Akka Arrh
Akka Arrh is an action video game developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari. It combines elements of shooter and tower defense games. It is based on a prototype which dates back to the 1980s but was never publicly released.
It was released for Atari VCS, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox [Series X and Series S|Series X/S].
Gameplay
Players control a fixed turret shaped like ram's head being attacked by various enemies. The enemies want to steal pods from the player, which act as a health bar. Players can drop bombs on the enemies to destroy them. Enemies destroyed this way emit shockwaves that will further destroy any nearby enemies, causing chain reactions and giving increasingly large bonuses to players' score. Bombs have unlimited ammunition but reset the bonus to zero. Some enemies are immune to bombs and must be destroyed by shooting at them. This ammunition is limited to the number of enemies destroyed by bombs. Players can also find power-ups.Development
Akka Arrh was prototyped in 1982 at Atari, Inc. but was not released.When Jeff Minter was given the opportunity to remake a game from Atari's back catalogue, he chose Akka Arrh. He said the original game's design was "interesting but flawed" and lacked a compelling design to draw players back in when they lost. Atari released Akka Arrh for Atari VCS, Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Series X/S, and Switch on February 21, 2023. Ports for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR 2 were made available on March 8, 2024.