The Atari Gamestation Go feels like a system built for fans

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In an era when handheld gaming systems are growing increasingly bland—an army of glossy black rectangles framed with a familiar array of buttons and thumbsticks—My Arcade decided to do something very different: Embrace the potential chaos of too many controllers.

The Atari Gamestation Go features four face buttons, a directional pad, right and left triggers and bumpers, a spinner knob, a roller ball, and a number pad, all in the service of ensuring that people can play the games packed into the system in the same way they were played when they first hit consoles and the arcade decades ago.

The Gamestation Go comes packed with more than 200 games and lets you easily load your own legally obtained ROMs.

With its 7-inch screen, relatively light weight, massive game library, and ability to plug into a television via HDMI, the Go is likely to be my system of choice for visiting family over the coming holiday months.

And even without the excuse of family, I’ve found that the Atari system is getting a lot more attention than any of the other more than 200 handhelds I have in my collection.

A big part of that is the controls, and what a good job My Arcade did with implementing them in a practical, non-confusing way.

You can read the full column, which was first published Oct. 24 on Game.