PLAY
Akka Arrh
J eff Minter’s typically kaleidoscopic take on a lost Atari arcade game (a wider rollout of which was scrapped after test audiences in 1982 found it too difficult) punishes those with itchy trigger fingers. In that regard it’s deliberately counter-intuitive: as a fixed turret in the middle of a platform suspended in space, your instinct is to fire at will. Instead, you’re rewarded for precision and careful timing. A tap of the fire button drops a bomb on the surface; its shockwave ripples outward, destroying any enemies it touches, which in turn creates further shockwaves. As such, a single, wellplaced bomb can create a sustained chain reaction that takes out new enemies as they spawn in without further input on the player’s part. Holding your fire is often key to a high score: the tally per enemy increases as the chain does, only resetting if you deploy another bomb. This being a Llamasoft game, the ultimate goal is to earn a Jesus And Mary Chain.