Jeff Minter’s Akka Arrh is making a comeback

Jeff Minter’s Akka Arrh is making a comeback

Long lost shmup making a surprise comeback

Akka Arrh is one of the unicorn video games that’s so rare to find (only three cabinets were ever made) that the overwhelming majority of the video game world has no idea that it even exists. Well, Atari wants to remind you that yes, it does. It already released a prototype of the 1982 arcade game in its most excellent Atari 50 collection, and now it has revealed that a full new version of the game is on the way.

Akka Arrh is a single-screen stationary shoot’ ‘em up in which players control a center-mounted cannon turret (the Akka Arrh itself) as waves and waves of enemies approach. The cannon tilts and pivots, and players need to manage not only the waves from a distance but also the enemies that make it within the perimeter. All of this is wrapped in a wildly psychedelic aesthetic, as is the norm for modern Atari remakes — and I’m totally fine with that.

Akka Arrh is coming to PC, PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch, and Atari VCS in early 2023.