Tempest 4000 review — Atari’s hypnotic but rough-edged tunnel shooter

British indie developer Jeff Minter became a legend after coding the Atari Jaguar game Tempest 2000, transforming Dave Theurer’s 3D wireframe shooter into a cartridge-based rave. Trippy visuals, an incredible electronica soundtrack, and addictive gameplay made the sequel more memorable than its inspiration.

Tempest 4000 is the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam PC version of Tempest 2000, or more accurately, of the spiritual sequel TxK that Minter’s company Llamasoft released while Atari was temporarily defunct. In addition to updating TxK’s graphics, including 4K resolution support, it includes three full soundtracks’ worth of Tempest 2000 and TxK music.