While far before my time, Atari was the mega power early in the video game industry as the dominated the home console market in the 1970s through the early 1980s. They had many amazing games that defined the era. One such being Adventure. This was an action adventure game that had you exploring a kingdom and trying to save the day. Now, 45 years after the release of the original game, Atari has teamed up with Brazilian studio Ilex Games to bring Adventure back in the form of Adventure of Samsara. At Summer Games Fest this year, we got to go hands-on with it.

Adventure of Samsara wasn’t originally an Adventure game, but we learned that as the studio was pitching the game that Atari said the game just fit so well that it made sense to turn it into one as the game fit so well into the idea of what Adventure was. However, you don’t need t0 be a fan of the original to get the most out of this game. That’s due to the fact that, while there are many references and callbacks to Adventure such as the three dragons returning, new players won’t feel lost or confused by them. Atari didn’t want to make a game that only appealed to the generation of people who played the original, but to bring Adventure to new audiences in a new way.

They are doing this in a new way with this game being a Metroidvania which makes sense as an evolution of what the original game was. While Adventure of Samara, isn’t a straight callback to the Atari 2600 style of graphics (you don’t play as just a little square), it is still fully pixelated, and reminded me of games from the NES era, but with some amazing background art. As for the game itself, it throws you into the role of the solar champion as they explore ten interconnected areas of Pluto.

The gameplay is melee based as we had access to a sword and also had the ability to parry enemy attacks when a small indicator appeared over their head for most enemies. Stronger enemies like the boss we encountered just needed to be timed correctly perform a parry. We also found one of the powerups that was a ball of light that could activate platforms and powerup various spots on the map. There is also a hub city where NPCs will return to as you find them across the map.

Adventure of Samsara has no release date yet, but is looking great, and is sure to be something fans of the original will want to dive into to see what a modern Adventure game now is.