Lunar Lander Beyond from Atari

Lunar Lander Beyond

From arcade to remaster, Lunar Lander Beyond is the latest Atari title to recreated from the ground up by Dreams Uncorporated!

Lunar Lander Beyond is the latest game to get the remastered, re-energized, polished treatment from Atari, with the help of Dreams Uncorporated. The Beyond moniker is similar to the Recharged titles, but has gone even further. It’s like playing a brand new game with the same base mechanics instead of just improving the graphics. We are even given a fully animatic cinematic experience with the gameplay, adding to the world beyond any of the previous reborn titles from Atari. Seriously, this looks and feels like it was designed from the ground up.

Sometimes you play a game and swear up and down you were playing a different title. I have memories of watching my father play Lunar Lander on our Atari back in the 80’s and him kicking my ass at it too. Looking at pictures of games from that time it’s clear that my memories have been of Gravitar after all. Memory can be a funny thing. Again, looking at the pictures it’s clear I have no memory of playing the original, despite my original claim in our review video about the game. Thankfully some followers straightened me out on that and I apologize to anyone that I confused or unintentionally misled there. Compared to the title I thought I had played, this game felt exactly like my memories of that but this time I’m at least more skilled than I was about 40 years ago. The original title was released only in arcades in 1979 and never (at least as far as my research can confirm) released on the Atari itself.

The cinematic visuals are absolutely stunning and feel like you’re watching a cyberpunk-themed anime. Game play is difficult if you are heavy handed like myself and require a lot of finesse. I typically hate games that require a gentle touch but found myself having a lot of fun. The production quality definitely helped with that.

Atari classic Gravitar returns with Recharged

Gravitar

Gravitar is the latest Atari title to receive the Recharged treatment for the current generation of consoles.

The last time I had even heard of Gravitar was in the days when Atari gaming was in its prime. Playing it then I never got very far but my dad had the patience and skill to pilot the ship to victory. Fast forward a couple decades and not much has changed on my end with this Next Gen release.

In both iterations of the game you play a lone pilot trying to get home. While the controller themselves are entirely different the experience feels very much the same. A little too much acceleration when pointing the wrong direction can spell certain doom for this pilot. Each map is a new solar system where you must complete various challenges before being able to move on to the next solar system via a massive black hole. The question remains, will I ever bring this pilot home? For the now the answer is easy, its not going to happen. I al simply too heavy handed when it comes to a game that requires so much finesse and because of that I have yet to complete the first system. Despite my many, many failures I found the game to be challenging but enjoyable.