Asteroids: Recharged review for PS5/4, Xbox Series X/One, Switch

It seems that the team at Sneaky Box are trying to bring back the Arcades of the 1980’s with yet another game in their Recharged Series. This time it’s the classic Asteroids, completely redone with new graphics and gameplay. Is this one just as good as their other offerings? Read on to find out!

First, let me familiarize you with the concept of Asteroids. You play as a small Triangle Ship in the middle of the screen and your job is to clear the screen of floating Asteroids. The asteroids are not sentient, so shooting them will break them down into smaller rocks and also change their trajectory so you have to be alert of you’ll get hit. Thankfully you can just your thrusters to reposition yourself to a safer spot, or space warp to a different location on the screen. Be careful though, as teleporting may make you reappear right into a path of an Asteroid. Every now and again, you’ll have to deal with some UFOs that are, in fact, trying to kill you for some reason. You’ll have to dispatch them quickly or they will cause trouble for you. A very simple concept where your only mission is to rack up the highest score!

Asteroids: Recharged takes this classic gameplay and adds a few upgrades much like they did with Centipede: Recharged. First off, the graphics have been given a slight face lift, but since the original game used vector graphics, it still retains the classic look and feel. The updated graphics also give you a larger playfield, so there is more room for error when shooting targets and repositioning your ship. The UFO’s do more than just try to kill you now, as some of them will leave behind power ups that will gravitate toward you when uncovered. You can upgrade your weapons and even get temporary shields to protect you. There is also now a CO-OP mode, where you and a buddy can team up to rid space of floating rocks and UFOs, and a great selection of challenges that will test even the most hardcore of Asteroids players.

While these Recharged games do not really set the world on fire, they are super fun to play, especially for those who may have not played the originals. If you are familiar with the original game, you will love what Sneaky Box has done here. The extra gameplay elements don’t really change the overall feel of the game at all and are welcome additions. I would really like to see some online modes, but I suppose those can be added in the future. I can highly recommend this and pretty much every Recharged game as a classic game fan and a gamer in general. Try this and any other game in the series out if you have the means, you will have a lot of fun!

Note: Atari provided us with an Asteroids: Recharged code for review purposes.