Originally developed and launched in 1979, Asteroids Recharged is a modern revival of the classic Asteroids title. While Atari is still on the publishing front, developers Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox Studios have joined hands for the development of the title and have succeeded in releasing a brilliant remake that not only retains the challenging gameplay of the original release but further improves upon it and looks really pretty while doing so as well. This is our review of the PS4 version of Asteroids Recharged in which we destroy some asteroids and collect some cool powerups.
Asteroids Recharged brings back the same classic gameplay where you are in a ship trying to survive asteroids and hostile UFOs deep in space. You use the left joystick to turn around and shoot with X while pressing Triangle teleports you to a random location on the map. To actually move around, you can use your boosters by pressing the R2 key but using the boosters is always a gamble because your ship continues to float for some time and if you are not careful, you will ram into something and you will die. Apart from these controls, you do not have any other thing to worry about. These controls sound really easy but mastering them is no easy thing.
Your main goal in Asteroids Recharged is to stay alive. You have your Arcade Mode where you spawn in solo or co-op with a local friend or family member where both of you must shoot down asteroids and UFOs around yourselves and survive for as long as possible. A single hit and you are out. The same goes for your co-op partner as well however for the remake, both players are in the game at the same time and if one of the players dies, the other one can bring you back to life as well after some time. This is a feature exclusive to the remake because, in the original title, you had to wait for player one to die before player two could have their turn.
Apart from the main Arcade mode, you have the Challenges mode where you have 30 strikingly hard challenges waiting for you. These challenges start off easily but quickly pick up in pace as you play through them. Each challenge you complete unlocks another challenge for you to tackle. These challenges range from destroying a specific number of UFOs to surviving a certain amount of time. While some challenges do repeat with tougher conditions but most of the challenges are unique.
Apart from trying to complete these challenges, you can also compete with players from around the world as you try to beat their times. Each challenge in the game has its own leaderboards and you have three categories to compete in. You have worldwide, friends and local. If you just want to beat your own scores and times, you can stick to local but if you want to take the competition online, you can try and beat the best players worldwide or just try to beat a particular friend in the Friends tab. These challenges are the place where you will be spending most of the time trying to complete them or taking on the Asteroids players from around the world.
Asteroids Recharged also features a brilliant overhaul of its visuals and sound design. This is probably the very first element you will notice in the game but the visual design of Asteroids Recharged is beautiful. It is extremely colorful but not too much that would put you away. Everything feels balanced and colorful at the same time. Since the original title was just black and white, now in the remake, everything is color-coded so it’s easier to understand what everything in the game is. To make gameplay interesting this time around, you have plenty of new powerups as well which really open up your chances of obtaining highscores that were not possible before. This time around, you can pick up power-ups such as Shields that absorb incoming fire, Side Attack Shots, Rapid Fire, and tons of more to spice up your gameplay.
Powerup UFOs have a different color, the asteroids have a different color and enemy UFOs come in a different color as well. Apart from the colorful visuals, animations are amazing as well. Black holes devouring asteroids, asteroids exploding, different effects of your shots, destroying UFOs, every animation is smooth and looks amazing in the game. When it comes to visuals, the developers have done a solid job. The same goes for the soundtrack and sound design as well. The soundtrack is composed by Megan McDuffee who is an award-winning composer.
We have seen plenty of retro titles coming back to life on modern consoles and in just the previous two months, I have played over 10 retro titles from the early gaming eras which are now released as remakes or playable via emulators. Atari is doing its part and bringing its own classic titles back as proper modern titles and Asteroids Recharged is a clear example that Atari is not half-baking anything. Asteroids Recharged is a great addition to everyone who is enjoying the onslaught of retro titles on modern consoles.
Final Verdict:
Asteroids Recharged is yet another brilliant retro title that has found its way to modern consoles in a brilliant new package. It still retains the challenge of the original title and also adapts its gameplay to make it more accessible for modern gamers. I like the fact that Atari is sticking true to the core gameplay and not making it any easier with checkpoints and save systems. Asteroids was a challenging game back then and Asteroids Recharged is a hardcore, challenging game today. You will need to master the controls in order to claim the top spots at leaderboards and I love it. If you love retro titles, this is one of the classics and it certainly deserves to be on your playlist. It is a must-play for every retro player and if you love shooting things in space.
Final Score: 8.5/10
