Tempest 4000 has been somewhat of an enigma in the gaming scene. In 2015, Jeff Minter, best known for developing Tempest 2000 released an obscure PS Vita game called TXK, which was a remake of Tempest 2000 but without the Tempest name. Tempest 2000 was not only known for being an amazing update of an arcade classic, but also the shining gem of a console most people today only know because of an angry gamer making a video about how much of a flop it was. Atari took legal action, and it only remained on a failed handheld gaming console due to the fact that Jeff Minter didn’t want to have his bank accounts drained fighting a dubious lawsuit.

Fast forward several years later to August 2017, and Jeff Minter not only made amends with Atari but was even working on a new Tempest title: Tempest 4000. There was just one problem, the game not only took a while to come out, but through 2018 its release date kept slipping further and further. Months would go by, as release date after release date was passed, to the point where when Tempest 4000 finally came out it’s almost like it was sent out to die. To rub salt in the wound, Tempest 4000 was released accidentally on the PS4 for around an hour or so, before being pulled off the store and released a few months later. The whole rumor behind this is that Microsoft was causing issues approving the game, something confirmed on the official forums, but now it’s finally out for 20 dollars on the PC, but on consoles its 30 dollars. Yes, 30 dollars.

So what is Tempest 4000? Well, Tempest 4000 is essentially a tweaked version of TxK, down to sharing a similar menu layout and the same gameplay mechanics of TxK. Essentially this game could be summed up as a tweaked version of TxK, except with a lot more visual effects spammed there, giving the game the smeared effect overload look of Tempest 3000 on the Nuon at times. The biggest difference between this game and TxK is the Atari license. The game has the Atari logo everywhere in the title screen, lots and lots of Atari references added in to the text messages, and both the Tempest 2000 CD soundtrack used for the port and the original Tempest 2000 mod file soundtrack, along with the TxK soundtrack. Essentially this is a formula that should be a grand slam, but sadly this isn’t the case with Tempest 4000.

First of all, the gameplay changes from TxK carry over into Tempest 4000, from earning points after a level by flying into objects to being a lot harder, from more enemies being on screen in earlier levels to the fact that when you die the level doesn’t reset itself, it respawns you in the level where you were.

The PC port has a bunch of issues. The graphics options are heavily limited, and furthermore the game logic is designed to run at 60hz, and nothing higher. If you’re rich and own a #gamer 144hz monitor, the game will run far too fast, and you need to limit the framerate with a tool or something.

There is a lack of polish in many areas, with the menus for example being carried over from TxK and not mentioning the new option to pick which soundtrack you want. Here’s a gamer tip, it’s the Y button. You’re welcome; I had to google for it on some forum to find that.

But there is one issue, one major issue that completely breaks the game itself. It’s the controls. You’d think that they’d tighten up the controls, considering how tight they felt in Tempest 2000 on either the Jaguar original or the ports, but they feel terrible. With a gamepad, the D-Pad only works in the menu. That’s right, only in the menu. The nanosecond you press the start button the D-Pad quits working. You can’t use the D-Pad in game, you can only use the analog stick and oh man the analog stick is horrible.

I think the best way to describe the controls is as “slippery”. There’s no precision to them, your zapper moves around the screen way too fast, and it’s very hard to control, especially as you get further and further into the game. Remember when I said the difficulty was higher? Yeah, that makes it even worse. With the keyboard, it’s completely unplayable. You would have thought a retro inspired game would have done what most of them have done and provide a standard layout copying the popular emulators with keyboard mapping being an option, but not only do you get no mapping, but the keys are mapped to awkward positions. You know A and B? Yeah, they’re literally A and B on the keyboard, enjoy playing Tempest like that. Even worse, the keyboard controls are somehow floatier than the controller controls are. You cannot map the keys or buttons whatsoever. You have to play the game the way Atari and Jeff Minter designed and balanced it.

This issue turns the game into an unsatisfying mess. The game is unplayable with controls that poor, and for $20 dollars it’s a complete ripoff. Do not spend your money on Tempest 4000 on the PC, until there is a patch for it because until then you might as well burn 20 dollars, that’s a better use of the money.

Read HERE for a more-comprehensive list of items patched (specifically, the box containing the news entry dated November 8)
If newer patches exist, I haven't yet made note of them in this review, but you'll find them by clicking that link (also copied to these words), which goes to the main T4K news page. The most recent entry is at the top when I view the page.
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<only minor changes (to increase clarity and readability somewhat) were made to the original review, below>


YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

so great it's UDDERLY INCREDIBULL!

PLEASURE in game form! MINTER magnificence! Welsh psychedelia! Llamasoft-lovely!

Pros: almost everything? Although I've played only with an Xbox360-compatible X-input gamepad, it functioned beautifully.

Cons: a few PC-port quibbles (enumerated in other, mostly-negative, reviews) that the entity currently known as Atari should be ethically required to allow LLAMASOFT to rectify

CONCLUSION: It's wonderful, and the [slightly] modified Jaguar CD soundtrack is awesome!
Certain bug fixes for the port should be allowed by the rights-holders using the Atari name and any LLAMASOFT additions to what's already there will only improve a superb game. (MORE! MORE! MORE!)

I don't usually say this about a game, but for this one I recommend using a gamepad. If Big Picture Mode would run on my PC's Steam Client without hard-freezing the client, I'd try emulating a spinner with my Steam Controller.

Personal notes:

• Playing this put me right back into the groove (or shall I say GROOOOOOVE?). I'm reminded of a college roommate who remarked while watching me play T2K on my Jaguar, "With all that stuff all over the screen, I can't even tell what's going on in the game!"
  
• That may be the case for you if you're not familiar with the visuals included in T2k, T3k, TxK, or T4K (this game), but if you play it more than a little, you'll sooner-than-you-expect find yourself IN THE ZONE where your attention will be drawn into the game, avoiding the baddies and grabbing the goodies, level after level.
  
• Especially personal, though potentially applicable to some degree for anyone over a certain age: I welcome any new gameplay mechanics/controller adjustments/etc.; my brain needs changes to established methods in order to grow and expand as I age. I enjoy challenges and learning in order to stave off future mental stagnation and to continue the re-establishment of mind-to-body and inter-neuronal connections that I've used as part of my cognitive rehabilitation since most of the referenced connections were "severed" in a traumatic brain injury many years ago.

Here's a very sincere THANK YOU for reading my review!

I apologize for the bit of ranting it contained. (It seemed justified when I typed it and probably still is, unless the entity about which I ranted has changed significantly.)

Despite hardly no time in this game, I am already familiar with the man who created it: Jeff Minter (The Yak!) of Llamasoft fame. I strongly advise everyone to look up his company and the man himself. He is a legend and is very eccentric to say the least.

The visuals are stunning, with colors flying everywhere in all the glorious pixel explosions! Christmas lights everywhere and a pulse thumping, heart throbbing musical score to accomplish all your mushroom induced dreams - w/o the need to consume any.

Doesn't support a wide range of resolutions which is the only main disappointment here and it essential requires an Xbox controller or compatible.

Have fun and do dream of Electric Sheep!

P.S. Jeff Minter is also the one who designed the visual synth on the Atari Jaguar platform.

Buyer beware -- there are known problems with those using 144 Hz monitors, as well as botched mouse/keyboard support, while it is cheaper on here than the console versions. I've not had any major problems other than the botched keyboard controls, but it's best to consider your specs before deciding to purchase this. Consider also if you have a controller, as it's currently the only comfortable way to play this.

I'm a fan of the original Tempest, and I play that game on Atari Vault using a mouse as a spinner. I've never played a Tempest on a real cabinet, but I can scratch the yellow levels on Vault just fine. I would have liked to see this implemented right off the bat on T4K, but it might have to wait.

Personally, I recommend this game, if only for the reason being I've been waiting for a new version of Tempest on Steam, and I've never played any of T2K or T3K. In fact, I've been following this since I heard about what happened with TxK. It's a blast to play so far, and it's great to finally listen to the soundtrack from TxK while playing this. Noise Pulse especially, is a strong candidate.

They made a Tempest game that does not support a mouse or spinner control.

I repeat: They made a TEMPEST GAME....that does NOT support a MOUSE... or a G0DD@MN SPINNER CONTROL!!!

I waited so long for this game, I'm almost afraid my expectations are too high. It was of course a day one purchase for me, and I do believe in showing my support for Jeff Minter a.k.a. YAK. However, in the decade of waiting for a PC version of the classic Tempest 2k, there was Dave Theurer's most excellent freeware version of the game Typhoon 2001 (done with permission from YAK). And while Tempest 4k is obviously an updated version, in many ways it feels like a downgrade from Tyhpoon 2001. Typhoon actually gives you more options to customize, like visual elements (which some dialing down can be alot less distracting while playing) and has full keyboard & mouse controls. It sadens me that a freeware version has more options than a $20 game. And while Tempest 4k has some really cool updated visuals, some of the background elements like those effing shooting stars (which cannot be turned off) are just plain awful. But my biggest gripe with the Tempest 4k is the camera. For some reason the camera is zoomed all the way out so that you see the entire web, however, this feels very distant from your ship and the action. And oddly enough, despite being zoomed out, on some levels your ship and the web are actually cropped out of the bottom of the screen, which is pretty awful. Finally, what kills this game for me is the lack of control options- There's NO KEYBOARD & MOUSE controls, but the control feel super floaty, even with light pressure on the analog stick. Many times, I tried to grab a powerup only to just float right past it going back and forth. Also note the D-pad doesn't work as an option, which would have been a great alternative to give more accurate controls. So there you have it. Jeff if you're reading this, please, please please issue an update/fix for this. The PC verions of this game should offer the same options and more than a freeware knock off of the game. I want to love this, but these shortcomings reallly get in the way of enjoying it when I've already got a superior version from 10 years ago.

I've been able to enable the use of a SpinTrak rotary controller that I've built myself and through some tinkering and trial and error I've been able to get the claw speed as fast as I like AND as responsive as I like, The spinner feels very connected to the claw and let me tell you a spinner can make all the difference on whether or not this is a fun game to play because being able to move the claw where you want it AND when you want it with no effort at all makes this game my all time favorite even dethroning my previous long-time favorite game Tempest 2000 on the jag !!!

With a properly working rotary controller like a SpinTrak I can honestly say THIS IS ONE GREAT GAME and I'll be playing for years to come !

https://youtu.be/cPuSXrzHWP0

Atari is holding back a nicer version of this game called TxK because of stupid corporate greed.

I wouldn't normally write a review of a game so early into playing it, but there's stuff I want to say.

First of all, I never played Tempest 2000 when it came out. I missed out on the Jaguar altogether, and played TxK on Vita first. And I really liked TxK, played it through to the end, and pushed my score on Classic Mode until it was in the top 10. (I think it's dropped out by now). So my main reference point for the game is "new TxK" rather than "new T2K", and I think that's different from most people. I've only played T2K briefly in comparison.

From that perspective, here's my review.

The first thing that struck me about this game was that the controls were skittish. And the sound of firing sounded awful. It supports a gamepad out of the box (I use a wired Xbox 360 controller!). The claw was moving so fast that a sweep from point A to point B wasn't necessarily sending a bullet down every column in between, and as such, enemies were getting through. I had a look on the forums, and found out that monitor refresh rate is linked to the speed of the game. My monitor is 144Hz by default, so I changed it to 60Hz, but - after getting used to 144Hz, it's a bit like playing underwater, haha. So I've been playing the game on both speeds.

Once you get into it, playing at 144Hz is a lot of fun. See: https://youtu.be/fPi8RzRuGsw
(but I think this feature will probably get patched out of the game soon enough!)

Other than that - the game is solid, to me as a former TxK player. There are some changes.

The first I want to point out is the music, which is probably the least consequential difference, but I want to say it anyway. T4K's muisic probably fits in more with T2K fans (I don't really remember what that sounded like), but I really like the TxK soundtrack better with one exception - in T4K the bonus stage where you fly through rings has this lovely music which I find reminiscent of Stéphane Picq's early 1990s work, and I really like it, I think that's an improvement. I notice that the TxK soundtrack is in this game, because I played some of the tracks in the credits section. Maybe it's something I need to unlock by playing.

Other than that - to compare TxK and T4K... this game is harder (even at 60Hz, haha), some of the enemy behaviour has changed slightly, everything is higher-resolution (of course), some of the enemy graphics have changed, some of the the visual effects are more pronounced, and also - one of the power-ups: "BEAUTY" - which I think used to just be a point-scorer - now triggers a brief invincibility / 2x score moment. Some sound effects are different too. Oh and - I really miss the TxK's camera control which I think was tied to the Vita's accellerometer, just to help a bit with a few awkwardly-angled stages. It would be nice if camera nudging was mapped to right thumbstick or something.

Also, unlike TxK, global leaderboards actually update in a timely manner. Yay!

This is all I've found so far, but I'm only at the mid-20s in levels so far. I'm guessing there will be at least 100 levels?

Overall, it seems like a good release. I think mostly I'm glad to play a TxK-like game on a larger screen without the slight lag I was getting when trying to play it on Vita TV.

And - message to Atari if you're watching - if this game was on PSVR I would definitely buy it a second time!

EDIT: I just worked out how to switch soundtracks in the game. On the game mode / level select screen, press... well, it's the "Y" button on my Xbox 360 gamepad. I guess it depends what controller you're using. So you can switch between original music, MOD version (very retro!), or TxK OST. Hurrah!

I am not sure if it has been patched since the other reviews, but for me the controls are great and just like Tempest 2000 on the Jag or Sat or PS1 (or 3000 later on PS1 or Nuon). I am a huge fan of this game series with psychedelic visuals and beautiful irreverent humour and sheep and Llama love like no one else but Minter can do.
For those who have never played any of those games, it’s an update to an old Atari arcade game where you had to frantically shoot aliens down a tube or pit whom claw their way towards you. It is a frantic and fast shooter and this update throws dazzling psychedelic display that will fry you eyeballs as your ears are treated to the great music of the 90’s Tempest 2000 music.

Be warned though this is an out and out arcade game, this is where you expect to last less than 5 to 10 minutes per go as you hone and master each screen. One nice thing is once you have beaten a level you can start straight onto the next, meaning you can beat and see all the of the game for a change.

I hope Mr Minter considers making this an Oculus Rift VR ready game as well :-) … Right Off to play his other newly released games… Christmas has come early for me :-)