In case you don’t know, Antstream Arcade is a subscription service that allows us to play more than 1,300 retro or retro-style games via streaming. It was already available for Xbox and PC platforms, but —As we recently announced— has finally arrived on PS4 and PS5. PS5 received a review subscription and we were able to test out this service from Colombia to see if it’s worth it.
The first thing you need to understand is that by installing Antstream Arcade you are not installing the thousands of games that are included in its platform. This service is similar to others such as Claro Gaming Cloud that stream to our screens. In other words, it’s like Netflix, which doesn’t download movies but plays them directly from the Internet.
How does this service work?
By selecting one of the games from the extensive list offered to us, The platform loads the game on a remote server and displays it directly on our screen..
The console and the service are just acting as an intermediary between the server on which the game is running and us. This is nothing new, but there has always been concern about the ‘lag’ that these games can present when running this way. On other services we have seen that there is a short but noticeable wait between the moment we press a button and the moment the action is displayed on the screen. Is the same true with this new platform?
Can Antstream Arcade be used in Colombia?
When we received the code we were surprised to discover that This service is not officially available for our country.You won’t find it in the PlayStation Store for Latin America. However, it’s common for many players in the region to use American or European accounts to take advantage of certain offers, buy games more easily or access titles that aren’t available here, so there was no problem installing the app and activating the subscription.
Basically, what we mean is that if you are interested in subscribing to Anstream Arcade from Colombia, we recommend using a US account.
The problem of ‘lag’ when playing from Colombia
We tested Anstream Arcade with a 400MB wired internet connection on PS5but it wasn’t enough to give us a smooth experience. In all the games we tested we noticed some ‘lag’ that made them less enjoyable and in some cases, unplayable.. Marking a ‘power’ in a fighting game was a complicated task and no matter how quickly we reacted to the opponent’s movements, fractions of a second of lag were enough to make us lose.
The physical distance between the client and the servers is something that can affect the service and we have no doubt that this is one of the reasons why the Antstream Arcade service is not officially available in Colombia. It is very possible that if you play from the United States or other first world countries where they do have servers, the ‘lag’ will not be a problem at all.
The games
It is a pity that this service does not work perfectly in our country because has a list full of real treasures among its list of more than 1,300 games. It’s true that there is some rubbish there and some truly bizarre works (we were particularly struck by a 2D platformer inspired by the works of Jane Austen). We found LucasArts games for the SNES, classic SNK fighters, a host of puzzle, shooter and action games for arcades. But the real gems were the titles for older consoles and computers such as the Spectrum and various Atari versions.
You can find the complete list of available games here.
If you’re a retro gamer in the US or another officially supported country, this service can be well worth your time. Plus, the multiplayer system, tournaments, and daily challenges can be fun and help you discover things you didn’t even know existed. Sadly, I don’t recommend signing up for Antstream Arcade from Colombia using an account from another country, even with the best possible internet connections you’ll have a suboptimal experience.
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