In 1981, Dave Theurer and Atari released Tempest, an arcade game that approached the space shooter from a new perspective – literally. It was like Space Invaders in third person, with vectorized visuals and that psychedelic vibe that made outer space so cool in the 1970s. Programmer Jeff Minter would later leave his mark on the idea with Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar, and…
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Visual style retains the classic feel of the original
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Challenging, but fair
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Core gameplay loop is addictive, arcade action
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Excellent electronic soundtrack with several tracks
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Light on bonus and/or historical content
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Sometimes hard to tell what's happening when explosions pop off
