I don't know what to say about this game. A lot of people tell me its great. The arcade game must be great then because this 5200 port of Tempest is top notch quality yet mediocre in some ways. Read on to know more.
GAMEPLAY D+: Atari really screwed up the gameplay for this game. Sure its fast and somewhat fun, but the enemies scale in so quickly that instead of going to them and shooting them. You end up just going around in circles or back and forth to just defeat the enemies. Another thing I have to complain about is the fact that you can't lose any lives. It makes the game very easy and somewhat boring to play. This game however is great for high score but it does not take much to get a good high score.
GRAPHICS B+: I know I am rating it a little to high for some people, but here's the thing. Tempest is a 3D style game with scaling enemies and creative level designs. Its not extremely colorful, that's for sure. In the arcades the game looks a bit cleaner from the snapshots I seen.
SOUND B-: I don't hate primitive sound. In fact the sound is just fine. Sure it does not have music or any creepy voice samples that the 5200 can produce, but the sound is just fine. The sound effects are nice and have that 8 bit feel to them.
ADDICTIVENESS C: I would have rated this section an A if the game actually had lives you could lose. In fact there is 3 lives on the top of the screen but maybe its a glitch or something. Either way because of this there is not much that will have you coming back for more. However what might motivate you to play more. Is to play on the unique level designs.
DEPTH A+: The best aspect of the game is the extreme amount of levels to play on. There are 99+ levels, you can select one up to level 83, you can change the difficulty, and play with a friend!
DIFFICULTY VERY EASY: Since you can't lose any lives. There's no risks or any difficulty what so ever.
OVERALL RATING C+
Screenshots
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