Akka Arrh

[h1] I'm tripping balls on this one. You drop bombs that creates wave-like effect and obliterate incoming enemies after that you receive bullets which you can use for more powerful enemies. Psychedelic visuals are the main pro here but for this type of game you would expect much moar! Still checking the game though... [/h1]

I am a huge fan of Jeff Minter's games going back to the Commodore 64 and have followed his stuff since then. So when I say that this might be my favourite game of his, I wanted it to be in context. Akka Arrh was originally an Atari arcade game that never left the prototype stage and wasn't officially released, though there are versions you can play now, including in the Atari 50 collection. It's a very hard game to explain as there's never really been anything like it before or since. The simplest version is that it's a 360 degree shooter where you're essentially a turret in the middle of the screen and trying to keep enemies away from said turret. If they touch it, they'll go underneath it and try to steal your pods. You can then drop down into the turret and try to take out the enemies that got in before they can steal them. If you run out of pods, it's game over, but you can gets pods back by achieving certain goals. You can launch bombs which reset your score combo, but create shockwaves within certain areas of each level that will kill most enemies that touch them, which will also create their own shockwaves. For each enemy killed by a shockwave, you get a bullet for your secondary gun, which fires much more quickly and doesn't reset your combo. You ultimately want to be able to use this as much as possible to score the highest in general and also to unlock extra bonuses. There are also various power-ups that will spawn and give you extra temporary abilities or just points bonuses. Even all that explanation doesn't convey what it's like to play this. You should watch it in motion to get a real idea of it. As usual, this has Jeff Minter's acid trip type visuals, which are understandably polarizing. I like them, but I don't blame anyone who thinks they're too much. You can play this with a controller, but that adds an extra layer of difficulty in my opinion and the game really benefits from the dexterity that a mouse provides. Like many Jeff Minter games, there's a unique mechanic where you can not only start a new game from the last level you completed, but you can also start with a certain score, which you can increase the delta for by replaying older levels and doing better at them. It's a really smart and clever system where unlike traditional arcade games, it doesn't force you to start from scratch with every new game, nor does it make you start at a later level, but with no score, meaning you couldn't be competitive without starting over anyway. It's a different kind of accessibility feature that you don't see in basically any other games of this type. As I said, you really should see this in motion to understand just how cool and different an experience it is. Unfortunately, like many releases from "New Atari", I think they're priced this way too high and it hasn't gotten the exposure it deserves as a result. As a huge Jeff Minter fan, I don't mind paying full price for it, but I do think most would probably be best to wait for a sale. But if you like arcade style experience and different ones, don't miss this!

You ever play a game and it becomes too tedious to the point where you kill yourself just to end the game? I don't think I ever had that feeling before when playing a Jeff Minter game (I came close during 5 a day)

[h1]アタリショック40thの爪痕[/h1] 昨今、レトロブームのおかげで何十年も前にあった過去のゲームが注目されています。すでに過去作の移植が色々出ており現在進行系で増え続けておりますが、その中には諸々の理由で過去出せなかったゲームもあったりします。 この「Akka Arrh」というATARI社が予定していたゲームも、アーケードで試作してたけど結局世に出ることはなかったらしく、今まさにそれをリメイクとして出してきたばかりです。 「Akka Arrh」はトップダウン式の防衛シューティングとなっていて、迫り来る敵から防衛拠点の地下にある「Pod」を守り抜くのが目的となります。Podは最大16個あり、それらが全て無くなるとゲームオーバーとなります。 移動は上下左右移動できる標的カーソルで、使用ボタンは対地用ボム(Bomb)+対空ショット(Fire)+敵が地下へ侵入した時に地下へ移動(Go downstairs)の3つ。 ボムを放つとフィールド上の標的カーソルの位置に爆風を発生、敵を巻き込むことができます。巻き込んだ敵は連爆し、点数が上がったり様々なフィーチャー(後述)があります。 対空ショットはあらゆる敵を攻撃できますが弾数制限があり、敵や敵弾を破壊して弾を補充する感じになります。弾数は移動カーソル上に表示されます。 敵に侵入されて地下移動した時は常時オートショットで、移動カーソルを標的に合わせ殲滅する感じになります。 なお使用デバイスは通常のアナログスティック付コントローラーとマウスに対応しており、各ボタン設定はコントローラーだとA,B,R2ボタン、マウスは左右クリックに対応してます。キーコンフィグは無いですが、ポーズメニュー(キーボードだとEsc)内の設定で何種類か配置変更のオプションがあるのでそれを使うしかありません。 ゲーム内の各敵には通常のザコ以外にもステージ(Level)が上がるにつれて、「ショットで倒したときに爆風になる敵」「爆風に当たると打ち返し弾を放つ敵」「ショットしか効かない上、耐久力がある敵」「フィールド上で倒した場合、そのフィールドが一定時間消えてしまう敵」など厄介な敵が多くなり、考えて戦わなくてはいけないストイックなプレイスタイルを求められます。 以下その他、特徴など。 [b][u]・連爆のためのフィールドについて[/u][/b] 各ステージのフィールドは様々な形をしていて、中には回転する場合があったり、その回転動作をこっちが操作できる場合があったりします。 またボムによる爆風は、ステージごとのフィールドによっては爆風滞留時間、範囲、広がり速度が異なります。 [b][u]・連爆及びアイテムについて[/u][/b] 連爆の点数は [b]1～10→20～100→200→500→MAX CHAIN(2000)[/b] となり、「[b]連爆中にボムを撃つ[/b]」か「[b]敵侵入される[/b]」か「[b]敵弾でミス[/b]」した時にリセットされます。 他にも一定の連爆数でアイテムが出現し、基本的には「MAX CHAIN」到達時からアイテムが出ます。 アイテムは以下。最初の1つ目以外は特定ステージで出現。 . 　[b]SHOOTY CURSOR[/b] : カーソルから十字方向にショット4つ追加。MAX CHAIN到達時必ず出現。ただし取得中にCHAINリセットでアイテムの効力を失う。 　[b]AUTO-SHOOTING[/b] : 数秒間敵をオートで勝手に殲滅できる。硬い敵も一撃で殲滅。 　[b]SUPER BOMB[/b] : 取った瞬間アイテムから全方向ショットを発射。 　[b]DEFLECTIVE CURSOR[/b] : カーソルを敵や敵弾に当てると硬くても一撃できる。持続時間長め。 　[b]MORE CREATURES[/b] : 敵を左右対称に複数増やす。2つ目で上下対称にも増やす。 　[b]HYPER SPEED[/b] : 敵出現や移動が高速になる。 　[b]HYPER-TOP BONUS LEVEL[/b] : Lと書かれたアイテム。敵を一律5000点にする。 　[b]BONUS[/b] : 牛アイテム。50000点追加。複数取るごとに50000点が上乗せされる。 . まずSHOOTY CURSORが必須と言っていいアイテムで、コレを取ってから攻略することになります。取った場合ボムを撃つと効力を失うので、ボムは余程の緊急回避以外は使わないようにしましょう。 他のアイテムは取ればお得程度でいいです。例外的にMORE CREATURESとHYPER SPEEDは一見罠アイテムでもありますが、稼ぎたい場合とかは取っても構わないかなと。 [b][u]・ステージクリアについて[/u][/b] 各種ボーナスや、Podの個数を回復できる場合があります。 ボーナスに関しては、「ボム発射回数が低いと高得点」なのと「地下侵入阻止時に32768点(侵入を許すとPod守れても0点)」があり、さらにショット弾薬数の一定個数分が微小ボーナスとして加算されます。これがステージクリア数が8ステージ達成で「OCTAVE COMPLETED」となって、ショット弾薬数全てが対象となります。 [b][u]・ステージセレクトに関して。[/u][/b] たどり着いたステージは仮にゲームオーバーになってもそのステージから開始できるようになっています。ただしその時のPod残り数も保存されていて、[b]不利なPodの数の状態でステージクリアしてしまうとステージセレクトで開始しても不利なままでステージ開始[/b]になってしまうので、その場合やり直した方が良いかもしれません。 [b][u]・難易度設定に関して。[/u][/b] このゲームは最初の4ステージ分はチュートリアル風になっていて、次のステージから難易度選択がメニューからできるようになってます。通常はNORMALで、もう１つがHARDとなります。 HARDは一部の敵や出現パターンが変更、ショット弾薬数の初期値が元は5なのにHARDは2、クリア時はショット全弾薬数が常にボーナス対象で初期化、さらに出現アイテムが最初のSHOOTY CURSOR以降は一部除いてほぼ全てMORE CREATURESとHYPER SPEEDという罠アイテム地獄となってます。 以上がゲームの概要ですが、やる際に注意すべき点もあります。 [h1]ゲームに関する注意点[/h1] [b][u]・操作はコントローラーよりマウス推奨[/u][/b] まずアナログスティック操作が慣性移動かつ結構遅めの移動なのでやりづらく、マウス操作の方がやりやすいのでそっちに設定しましょう。...なのですが、ウインドウモードのゲームプレイだと[b]画面外にマウスカーソルがはみ出てクリック操作した場合ポーズ画面になったりする[/b]ので、フルスクリーンでプレイした方が幾分マシになります。かなり不便です。 またマウス操作だと敵侵入時の地下移動の操作がマウスホイールボタンまたは左右クリック両方押し。タイトルメニュー時の難易度切り替えが何故かキーボードの5,6,7,8キー(全部同じ？)になってます。 [b][u]・SHOOTY CURSORありきのゲームデザイン[/u][/b] 連爆で出てくるアイテム「SHOOTY CURSOR」の十字砲火がとにかく強力で、カーソル位置で十字発射する(しかも弾数は1発しか減らない)ため対空の敵は大体コレで殲滅できます。逆にこれがないと辛い局面が多いので、１ミス自体がピンチになってゲームオーバーになりやすくなります。 [b][u]・最悪な敵の組み合わせが存在する[/u][/b] 後半猛威を振るう敵が「ボムの爆風しか効かず、ショット当てると永遠に撃ち返し弾を放つ敵(赤紫のプロペラ)」で、フィールドがあるのであれば爆風で済みますが、これと「フィールドが一定時間消えてしまう敵」の組み合わせが最悪で、間違えてフィールド消してボム爆風が使えず地下侵入確定→パワーダウン→早く対処しないと次々侵入されるというコンボを食らいます。意図なんでしょうが初見は混乱します。 またコレを含む打ち返しの敵は自機砲台の頭上に来る場合があるので、撃ってしまうと即ミスになるのも厄介です。 後半ステージになるとコレら以外の様々な敵が複合してやってくるのでとにかく大変。 [b][u]・真の敵はカメラワーク[/u][/b] カーソル移動すると画面のカメラワークがカーソルを追従するので後方が見えなくなってしまいます。コレの何が怖いかというと、[b]いきなり画面外の後方から敵弾がやってくる[/b]場合があったり、[b]「Congraturations!」のボイスと同時に撃ってくる青鉄球弾が高速で不意打ち[/b]する敵にやられたりします。大体のミス要因はこれなのでストレス溜まるのも如何かと思います。 マウスだと即対処できるので良いのですが、アナログスティックだと移動の遅さも相まってキツイです。 [b][u]・解除不可の実績[/u][/b] 以下の実績が解除されない仕様？になっています。 　[b]MMM Egg!(Activate the egg toggle)[/b] 　[b]Anorak(Play from level 0 to the end in HARD mode)[/b] 前者はそもそもEggというのがどれにあたるのか不明瞭(もしかして無い？)ですし、後者はHARDモードが0面からではなく4面からでないと設定不可能なので解除できません。 2024年1月現在、まだ制作側から何も音沙汰がないので修正は期待薄いかと。 /**/ ...と、書いておいてなんですが、ゲーム内容はさすがテンペスト2000の作者だけあって連爆の爽快感、ライン描画を用いた独特なデザイン、聞き心地良いサウンド、アブストラクトな特徴ある敵、その敵対処や敵弾の難しさも反射神経フル回転で対処可能なのが逆に緊張感あって楽しいと思います。 ゲームテンポも最初の雰囲気慣れから数十秒後本番といった感じで速くなるところが印象良かったり、ステージセレクトや難易度変更で途中から激しいプレイもありと幅広くていい感じです。 ただ注意点にある各種不親切な箇所に関してはオールドゲームの宿命なのでやむを得ない感じ。まぁ一部実績解除ができないところに関してと、[b]アタリショックの頃を引きずってるかのようなインターフェースの分かり辛さとそれなりの高額な値段[/b]に目をつぶれば遊べるレベルですので、気をつけてプレイすることをおすすめします。 分かりやすいチュートリアルとかが無いのは当時ロクな情報網が無かったため、そういう隠しを探る楽しみを見出したかったからだと邪推しておくことにしましょう。

This is Jolly Good! I don't usually enjoy score-chasers, but this has a huge "satisfaction" rating when you drop a bomb in just the right place. It looks shallow at the surface, but like Yars' Revenge, there's a deeper tactical element to it which you only really discover by playing it.

I don’t think I like Akka Ahrr, but I do recommend it. I came into Llamasoft’s work as very much a twenty-first century American human slightly afraid to get spat upon by the beasties, but also enough of an animal lover and video game fan that I brought a towel. I started extremely intrigued by Christian Donlan’s Eurogamer review that compared Jeff Minter’s creativity style to an oil painting and gave Akka Ahrr five gold stars. Thus christening it Essential, I simply couldn’t ignore the entire Jeff Minter / Llamasoft journey. So I set out to undo my ignorance and start in 1982 with Digital Eclipses collection, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Boy, has it been an enjoyable education, even if all of the games aren’t my jam. Thus, the journey is very recommended: especially pairing both Akka Ahrr and the Jeff Minter Story as a complete experience. I should say what works and doesn’t work for Akka Ahrr before I sign off. My favorite thing is when I get perfect clarity: know what I need to do and that execution is the only gap needed to cross. Akka Ahrr constantly divides you between an assortment of priorities where the joy comes from discerning the order of importance correctly. With time, I could develop this skill, have my enemy particles driven before me and hear the lamentations of their fragmented pixels. Unfortunately my motivation just isn’t high enough to do so. For the ones who that perfectly scratches their brain itch, I see how it lights up like rainbow gold. So again, not for me; but I recommend the ride.

While the game itself is fun to play the controls are so misleading and confusing. Personally had to google alot to find what the controls actually are

The program cant start because api-ms-win-core-winrt-string-/1-1-0.dlll is missing from your computer. cant get the game to run at all.... reinstalled it and checked the files twice

Akka Arrh is a retro/ancient style shooter released in 2023, and I know that "retro" is the goal here, but seriously, Atari has been a triple-A company and they should know better than to dump such primitive garbage onto Steam and charge such exorbitant prices. Gameplay is really basic stuff... you have a "shoot" and "bomb" control, and the game doesn't even feature proper graphics, it really does look like a failed video game project from 1982. Remember... this was released in 2023, around the same time as Hogwarts Legacy, Sons of the Forest and Company of Heroes 3... so to have such crap graphics from a company with a brand like Atari is just some kind of joke. And the price tag! Is this a deliberate insult to gamers??? From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The graphics here are some of the worst, laziest attempt at video game "art" I've ever seen. It's hard to suggest this game even has graphics. It's just untextured, basic pixel blocks and blobs, the kind that an infant child might be able to create in 5 minutes on MS Paint. It's clear the developer didn't even try to produce any real graphics for the game and just phoned it in. It's unclear why such a lazy approach was taken, whether it may be caused by lack of talent, budget, or motivation to do their job properly. It also doesn't matter... what matters is that this has resulted in a game with zero visual appeal for gamers. It's an immediate failure on that measure alone. While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic low quality vector art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the mediocre 2D visuals. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this game was with players reveals a surprise... there's a modest spike in player counts for the game. But this only happened once, around the same time that trading cards were applied to the game... so this is just card idlers getting their cards and moving on. A closer look at the numbers shows the game just has a couple of players every week running up the game and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards. Akka Arrh has the cash grab price of $20 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. For comparison, the $20 asking price for this game could get you games like "Dead by Daylight", "7 Days to Die" or "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this. There's also thousands of free, superior quality games on Steam. It's absolutely unacceptable for any company to charge $20 for garbage where the developer didn't even try to do any computer graphics. I have little respect for your average amateur developer working from home, but even they can do better than this tripe.

[h1]Um Renascimento Psicodélico do Passado[/h1] "Akka Arrh" é uma verdadeira joia resgatada dos confins do tempo, uma explosão visual e sensorial que traz de volta o espírito dos arcades clássicos com uma roupagem moderna e vibrante. Originalmente concebido nos anos 1980, este projeto que nunca chegou a ver a luz do dia em sua época retorna agora para proporcionar uma experiência única de arcade shooter, repleta de ação frenética, gráficos psicodélicos e mecânicas viciante. Um Tesouro Perdido, Agora Redescoberto A história por trás de "Akka Arrh" já é fascinante por si só. Nos anos 1980, os desenvolvedores criaram o protótipo de um jogo promissor, mas por razões desconhecidas, o projeto foi arquivado e esquecido com o tempo. Agora, décadas depois, esse conceito abandonado renasce das cinzas com uma abordagem moderna, trazendo à tona um estilo de jogo nostálgico, mas com mecânicas e visuais contemporâneos que falam tanto com os fãs dos arcades clássicos quanto com uma nova geração de jogadores. Uma Experiência de Ação Arcade Rápida e Viciantes No coração de "Akka Arrh" está a ação arcade em ritmo acelerado. O jogo coloca os jogadores no controle de uma nave com a missão de defender seus anéis de vida de enxames intermináveis de inimigos que atacam em todas as direções. É um jogo de reflexos rápidos e decisões instantâneas, onde cada movimento conta e cada erro pode custar caro. A jogabilidade é extremamente simples de entender, mas desafiadora de dominar. À medida que você elimina os inimigos, pode formar combos devastadores, encadeando explosões e destruindo múltiplos adversários ao mesmo tempo. O objetivo principal é obter a pontuação mais alta possível, o que dá ao jogo aquele sabor clássico de arcade, onde a busca pelo high score é quase uma obsessão. Visual Psicodélico: Uma Explosão de Cores e Luzes Uma das características mais marcantes de "Akka Arrh" são seus visuais. O jogo traz gráficos psicodélicos que lembram as máquinas de fliperama dos anos 80, mas com um toque moderno. Cores vibrantes, luzes piscantes e efeitos caleidoscópicos tomam conta da tela a cada segundo, criando uma atmosfera imersiva e alucinante. Essa estética não é apenas para agradar os olhos; ela faz parte da experiência completa. A arte visual intensifica a sensação de caos e velocidade, enquanto você navega por ondas de inimigos e explosões. O visual de "Akka Arrh" faz com que cada partida pareça um show de luzes em movimento, elevando o sentimento de urgência e excitação. Som e Trilha Sonora Complementando o espetáculo visual, a trilha sonora e os efeitos sonoros de "Akka Arrh" são dignos de nota. Ritmos eletrônicos pulsantes, sons explosivos e um clima sonoro retrô ajudam a criar uma imersão completa no universo arcade do jogo. Cada combo ou destruição é acompanhado por efeitos sonoros que fazem com que você se sinta em uma verdadeira batalha de alta intensidade. O som não é apenas um complemento, mas uma parte integral da atmosfera do jogo. Proteja Seus Anéis de Vida A mecânica central de "Akka Arrh" gira em torno de proteger seus "life rings" ou anéis de vida. Esses anéis representam sua sobrevivência no jogo, e perder todos eles significa o fim da partida. A cada ataque que você falha em repelir, um desses anéis é destruído, adicionando uma camada de estratégia ao caos. Não basta apenas atirar e destruir – é preciso planejar seus movimentos, proteger seus anéis e maximizar seus combos para prolongar sua vida o máximo possível. Essa combinação de ação frenética com a necessidade de proteger seus anéis de vida cria uma dinâmica de jogo intensa, onde cada segundo importa. Cada partida se transforma em uma montanha-russa de adrenalina e habilidade. [h1]Recomendação[/h1] "Akka Arrh" é um tributo brilhante ao passado dos jogos de arcade, mas com a sofisticação e o polimento que só os jogos modernos podem oferecer. Se você é um fã dos shooters clássicos, ou simplesmente ama jogos que desafiam seus reflexos e habilidades, este jogo é para você. Seu ritmo frenético, visuais psicodélicos e mecânica viciante fazem de "Akka Arrh" uma experiência memorável e cativante. Além disso, para aqueles que se deliciam com a busca pelo high score, este jogo oferece o tipo de desafio que fará você voltar para mais, tentando superar seus próprios limites. "Akka Arrh" é mais do que um jogo – é uma viagem no tempo, uma celebração da era de ouro dos arcades, com uma execução que consegue ser moderna e nostálgica ao mesmo tempo. Então, prepare-se para mergulhar em uma explosão de cores, luzes e ação vertiginosa. "Akka Arrh" é uma experiência arcade imperdível, ideal para quem busca adrenalina, desafio e diversão ininterrupta.