Akka Arrh is latest title from Jeff Minter to get the Virtual Reality treatment. With my love for Polybius on PSVR, it was something I was excited to get into and play.
Release Date: March 8th 2024
Developer: Llamasoft
Publisher: Atari
Price: US $19.99 / CA $26.99 / €19.99 / £15.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
Also playable in flatsceen
* Code Provided For Review *
PEAK LLAMASOFT
I think it would be best to prefix this review with, like Polybius, Akka Arrh will not be for everyone, but if it is for you, you will love it. Akka Arrh offers what seems to be a simple score attack game at first glance, but it soon starts to throw in elements that can be a bit overwhelming as you get used to them.
At first you will be dropping bombs and any enemies within the blast radius will explode, in turn destroying and other enemy in their radius causing an extension of explosions until the chain stops. But, hold on a minute, you can also shoot enemies and the caveat is some enemies can only be taken out this way.
Now, comes the more complex side of it, launching a bomb is going reset your current combat chain, which is multiplying your score – where firing your bullets will not. Taking out your enemies will bullets still causes them to explode, so you could still cause these to chain together if timed correctly. This means to maximise your score on the levels, you will need to carefully balance out the use of bullets and bombs.
But wait! Thats not all, you will have limited ammo, however, this will refill when an enemy is killed by an explosion – this is happening a lot, so you might not need to worry about your ammo depleting that often. Then add to this the fact the enemies will not only be firing at you, but if they reach you they will go to a level beneath your stage, and start to take out your pods. When this happens you will need to go down to this level and take out the invaders with a simpler shooting game, which will then fire you back to the surface.
As you would also expect with this sort of game, you will get power-ups to collect that will make the shooting element a lot more effective. But, with the aforementioned lower level being triggered it is sometimes easy to miss the opportunity to get these – which does add an extra importance of trying to keep everything as far away as possible at all times.
IN A TRANCE
In true Jeff Minter style Akka Arrh is going to be an assault on all of your senses. With everything going on in the headset putting you into a trance. As the stages get filled with ever-expanding explosions, the psychedelic backgrounds, the changing patterns and messages moving across them – all while the bullets from incoming and outgoing fire are filling the screen.
Add a thumping soundtrack to all of these great effects and it all comes together perfectly for that peak Llamasoft aesthetic to match the gameplay.
COMFORT
THE VERDICT
Summary
Akka Arrh is not a game for everyone – it does fall firmly into the category of a game that will be either loved or hated depending on the player. Personally, I fall into the prior and have loved my time playing Akka Arrh. In true Llamasoft/Jeff Minter style this game is going to put you into trance and assault all your senses, as you fall into the zone of scoring the most points possible.
