Available for Nintendo Switch, PS4/5 and Xbox
Anyone who has played the original Asteroids will find Asteroids Recharged settings for button mashing very unnatural. That’s because long time players of this game have grown accustomed to pushing buttons to aim and steer the spacecraft to shoot away these rocks in space. Even with the many versions available on the Internet (sometimes called Atari Reloaded), I’m more inclined to load up those takes than to play the official product.
My skill with the original and Atari 2600 lets me get farther. To put this game on a stick is odd. I need my buttons! At least some of them can be assignable through system preferences. But having a reconfigured setup plays better on an arcade fight stick. Also, I’d require a cabinet sized spread than a small one, which I picked up on Amazon to test if my theory is true, and I’ve lasted longer.
It’s good to see this latest release sticking to what past Recharged games offer. Like it or not, one life is never enough here, and all I can say is that the developers are at least consistent; all those power-ups offered in Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox‘s development template are the same. From a one blazing shot of a ‘wave motion cannon’ to a spread, it makes blowing rocks up easier. They often appear after destroying UFOs, but as for surviving, only the nimble fingered can last through this asteroid field of terror.
I kind of support the difficulty of having only a single life. It makes progressing up the online leaderboard all the more challenging. As I look at the scores in other games, there are times I wonder how others have managed to get those super high of a score. They’re definitely more agile with the controller than I am, or I need to flex my gaming muscles more with hours of endless practice and play.
I’m hopeful a massive update is offered. I want to play the original. As for whether more games are in development, it’s tough to say. Atari has enough vector-based content that’s worth porting over. But as for whether the time is right for another Tempest, only time will tell. In part two, I offer my hopes and dreams for how this series can continue in 2022 and which games I like to see Recharged.
3 Rocks Out of 5
Asteroids Recharged Gameplay
