During the prime time of Atari, there were many timeless gems such as Space Invaders and Kaboom! , and Atlantis. It was hard during this time to implement new ideas without being too difficult and that was what Akka Arrh did. Instead of the usual fixed point shoot-’em-up style, Akka Arrh didn’t want to go the same route as the others that already existed, it kept the shoot-’em-up style of gameplay but changed the viewpoint from a fixed point to a top-down view. The developers of AkkaArrh believed that was not enough to create something that will stand out so they decided to expand the shooting mechanics. By doing so, the developers consequently made the game too difficult for the average gamers at that time, so Atari decided to scrap the project.
Ever since that, not many have heard about Akka Arrh at all and doubted that the game still exists. Until February 2023, the legendary game designer, Jeff Minter, and his company, Llamasoft, decided to revitalize the game and that’s what we have today.
Akka Arrh is a reimagined version of a prototype Atari arcade machine from the ‘80s that will provide players with a fast-paced, addictive, arcade shooter experience and psychedelic visuals.
Akka Arrh is a top-down shooter where you’re tasked with defending yourself from colorful, abstract enemies using bullets and bombs. Bombs destroy most basic enemies and create chain explosions, which are the main way you gain points. For every enemy you blow up with a bomb, you get a bullet, which you have to use to destroy the bigger enemies that are immune to bombs. To get the most points possible, you only want to drop one bomb and then keep the explosion chaining for as much of the level as possible. When you get a good chain going, Akka Arrh feels awesome; waves of geometric shapes destroy enemies before they even hit the ground.
Surprisingly, there’s a little bit of lore and story for Akka Arrh. In essence, you are the Senitel, a turret of the Atarain Federarion that uses an ancient star cannon “Akka Arrh”, that you must harness to push back the Jarzan forces.
The game is really hard for a top-down shooter even in the normal mode, which is common for all of us to pick. Unlike the old days of arcade games, you luckily don’t have to go through all the previous levels to get to where you left off, instead, you can jump back whenever you want.
Akka Arrh offers a total of 50 levels to go through, sadly there aren’t a lot of variations between the levels except for the background and some visual differences for basic enemies. From time to time, a new change that you’ll encounter is a new enemy type that only takes damage from bullets instead of bombs.
While the game doesn’t offer much variety-wise, it makes up for that with its challenging difficulty. After some time, you may find one annoying aspect is that the camera moves with your cursor. I get the game wanting to give you free rein to fly around the level. That is ideal until you realize how frequently bullets and enemies spawn off-screen when you’re aiming too far in the opposite direction. This situation is made worse when you gain a power-up that kills enemies from far away, and you kill one that launches bullets on death without realizing it and could end your streak, especially with how intense the game is, it’s frustrating to have your streak and score messed up in that manner.
The biggest gripe I have with Akka Arrh is its art direction. Others may like the overall style of the art but all the flashing psychedelic visuals are way too much and too disorienting for my eyes, luckily there’s an option to disable them in the settings. Sometimes, there’s a chance that you trigger the biggest chain of an explosion ever and the thing you will see is just a bunch of flying pieces everywhere. At that moment, it’s hard to know if there are any remaining enemies or if bullets are heading toward you or not. The art direction also contributes to a somewhat mediocre UI; it’s cool and visually to see explosions, swirling text, and massive, expanding symbols to congratulate you for your streak of explosions that will end up as a distraction. It’s annoying that necessary information like what power-ups you have or how much health you have is absent.
It’s cool to see a scrapped project back from the 80s be modernized with blasting colors and explosions left and right. Despite its shortcomings, Akka Arrh is still enjoyable and a blast for those that never had a chance to try out the prototype. It features an addictive experience that is ultimately brought down by the overwhelming visuals and confusing, abstract game mechanics.
Score: 7 of 10
Review on PC