conclusion

Antstream Arcade will instantly expand your PS5’s library with thousands of retro games. While the selection is dominated by classic computers and naturally missing the most popular names, there are a number of gems on offer here, and you’re bound to find a bunch of titles you love. While the latency is significantly higher than local emulation, the ability to access so many releases on-demand brings inherent value – but do keep in mind your mileage will vary depending on a number of factors, including the speed of your connection and your proximity to the service’s servers. We love all of the tournaments and challenges, but navigating the menus can be excruciating and some features are poorly explained.

Overall, we’d still recommend exploring the many retro compilations and emulated releases already available on the PS Store first; while this may be a more expensive option, it’s hard to beat your own personally curated collection and the advantages of running software locally. But of course not all of the titles available with Antstream Arcade can be purchased natively, and it’s neat having access to everything under one umbrella – especially when the cost of a lifetime subscription is relatively good value considering just how much you get. Just do keep in mind that your cloud streaming experience will vary, and even in a perfect environment, will still exhibit shortcomings compared to a native solution.