Alright
I played Tempest once or twice on a ZX spectrum years ago at my friends house but i never played it in the arcades so im kind of new to it.
Takes a bit of getting used to the controls, but they are ok.
It uses left and right on the D-pad and stick, or the shoulder buttons to control the ship... doesnt seem to be a 'rotate the analog stick' type setup.... only left and right.
The graphics are ok... the sound isnt great... all you do is scoot around the rim of a 'well' type thing and fire down the well at the enemies coming up the well... it is simple and good fun, has a bit more depth than i first thought too because of the different types of enemies that requires different tactics to dispose of without dying.
The game seemed really hard the first time i played it but after a bit of practice it all starts to come together.... now i just stare through the screen into the distance in a trance when i play.
It has the standard 'Throttle monkey' mode that most retro arcade games have and it is insane.
It is useful to play it on Throttle monkey for a bit though.... after you play Throttle Monkey mode for half an hour, the normal mode seems like its in slo-mo and is miles easier to understand and cope with, the achievements seem a lot more achievable after some Throttle Monkey practice :)
Its a shame all of the achievements are for the 'evolved' game
The evolved game is ok, it has some different enemies than in the retro game i think... sometimes the explosions obscure your view a bit and lead to some irritating deaths till you can make sense of the colourful chaos onscreen, but it is still fun.
Overall it is ok if you like retro games, some people will hate the controls, but i found them to be fine.
Its quite fun and i will enjoy attempting the tricky achievements.
Well.. its a few weeks later and i havent felt the urgeto play the game much at all... its not rubbish, its ok in short bursts, try before you buy.