As most people know, I’m generally opposed to streaming streaming services. I find the idea of ceding any control whatsoever over what you can see, hear and play to corporations to be a very bad idea, and the fact that stuff moves into and out of these platforms (meaning your ability to experience art comes entirely down to what these companies allow you to see) is dangerous. But all of this is another discussion for another time. I’m here to review a streaming platform that has just landed on PlayStation 4 and 5 – Antstream – and as far as streaming services go this is actually a good one.
The hook for Antstream is that it allows you to play retro games (and for the most part, arcade retro games. The company claims that there are more than 1,300 titles, which I would challenge because when you do a search, that “1,300” number does include some duplicates across multiple platforms (C64 and Amiga versions, for example), but even when you exclude some of the doubles, there is a lot of stuff here.
What I like about it as a streaming service is, firstly, there is a “lifetime” option, meaning that you pay once for access to everything, and will continue to have access to everything as long as the servers are there. That’ll set you back around $US80, which is a lot, but there are new games being added to the platform constantly. For people who just want a standard subscription service, there is a $US30 annual option… and that is still good value when you think about it, given that most other subscription services charge somewhere in that ballpark monthly.
While you’re not going to see many games from the really big publishers licensed to Antstream, and that means no Nintendo classics, or Capcom fighting games, or Frogger, there is a somewhat surprisingly large number of favourite hits on there. Space Invaders is there (in fact, a lot of Taito’s classic lineup is). So is Bubble Bobble, Pac-Man, right through to Worms Armageddon and some other titles of around the N64/PlayStation era. Remember Glover? Probably not, but Glover was great back in the day. There’s even stuff like the original city builder (Utopia) and classic football manager titles. Those aren’t very “arcade-like, but they add more texture when you want a break from the button mashing.
In addition to all the known stuff, for people who do want to explore the more niche side of classic consoles and arcade platforms, Antstream has you well and truly covered. In just my first few hours I’d played Drunk Policeman, Risky Woods, Spindizzy, and Dark Tower. I had no idea that any of these games existed before playing them, so in a real sense I was getting introduced to a new side of retro gaming. Did I like all of them? Good grief no – I think most of the forgotten retro titles are overlooked for a good reason. But there’s also both curiosity and value to digging into those lesser, obscure, and forgotten old games too. After all, they are the creative work of some people, and represent another side of the art form… and when you discover a new one that you love it’s so much the better.
The streaming quality is quite high. Nothing is saved on your side of the console, so if you do have patchy Internet, then expect to experience some lag and possibly even drop-outs. Given that most of the titles in here are action-based, that’s going to be frustrating if it is a persistent problem for you. However, for those who can enjoy the streaming quality then the games are ported competently and there are some quality-of-life features as well. Being able to save mid-way through a play in particular is an exceptional feature, allowing you to “cheat” your way through a game if it really is starting to frustrate you.
In addition to simply being able to access the library, Antstream holds regular events with additional objectives to really test your skills and mastery of the various games, and bring its community together to play arcade games the way they are meant to be played. There’s not much of a social environment beyond that, but then again there’s no social game that hasn’t been immediately drowned in toxicity, so there’s no loss in being able to play against, without really communicating with, the community. Speaking of competition, there is the obligatory online leaderboard for each title that tracks score, and plenty of multiplayer options. The long-term value of Antstream is significant for anyone who likes to challenge themselves the way we used to when games were $1 a go.
The big question is whether Antstream will survive. Especially for those who are tempted by the “lifetime” option. “Lifetime” is, again, only going to cover you for Antstream’s lifetime, not yours, and I’m always hesitant to assume that a niche streaming service is sustainable. These platforms are expensive to run and tend to require scale. Then again, it is just launching on consoles, so clearly the powers that be behind it are working on growth and scale. It’ll need to get some kind of major partner on board to build confidence in its resilience, though. When we start seeing Street Fighters and Asteroids on there we’ll know Antstream is probably going to be here to stay.
Antstream has won awards like “Heritage in Games” at the TIGA awards, and that best describes the quality of this platform. It’s a preservation library that gives players to play things that they would simply never come across, much less find a way to play. It might not be the “greatest hits” platform, yes, but if spending an afternoon wading through a library of obscure titles and trying things that alternate between happy discovery and dismal waste of time sounds like fun, then Antstream is probably something you’ll enjoy.
I don’t have anything against streaming per se. It’s kinda like renting used to be but you pay to have a month access to a certain library. I do have something against lifetime subscriptions for the reason mentioned. The more people choose lifetime the less likely the service will stay online. It’s just not a feasible profitable model and there’s no incentive whatsoever to keep the service up, let alone add new titles and features to it.