Tempest 2000

The Good
Ok, before I begin, I have to say this: I've been an absolute Tempest freak since I was old enough to know how to work the arcade machine's controls, so I know my Tempest. And I can say: Tempest 2000 has made me damn proud of Atari and Jeff "YaK" Minter. THIS is how to properly power up and update a game for the modern age!

It all starts when you first fire up the game: you know you're in for a wild ride when you first get a glimpse of the crazy, colorful graphics and menu screen. You decide to start a new game...hmm, three choices, eh? There's Plus, which is a slightly souped up version of Traditional Tempest, Tempest Duel, which is a two player battle royale using the T2K engine, and then....the game proper...Tempest 2000.

With quivering hands, you choose Tempest 2000. Prepare yourself...

The first thing you'll notice is the fast paced, bass thumping techno music as the Web Select screen appears. Start with the first, as it's a good way to get your feet wet in this game. The first web spins into view on your screen...

Congratulations, you've reached Gamer's Heaven.

To begin everything, the gameplay is just as fast and as furiously manical as the original Tempest, and it just gets even crazier from there. The control is dead simple: move left, move right, fire, jump (with the proper Power-Up), and SuperZapper. No fancy-shamcy "tap 10 buttons to jump" here, just two directions, and three functions. The game starts out quite easy, but as you start advancing into the later boards, you'd better keep your eyes on everything, because pretty soon the enemies come in huge numbers, and then you start seeing more and more nasties abound, such as the Pulsars, UFOs, and Demon Heads. Blast enemies and you'll receive some awesome Power-Ups, which include the rapid-fire Particle Laser, the ablity to jump, and the A.I. Droid, which actually LIVES UP TO ITS NAME!!! WOOOO!!! This is about the ONLY game I've seen where A.I. actually MEANT something! It floats all about the web, trashing enemies that are outside of your firing range, saving your butt and allowing you to concentrate on enemies coming towards you. This leads up to some pretty wild shooting sprees!

Cosmetic wise, the graphics aren't anything too flashy or pretty, but they're very good and get the job done right. Besides, this is an update to a vector game here; why do you need polygons and lens flare and such?! The goraud shading on the web is pretty cool, and I like how the web pulsates with color as you play. Admit it, though: you just have GOT to love the Warp bonus rounds, with their trippy designs and the music giving you the feel of just floating lazily in space. And of course, since this is Jeff Minter we're talking about here, expect PLENTY of crazy, wildly colored graphical effects.

Sounds and music? Both are excellent. The sounds include plenty of LOUD explosions, and most of the other sounds seem a bit reminiscent of the original Tempest. Perfectly mixed and matched. And the music...bass thumping, fast paced, room shaking techno (NOT Euro-beat or Rave, thank God!) gets you into the "Mood": an almost trance-like state where you just rely on instinct and subliminal reflex to play T2K, and the perfect compliment to the fast and furious action onscreen. The best part is that the PC version has all of its music in Redbook format, so if you enjoyed the music a great deal, you can pop it into any CD player and jam to it whenever you wish! Just don't listen to the music in the car...you may start getting into the "Mood" and pretend everything you see is a Tempest enemy...:)

The Bad
Not a lot, but this is related mainly to the PC version: first, the DOS version is a pain to get playing properly, and a few effects that the Jaguar and Sega Saturn versions had (like transparencies, plasma effects, and the superb "Melt-O-Vision") are sadly missing.

For all of you gaming scrubs out there: stay CLEAR of T2K: this game gets EXTREMELY hard by the time you pass the 50th web, and if you're not man enough to play a real game, your game ends there.

Finally, I don't know why Imagitec (the people who ported T2K to the PC) bothered with an FM soundtrack...it stinks! The songs sound terrible and it hardly puts you into the "Mood" like the CD Audio does. Thankfully, you don't have to use the FM soundtrack.

The Bottom Line
This game should be used as a lesson on how to PROPERLY make a modern update of a classic game. If you ever see this game anywhere, pick it up, and prepare to witness what goes on inside the mind of one of the craziest, wildest, and sadistic minds in the game industry. YaK, you've done this Tempest fan proud!

The Good
Quite frankly, Tempest 2000 could have used a bit more work.

The only nice thing about it was really the music and the powerups. But then the same 2 were part of it's downfall (more on that later).

The Bad
OK, It's later. There were a lot of problem with this game that just completely detracted from the gameplay.

The Graphics were... blah. They could have done a lot better considering the state of computers in this day and age.

The Control is lousy. You can either use a joystick or the keyboard. No Mouse options. I would have loved to play the game with the mouse. When playing with the keyboard it is EXTREMELY difficult to control.

The sound is adequate, although the background music gets extremely annoying after a while.

But out of all the different problems, The gameplay in general is the worst. OK, flashback to the original game. The enemies come up from the center of the screen and you shot towards them. The same happens here, but the problem is increased when you get power-ups. The programmers must have thought it would be "cool" if the name of the power up appeared... guess where.... in the MIDDLE of the screen! So the powerups which are supposed to help you win the game end up hindering your progress because they block the view of the enemies as they advance.

The Bottom Line
If you are into Retro-gaming, by all means pick it up for the fact that it's Tempest. But if you are looking for a shooter, by all means there are better ones out there.

The Good
Tempest the arcade game is a great game. Tempest 2000 is a great game of virtual acid. If there was ever a game that drew me in solely on graphics and audio, this is the one.

As mentioned above, the original Tempest was fast-paced, interesting and addicting. This is the proper way to upgrade a classic game: Retain all of the gameplay and the elements that made the original so popular, then crank it up to give the player more.

The graphics are fascinating, and showed such promise for what the Jaguar could do. Bright and colorful with things going on in the background, it kept the rapid-action of the game flowing smoothly. Coupled with all of the particle explosions, and the trippy bonus rounds, and it was an experience onto itself.

Sound-wise, it still remains as one of my favorite game soundtracks. It fit the action so well with its house-techno beats and sound samples. All of this being blended with the sound effects of the original game. The pseudo-orgasmic "yes" commentary for passing through bonus round rings was funny, and a little disturbing all at once.

Gameplay-wise, if you like Tempest, it's just that, but better. The newer power-ups rock, and add more depth to gameplay. There's even a two-player mode, which handles well.

The Bad
The initial bonus rounds are a little confusing since the control is so vastly different from the rest of the gameplay. One can't feel prepared for what's going on at first, but it's able to be overcome.

The particle effects, as pretty as they are, can be a distraction when you start destroying everything on screen at once. The action gets to a point where it moves so fast that you feel like you can't keep up at times. But it offers a save feature and continues.

The Bottom Line
I will praise the audio and visuals of this game until people run away in fear of my rantings. I love the soundtrack to this game. So much so, that I ordered a copy of it from Atari (And still play at times to this day).

I wrote a review for Alien Vs. Predator, saying that it is THE Jaguar game to have. On that note, this is the OTHER Jaguar game to have. Those two titles were such a strong lead-in to the system, one can't help but wonder what happened.

But Tempest 2000 still remains one of my personal favorites. It's not so much a classic arcade upgrade as it is an experience. This should be a blueprint for all game designers on how to do an arcade remake properly. As a gamer, find a way to play this game. It's still a remarkable title, and highly recommended.