The only story in Akka Arrh is that you play as a fixed turret for which the game is named after. You defend the area from incoming sentinels that are attempting to take your orbs. Despite the game not having much of a story, the original arcade game has a rather interesting history. So the original Akka Arrh was a prototype arcade game that was created by Atari back in 1982. There are three arcade cabs known to exist but that number isn’t confirmed.
The original 1982 arcade release saw a revival thanks to the Atari 50 celebration that Atari released late last year. Either by popular demand or just to right the wrong of not having it released, Llamasoft Ltd and Atari came together to release this re-imagining of this arcade game that was once thought to be lost to time.
The game at its core is an arcade-style shooter. Though instead of just blasting things away as you would in say a game of Asteroids or Space Invaders, you are tasked with strategically killing your nemesis both from above and below. You are a stationary turret that is blasting sentinels below you with the goal being to rack up points but also to defend the orbs in the chamber below. Should the sentinels get too close, you will need to go down into the chamber and blast them away so that they don’t fly off with your orbs. If all the orbs are taken, the game ends.
This reimagining of the prototype keeps the gameplay of the original but cranks it up to 11. In this modern take, when an enemy is destroyed, it causes a blast radius to appear where it was killed. The more enemies killed within the blast radius, the larger the chain reaction you are going to get and the higher the points. In this way, it plays a lot like the original Missile Command. Controls can be adjusted so that you can have one button for your bombs and another for your turret laser shots.
With the two buttons assigned to each weapon type, it feels more like a modern shooter. You can, however, keep the controls faithful to the original by leaving it be a single button and switching on the fly depending on what’s going on in the playing field. The play area has also been adjusted so that only certain areas are affected by your weapon fire so you have to strategically time your kills. As the game progresses the difficulty ramps up, the blast radius left by your weapon and the way areas light up on the playfield all change shape. As you are killing enemies and racking up chain reactions, you will hear and see words on the screen as a form of encouragement.
If you go from playing the original prototype to playing this game, you are going to feel like you’re playing an entirely new game with how the game is presented both graphically and Performance wise. The game looks really colorful and bright with a modern 2D arcade style. Everything from the explosions to the playfield and even the text are all presented with a strobing light effect that gives it a psychedelic feel to it. You do have the option however to turn off this effect. I did it for the simple fact that I found it a lot more distracting than artistically pleasing.
The gameplay is super quick and frantic with both you and your enemies moving very quickly as the game progresses which causes you to really think on your feet a lot for the time. There aren’t any performance issues with this game at all which I am happy about with it being on the Switch. This game was definitely optimized for the Switch and not just a PC or more powerful console port.
Sound effects in this game are what you would expect from a shooter like this. Weapon fire, and enemies exploding all sound great with a retro, yet modern sound. The alarm sound when the sentinels get too close is a nice touch and the voices you hear saying words like great and awesome sound crisp and clear, even if a bit of an odd design choice. The music is spot on with it having a nice arcade techno feel that feels right at home with this game. I am glad they went in this direction instead of using something that doesn’t really fit like a mellow jazz or classical music track.
I absolutely had a blast with the original game on the Atari 50 and when this game was announced, I knew that I just had to check it out and am glad I got the chance to cover it. It’s faithful to the original game, but with so many twists and turns that just make this game a blast to play. This feels like classic Atari. This game is an 80’s Atari arcade game with a current generation coat of paint. Atari fan, shmup fan, arcade game fan, or whatever type of gamer you are, I would highly recommend checking out this game.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided