Checking Out My Arcade's Atari Gamestation Go

With the gaming industry consistently pumping out new titles, many of which require dozens and dozens of hours to finish, it can be difficult to find time to play them to completion. This is especially true when your window to game is short on a day-to-day basis. While the modern landscape certainly provides more casual and bite-sized experiences, for gamers of a certain age it can be more fun to dip back into the industry’s past for that fix.

On that front, retro consoles and handhelds have become a popular alternative. If you were to venture into my garage right now, in fact, you’d find a TV mounted on the wall with three such consoles hooked up—the NES Classic Edition, the Super NES Classic Edition, and the PlayStation Classic. A new system joined them in late 2025, albeit in handheld form, with My Arcade's Atari Gamestation Go.

After spending more than a month with the retro system, here are five things I liked about the Atari Gamestation Go:

5) It Feels Well-Constructed

Although the exterior has a bit of a plastic feel to it, nothing about the Atari Gamestation Go comes across as second-rate. It’s packaged nicely and comes with sturdy cables for charging and an HDMI for hooking it up to your TV. The unit itself feels solid in my hands, and though it’s a bit larger than other handhelds I have like the Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam Deck, it doesn’t feel awkward to hold it for long periods.

4) The Presentation Is Effective

As you scroll through the various games on offer, each one features a breakdown of that title, a picture of the box art or arcade cabinet (if available), and a look at the game in action. There’s a full list of the instructions as well, and the system’s SmartGlow will illuminate the controls you’ll be using in orange. On the surface it’s a small touch, but it’s a smart inclusion.

3) It Does a Good Job of Being Authentic With How You Play Many of the Games

One of the cleverer features at work here is how the system attempts to make playing these retro games as faithful to the original as it can. That means offering a Trak-Ball for games like Centipede and Missile Command or a paddle for Tempest. A numeric keypad is also available for the Atari 5200 games. It’s a nice touch.

2) There Are a Solid Number of Classic Games, Including a Few Unexpected Ones

Many of the games you’d associate with Atari are here, led by Asteroids, Missile Command, Centipede, and Breakout. PAC-Man is included as well. You get a handful of pinball tables and a ton of games from Jaleco, including the Bases Loaded series, which were some of the better 8-bit baseball titles, and games from Piko Interactive. There are ways to add more games from other systems as well, though it’s not an advertised feature of the Gamestation Go.

1) It’s Fun to Revisit Many of These Simpler Titles

With over 200 games, there are going to be some duds, and that’s definitely the case here with some feeling hopelessly outdated and others making me wonder how anyone ever enjoyed playing them. There’s plenty of good ones, though, and many were built to munch quarters, meaning you don’t need to invest serious time into learning game mechanics. That makes them a nice fit for short gaming sessions before bed or during a break.

The 2 Things I Did Not Like

2) There’s No Analog Stick

Although the Gamestation Go features multiple ways to play its titles, there is no analog stick to simulate the joystick experience from certain games. An Arcade Stick is a licensed peripheral coming in the future (at least according to the pamphlet inside the box, as of now nothing appears on the actual website), which could address the issue, though at how much of an increased cost above the unit’s $180 MSRP is unclear. For now, it feels like a missed opportunity, as the d-pad struggles with some of the arcade titles.

1) It Could Use More Games Included

On paper, saying a system contains 200-plus games sounds good, but when you actually get your hands on it there are a number of titles that have multiple versions. For example, Asteroids has five iterations, one for the Atari 2600, one for the 7800, two arcade versions, and then the Recharged one. There are three versions of PAC-MAN, but no Ms. PAC-MAN. My Arcade makes other products with licenses from Bandai Namco and Capcom. It already got PAC-MAN licensed, so why not get games like Dig Dug, Galaga, 1942, Street Fighter II and so on? And where are Space Invaders and Pitfall?

Final Thoughts

The Atari Gamestation Go is a solid system, highlighted by the multiple controller options available so you can play games as they were intended in many cases. While its price point is significant, if Atari’s glory days are of interest and you have some disposable income, My Arcade does a nice job of providing a means to enjoy the company’s history.