I thought about this when I first started looking at Atari Flashback Classics on Switch — long before I started the Atari A to Z Flashback series, in fact — but old Atari 2600 games make brilliant handheld games, and the Evercade has only made this all the more obvious.
Most of these games are designed for quick play sessions. Those that aren't based around a lives mechanic are usually limited to the very specific (with good reason) two minutes and sixteen seconds, while those that are based on lives are generally so monstrously difficult that a single playthrough probably won't last more than two minutes and sixteen seconds, at least when you're starting out.
These short play sessions make it easy for the game to have an addictive quality, because it's practically no time commitment to have "just one more" go — and playing a bunch of games in rapid succession generally allows you to see marked and noticeable improvement, easily measured by your score or progress through the game's levels. Perfect for when you want to while away a few minutes rather than hours.
So far I've been especially enjoying the Atari 2600 version of Missile Command (which I think I might like better than the Atari 8-bit/5200 and arcade versions) and the Atari 7800-exclusive Food Fight. I haven't delved into Centipede yet, but I'm pretty sure that will have a very similar effect on me.
Toilet breaks will never be the same again!
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