March2024
Mini Review Akka Arrh (PS5) - Next-Gen Port Brings a PSVR2 Mode to the Table and Little Else
If it ain't broke
If the visual insanity of Jeff Minter’s wild Akka Arrh slipped you by last year when it released, you’ve got a fresh opportunity. We rather enjoyed our time with the PS4 version when it launched, so we were more than happy to dive back into a next-gen port of the vibrant, exhilarating retro title. The core gameplay experience...
February2023
Mini Review Akka Arrh (PS4) – A Psychedelic Curiosity from the Past
What a name
Akka Arrh is a contemporary re-imagining of a scrapped project dating back to the ‘80s. If that’s not an odd enough set-up to hook you, then maybe the rock-solid gameplay can do it instead. Developed by Llamasoft — the team behind the enigmatic Polybius — Akka Arrh is a unique wave shooter that tasks you with killing enemies...
July2018
What's past is prologue
Back when Atari’s attorneys rocked up on Jeff Minter’s farm and issued one of his prize llamas with a cease and desist letter, it seemed unlikely that Tempest 4000 would ever release on consoles. The eccentric industry veteran had planned on porting the PS Vita’s agonisingly underappreciated TxK to the PlayStation 4,...
May2017
Virtual insanity
There’s an urban legend of an arcade game so addictive that physical fights would break out over who would get to play next. Its mind bending gameplay managed to induce insomnia, amnesia, and hallucinations in those that played it, and just one month after it supposedly showed up in Portland arcades in 1981, every single machine...
February2014
Trippin’ balls tremendously
You could look at TxK and pass it off as a simple indie game that harks back to the arcade shooter days of old. However, dismissing it as such would not account for the history and significance behind it. Jeff Minter, the game’s creator, has been in the industry since 1982, and is arguably best known for his 1994...
