Rarely has an old game flown under my radar, especially of the Atari type. I have a gazillion Atari games, plenty of old systems before and after the Atari days, and I’m pretty much in the know about all the ancient classics. It does help that I’m ancient.
This brings me to my point here. How did I miss Akka Arrh? It was a 1982 unreleased prototype of an Atari arcade game. I’m sure it was unreleased because Atari (the old version) collapsed an entire industry thanks to its mismanagement of money and ideas, which led to the industry’s demise starting with the arcades. It’s a shame that this game didn’t get released because it’s incredibly addictive.
Akka Arrh runs along the same lines as Missile Command with the exception that you’re looking down on the level instead of on its side. It is an interesting way of playing defense. In addition to that gameplay style, it has a killer soundtrack attached to it that seemed to go in rhythm with the attacks you must fend off, and it is colorful as it is creative. What’s even more remarkable is that this remake of an unreleased classic arcade game still does one classic gameplay design element that isn’t often seen these days…it just keeps score. That is the goal. Get the highest score.
So old school.
Anyway, let’s get this going.
Flash boom!
Akka Arrh’s gameplay style requires you to watch its tutorial. The first time I did the “skip-skip-skip” on the gameplay tutorial, I instantly regretted it. The gameplay is fast, furious, and thoroughly confusing if you don’t take the time to read. That’s my biggest warning to anyone daring to jump into this cool and stylish Atari creation. Stay for the tutorial so you get a complete understanding of what the hell you’re supposed to be doing. It’s worth the time.
Once you get beyond the tutorial, which is about five minutes long, the game is instantly easy to understand. You play some demon creature with temporary shielding around you. You must protect a series of pods from getting destroyed by an endless enemy barrage. When you counter-fire at an oncoming missile, you create a giant burst of energy that, when placed correctly on the screen, can detonate other missiles following the initial one. Your goal in the game comes in two forms:
- Protect your little demon dude and the pods.
- Try to cause a large chain reaction of explosions without using up all your ammo.
It’s just that easy of a game.
Getting a chain reaction to happen is simple. You just wait to see patterns/directions from the oncoming missile barrage, then you lay down one bomb to see how many others you can detonate before they do damage. In addition to your initial bomb blast, exploding an enemy also causes another chain reaction which keeps the explosions going. You can sit back and listen to the music at this point.
The addictive nature of this gameplay is how many chain reactions you can get. The more you get, the more points you acquire, and the trippier the experience becomes with lights, patterns, and shapes. There are a lot of flashing colors going off in this game, but they’re somewhat pleasant with a good musical/techno score booming underneath.
To keep the game more interesting, as you climb through the later levels, your explosions will change shape, meaning that the diameter (I never knew I would use geometry in real life, but here we are) of the blast changes its reach. For example, you start out with star shapes in the initial tutorial. You move to diamond from there. For each level achievement, you get a more interesting and somewhat restricting shape that may cause you to change your strategy of approach. The game becomes far more fascinating because of this and feels more like a completed game that was well-thought-out rather than a short arcade experience. I can dig that completely.
If changing blast shapes wasn’t enough, the game also features additional layers of shielding and landscape where your blast radius reach is restricted. Some of this landscape won’t allow you to have a blast radius, which means you can’t hit enemies. You then must change strategy with the evolving landscape. This is masterfully designed to keep the gameplay interesting, and it does its job.
Once you get beyond the sixth level of the game, you’re in for another change/addition. The enemies keep coming, the explosion blast shape changes, the landscape is altered, and then new enemies are added. These enemies require an initial first curved shot to disarm and then an additional curved shot, which must reset, to take the enemy completely down. If you don’t get the latter going, the ship will crash into your shield. Some of the later levels really have ships smashing into your shield quickly. You must be awake and aware of enemy movement. It gets rather intense.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, there’s so much going on with this simple game. Lots of high-sensation value to the gameplay, and more importantly, there is a lot to juggle as you progress further and further. In a way, this is perfect for an arcade game experience. The odds usually get higher as you progress in any arcade game and the gameplay sometimes becomes a bit much, but in a good way. In this respect, Akka Arrh is a perfect arcade experience. It keeps you guessing, changes enough to make the levels challenging, and keeps you on your toes.
It’s honestly too bad this never got a chance to see the light of day.
Just a minor knock
The only real knock I have about this game is that its intentions are to be an 80s arcade experience, and, well, that’s always a short-lived one. If you can emotionally accept that this is what it felt like to play an arcade game while waiting on your parents to pick you up from a local arcade, then you’re in for a treat. If you’re expecting some deep amount of gameplay that keeps you focused and engaged for 10-20 hours at a time, well, you’re in the wrong place. As arcade game experiences go, this is true to form. Some may not know that is the case because they didn’t grow up in an arcade-driven world and that might put them off a bit.
Classic enough
What Atari did right with Akka Arrh is that they spruced it up to make it look amazing, added some much-needed audio revamp, and brought out a game that has only three arcade cabinets in existence. The way they treated it with this release gives this prototype game value and it makes it fun. They did a superb job on the visuals and audio and kept that classic arcade essence at the same time. You must appreciate that effort if you’re a gamer.
Anyway, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Akka Arrh is a fascinating game that finally gets a proper release after forty years. The gameplay is fast, addictive, and embodies everything great about an 80s arcade experience.
